OHL Alumni Central

After a great start to the 2011-12 season with the Kalamazoo Wings of the ECHL, Ontario Hockey League grad Patrick Asselin is off to Germany to test the European hockey waters for the second time in his career.

Patrick Asselin with the ECHL's Kalamazoo Wings.

Asselin played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. He dressed mostly with the Saginaw Spirit but a trade fifteen games into his final season sent him to the Oshawa Generals. In that final season, Patrick scored 41 goals and assisted on 37 others for 78 points, his best offensive season in the OHL. He played in fifteen Robertson Cup playoff games with the Generals as the team made it to the Eastern Conference finals before losing to the Belleville Bulls.

Undrafted, Asselin spent his first year of professional hockey in Germany. Playing in the Oberliga (tier 3), he put up impressive numbers with 39 goals and 40 assists for 79 points in just 50 games. An interesting quirk in his 2008-09 season was the spike in penalty minutes. With Herner EV, Asselin sat out 110 minutes in those 50 games. The next highest single season total for Patrick was 45 with Saginaw during the 2005-06 season.

Patrick returned to North America the following season and has been playing in the East Coast Hockey League since, mostly with Kalamazoo. In 2010-11, he contributed at nearly a point per game with 27 goals and 65 points in 69 regular season games. He played in 19 more in the playoffs as the Wings made it to the Kelly Cup finals before losing to the Alaska Aces in five games.

The 2011-12 season started with a bang for Asselin, producing 15 points in his first 10 games for Kalamazoo. On November 21, he signed on with Starbulls Rosenheim of Germany’s 2.Bundesliga (tier 2 to the elite DEL). Rosenheim currently sits fifth in the thirteen team league. The 2.Bundesliga at the moment has three Ontario Hockey League grads sitting amongst the top five scorers in Patrick Jarrett, Bob Wren and Chris Stanley.

Ontario Hockey League grad Kevin Mitchell has been conditionally joined on Villacher SV of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL) by two other OHL Alumni. Mitchell is entering his second year with Villacher. One of the others has already been playing in the EBEL while the second has played in Switzerland for the past four years. Both are with the team on a try-out basis for now.

Mike Craig is one of the oldest active Ontario Hockey League alumni in the world right now. Craig played three years with the Oshawa Generals from 1987-88 to 1989-90, twice playing for Team Canada at the IIHF World Juniors. Mike was drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in the second round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, 28th overall. He played 423 regular season NHL games with the North Stars, Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs and San Jose Sharks.

After one season in Switzerland in 2002-03, Craig has played in the EBEL since. In 2004-05 with the Vienna Capitals, he led the league in points with 71. In both 2006-07 and 2008-09, he led the EBEL in goals with 43 and 30. This past season, he scored 24 and added 14 assists for 38 points in 46 games for Klagenfurter AC.

Cory Pecker played five years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 2001-02. He began his career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and was traded to the Erie Otters during the 2000-01 season. In his final year with Erie, he scored 53 goals in just 56 games and totalled 99 points. His 25 goals and 42 points in 21 playoff games helped the Otters to a Robertson Cup victory and a Memorial Cup berth. Cory was taken by the Calgary Flames in the sixth round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, 166th overall.

Pecker spent most of his North American pro career in the American Hockey League between 2002-03 and 2006-07, never making it to the big show. For the 2007-08 season, he crossed the pond to play in Switzerland’s National League B. With Visp in 2009-10, Cory scored 40 and contributed 101 points in just 41 games. This past season was spent split between Visp and Lausanne.

Kevin Mitchell spent four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 2000-01, his first three with the Guelph Storm and his final season with the Oshawa Generals. Mitchell was drafted by the Calgary Flames in the ninth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 234th overall. He began playing in Europe for the 2004-05 season after three years on a handful of teams in the AHL and ECHL. Kevin has played in Germany, Switzerland and the Czech Republic before settling in with Villacher this past season.

Villacher went through a ten year period from 1998-99 to 2006-07 where they were in the league finals nine times and were crown champions on three occasions. Since, the team has fallen into mediocrity.

The Graz 99ers of Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga have bolstered their blue line for 2011-12 with two Ontario Hockey League alumni. Cole Jarrett comes from Japan and Dustin VanBallegooie played the past three seasons in Denmark.

Cole Jarrett played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03, all with the Plymouth Whalers. He proved his offensive abilities in his final season with 55 points in 58 regular season games for the Whalers. Undrafted, he was picked up by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers of the American Hockey League and played seasons with the New York Islanders affiliate, appearing in one game with the NHL club in 2005-06.

2006-07 saw Cole jump the Atlantic to play in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with Eisbaren Berlin. Since, he was played in Finland, Sweden and Japan. He played for Graz two years ago before jumping to the Aisa League of Hockey last season, playing for Tohoku Free Blades. Tohoku was to play for the league championship when the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit. Tohoku was named co-champion with Jarrett leading the league in goals and points for defensemen.

Thought of highly in Graz, Jarrett starts the 2011-12 season as team captain. Graz finished sixth out of ten teams in 2010-11, one game over .500 and made a quick quarter-final exit. They’ll need the defensive help if they plan to take on Salzburg, champions 4 of the past 5 years, who have a tandem of London Knights in Danny Bois and Daniel Erlich.

Dustin VanBallegooie scored 23 goals from the point over four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League between 2000-01 and 2003-04. In his first season in Denmark, Dustin scored 17 to lead all defensemen. In fact, over his three years with Sonderjysk in Denmark, VanBallegooie led the league’s blueliners in goals each year.

Dustin started his Ontario Hockey League career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and played for the Oshawa Generals and Owen Sound Attack before finishing with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. Undrafted, VanBallegooie played three seasons in the East Coast Hockey League with the Fresno Falcons (with an 11 game call-up to the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2006-07) before heading to Europe. Dustin played one season in Germany’s DEL with Duisburg before heading to Denmark.

The Cincinnati Cylcones of the East Coast Hockey League will try and improve on their seventh place finish in the eleven team Eastern Conference during the 2010-11 season. The Cyclones will have two Ontario Hockey League grads behind the bench for the 2011-12 season.

Jarrod Skalde is entering his second season as head coach of the Cyclones after two years coaching the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the IHL. Skalde played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1987-88 to 1990-91. He played his first three seasons with the Oshawa Generals then was traded early in his final season to the Belleville Bulls. In his 40 games with Belleville, he produced at more than a 2 points per game pace.

Jarrod was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, 26th overall. In a professional playing career that lasted from 1991-92 until 2007-08, Skalde totalled 115 NHL games with the Devils, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philadelphia Flyers (115 total games in eight NHL jerseys – gotta be some kind of record?!).

Skalde spent most of his time in the AHL and IHL with European stints that took him to Switzerland, Sweden and Austria.

Andrew Cassels will join Jarrod Skalde behind the Cincinnati Cyclones bench for 2011-12 as assistant coach. Cassels starred with the Ottawa 67′s from 1986-87 to 1988-89. In his middle season, he was awarded the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s top scorer with 151 points. In 1988-89, he dropped to third in the league with 134 points.

Cassels was the 17th overall pick at the 1987 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Montreal Canadiens. Andrew played somewhat sparingly with the Habs over his first two years of pro hockey. He became an NHL regular after being traded to the Hartford Whalers for the start of the 1991-92 season. Andrew’s NHL career lasted until 2005-06 and he played in 1015 regular season games with Montreal, Hartford, Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Washington Capitals.

Because of his unfortunate selection of NHL teams, Cassels played in just 21 games over three playoff seasons during his 16 year NHL career. He played eight in his second year with Montreal, seven the following year with Hartford and six in 2001-02 with the Canucks.

As mentioned in the last post at OHL Alumni Central, the Cincinnati Cyclones have signed bad-boy Ontario Hockey League grad, Michael Liambas. Skalde has experience with Liambas, having coached him with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder.

Gratoony the Loony played with the Oshawa Generals for three Ontario Hockey League (OHA) seasons from 1969-70 to 1971-72. Between the pipes, the workload of Gilles Gratton increased each season from 26 games in his rookie season, to 47 in his second and 50 in his final year with the Generals.

Gilles Gratton sporting his famous mask with the New York Rangers.

In 1971-72 with Oshawa, Gratton had a goals against average of 3.55 and five shutouts, earning him a Second Team All-Star selection. The performance of Gilles also caught the eye of the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo drafted Gratton in the fifth round of the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft, 69th overall. He would never play a game for the Sabres.

The World Hockey Association came calling in 1972-73 and Gratton answered. In the rebel league’s inaugural season, Gilles played 51 games for the Ottawa Nationals in their only season. He followed the franchise as they were relocated to Toronto and Gratton played the next two years with the Toronto Toros. It was with the Toros that Gratton’s legend grew when he supposedly refused to play a game because the Moon wasn’t in proper alignment with Jupiter.

The Buffalo Sabres sold the NHL rights to Gratton to the St. Louis Blues in 1975 and Gilles reported to the NHL team for the 1975-76 season. He played just six games with the Blues before wanting to return to the WHA. Perhaps, his desire to return to the Toros had something to do with his personality being much better suited for the zany ways of the World Hockey Association.

However, the Blues wouldn’t release him. Gilles did the only thing he could think of and retired from hockey. It was short-lived and Gratton was back in the NHL for the 1976-77 season with the New York Rangers. Gilles played 41 games with the Rangers, sharing the net with John Davidson, who played 39 games. Ironically, it was the spot left vacant by Davidson in St. Louis that Gratton was meant to fill the year before. According to Davidson, Gratton would often fake illness so that he wouldn’t have to play.

In 1977-78, the Rangers placed Gratton with their American Hockey League affiliate, the New Haven Nighthawks. Gilles played just one game in New Haven before calling it quits for good.

Among his famous quirks was the claim by opposing players that Gratton would growl at them. Gilles was a huge believer in reincarnation, was a talented classical pianist despite never taking a single lesson. He also had a thing for nudity at the rink.