OHL Alumni Central

About as far from Brampton and Ottawa as you can get in the world of hockey is Temirtau, Kazakhstan. Just a “Detroit to Montreal’s” distance from Mongolia and China, this city of 180,000 didn’t even exist before 1905. The team plays out of the ten team Kazak league and features two Ontario Hockey League grads on the roster.

Levente Szuper started his 2011-12 season in the Central Hockey League with the Arizona Sundogs. This ‘hockey vagabond’ is no stranger to the wide world of ice hockey. Since playing two seasons in net for the Ottawa 67′s in 1998-99 and 1999-00, Szuper has played in Canada, the United States, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Austria. He has played on the world stage with his native Hungary on a yearly basis.

Levente was a fourth round pick of the Calgary Flames at the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 116th overall. He spent three seasons with Calgary’s AHL affiliate, the Saint John Flames, and one season split between the AHL’s Worcester IceCats and the ECHL’s Peoria Rivermen before starting his world tour. He has been a member of championship teams in the Ontario Hockey League, Germany’s DEL and the AHL. With Hungary, he has won a handful of medals and individual accolades at the World Championships (D1). He played a role with the 1998-99 Ottawa team that was crowned Memorial Cup champions.

Get your Levente Szuper hockey cards on eBay, right now!

Kurt MacSweyn has been on a similar world journey since leaving the Ontario Hockey League after the 2001-02 season. Kurt was an original Brampton Battalion, playing in the franchise’s first year, 1998-99. He spent four years with the club before heading off to University  at St. Mary’s. After three years getting educated, MacSweyn spent the 2005-06 season in the ECHL with the Idaho Steelheads before heading to Europe, and beyond. Kurt has played in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Australia. 2011-12 is his first season with Temirtau.

Arystan Temirtau currently sits in fourth place in the ten team league, 38 games into their 54 game regular season schedule. In 2010-11, the team finished fifth and exited the post season after the quarter-finals. The Kazak league would best be described as a minor league to the KHL. The team plays out of the 2,700 seat Muz Aydin Sport Palace.

With the exception of 2007-08, when they were ousted in the Quarter-Finals, the Iserlohn Roosters of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) have failed to make the post-season in each season since 2000-01. Things don’t look much brighter in 2011-12 with the team struggling in eleventh position in the fourteen team league. On the team are three hockey veterans and alumni of the Ontario Hockey League. All three played in the 1990′s. One actually started at the end of the 1980′s.

Sean Blanchard was CHL defenseman of the year in 1996-97, his third of four seasons with the Ottawa 67′s. Along with that, of course, he was selected as the recipient of the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s top blue liner. In his final season of junior, Blanchard played for Team Canada at the 1998 World Junior Hockey Championships.

Sean was a fourth round pick of the Los Angeles Kings at the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, 99th overall. He has never played a regular season game in the National Hockey League. After just three years of playing in the North American minor pros, Blanchard moved on to Europe. He has played in Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland before settling into the DEL. After a return to North American for the 2006-07 season, Sean has been in the DEL since. 2011-12 sees him return to his first team, the Iserlohn Roosters. In 2010-11, he was a member of the Nurnberg Ice Tigers.

Jassen Cullimore played in 812 regular season NHL games between 1994-95 and 2010-11 with the Vancouver Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers. This past season, 2010-11, he mixed his season between Chicago and their AHL affiliates, the Rockford IceHogs.

Cullimore played four seasons with the Peterborough Petes from 1988-89 to 1991-92. In his first season, he appeared in just 20 regular season games and two in the playoffs. That season, Peterborough beat the Niagara Falls Thunder in six games to win the Robertson Cup. In 1992, Jassen played for Team Canada at the IIHF World Juniors.

Jassen was a second round pick of the Canucks at the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, 29th overall. He was a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning when the won the Stanley Cup in 2003-04, appearing in eleven playoff games. This is his first season with Iserlohn.

Like Cullimore, Jeff Cowan is in his first season with the Roosters after a lengthy career, split between the NHL and AHL. From 1999-00 to 2007-08, Cowan played 434 regular season NHL games with the Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers, Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks. He has spent the past three seasons in the AHL.

Cowan played parts of three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. He played his first two seasons with the Guelph Storm and his final season with the Barrie Colts. He wore the ‘C’ in Barrie. Undrafted, Jeff played his most of his first four years in the pros with the Saint John Flames of the AHL.

Over the past four decades, from 1970 to 2009, 13 teams from the Ontario Hockey League have gone on to become Memorial Cup champions. In the first decade, the league was represented by four champs and each of the following three, three OHL teams won the top prize.

The following four articles describe in a bit of detail, the OHL’s winning teams in each decade.

1970′s

In the 1970’s, the Memorial Cup became strict property of major junior hockey in Canada. Previously, the format had potentially included any ‘Junior A’ team in the country. Four times during the decade, a team from Ontario was victorious at the Memorial Cup tournament. Each year, one team from each of the three major junior leagues in Canada competed for the ultimate prize. Interestingly, in each of the Ontario victories, the Ontario representative played possum in the round robin, winning one and losing one. In fact, three of the four years, all three teams ended the round robin with 1 and 1 records. Read more

1980′s

With the champions of three league’s competing each year for the Memorial Cup (plus one additional team from the host league), over a decade the odds are that each league will win three times. For the Ontario Hockey League during the 1980’s, it was just that. Interestingly, the Cornwall Royals won the Memorial Cup in 1980 and 1981 but didn’t move from the QMJHL to the OHL until the following season. Read more

1990′s

Each year, the champions from each of the three leagues that make up the Canadian Hockey League meet to determine Canada’s top major junior hockey team. The host league of the Memorial Cup enters two teams to make it a four team tournament. In the 1990’s, three teams from the Ontario Hockey League were crowned Memorial Cup champions. Each year during the decade that an OHL team won, it was on home turf. Interestingly, the representative from the QMJHL in each of the three seasons was the Laval / Acadie-Bathurst Titan. Read more

2000′s

It has been a recurring theme here lately to feature Ontario Hockey League grads that are getting a little long in the tooth. Recently, players like Paul DiPietro, Lee Jinman and Craig Rivet have been highlighted at OHL Alumni Central. Yesterday, a 39 years young Chris Simon signed on with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of Russia’s KHL. Chris will turn 40 during the 2011-12 season.

Be one of the few to have a Chris Simon hockey card from the KHL!

Simon on the right as a member of Vityaz Chekhov.

Chris played in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons from 1988-89 to 1991-92. The Ottawa 67′s drafted him 42nd overall in the 1988 OHL Priority Selection and Chris played with the club until two games into his final season. For the rest of 1991-92, Simon played for the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds. The Sault finished first in the Emms Division and took out the North Bay Centennials in seven games to win the Robertson Cup. The Greyhounds went undefeated in the round-robin at the Memorial Cup and lost to the Kamloops Blazers in the final game.

Simon was taken by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, 25th overall. Before playing a professional hockey game, Chris was traded to the Quebec Nordiques in the deal that sent Eric Lindros to the Flyers. In 2003-04, Simon and Lindros would play together in the New York Rangers arena, MSG.

Chris played 782 regular season and 75 playoff games in the National Hockey League from 1992-93 to 2007-08. He wore the jerseys of the Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild. In his one year with the Avalanche, 1995-96, he helped the team to a Stanley Cup victory.

In 2008-09, Simon made the jump to KHL and played for Vityaz Chekhov. The team was, and still is, the laughing stock of the league and only provides entertainment to its fans through fighting. Chris fit right in, leading the league in penalty minutes in his first season with 263 in just 40 games. It was the first of three years with Chekhov and in the second season he was team captain. Chris wasn’t all fists with the team, he contributed 82 points in 116 games over the three seasons. He shown signs of offensive talent throughout his career with a 29 goal season with the Capitals in 1999-00 and 36 goals in 57 games with the 67′s in 1989-90.

Simon’s new club, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, is currently sitting tied for eighth position in the KHL’s East Conference. The team also features former NHLers Brent Sopel and Sergei Brylin. Novokuznetsk is still looking for their first post season appearance in the league.

Joining Simon on Novokuznetsk is one other Ontario Hockey League grad. Maxim Kitsyn returns to the city of his birth after playing for the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors in 2010-11. Kitsyn came to the Majors in January of 2011 and played 32 regular season games down the stretch. He contributed 19 points in 20 playoff games as the Majors made it to the Robertson Cup finals before losing to the Owen Sound Attack. He was also a member of the gold medal winning Russian team at the 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships in Buffalo, New York.

Maxim was a 17th overall pick of Mississauga’s at the 2010 CHL Import Draft. He went in the sixth round of the NHL Entry Draft the same year to the Los Angeles Kings, 158th overall. Kitsyn has contributed just a goal and assist in 17 games with Novokuznetsk thus far in 2011-12.

After missing the entire 2010-11 season due to injury, Ontario Hockey League grad Matt Foy returns to the game with the Stockton Thunder of the East Coast Hockey League. Stockton is an ECHL affiliate of both the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers.

Foy played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2002-03, with the Ottawa 67′s. He made the best of that one season, teaming up with Corey Locke to rip up the league. Locke and Foy finished one-two in OHL scoring with Locke totalling 151 points and Foy 132. Although Locke took the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the league leading scorer, Foy was awarded with the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy as the OHL’s top scoring right winger. He was named to the CHL Second All-Star team.

Matt came to the 67′s already a prospect of the Minnesota Wild. Foy was taken by the Wild in the sixth round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 175th overall. He spent five years in Minnesota’s system, mostly with the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros, however he did get into 56 NHL games. Matt led the Aeros in goals (27) and points (50) during the 2006-07 season.

When injury set in, Matt played just four games in 2008-09 with the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen and seven the following season with the Central Hockey League’s Arizona Sundogs. Foy claims to be 100% healthy now and hopefully this will be a successful return to the game.