OHL Alumni Central

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.

Ontario Hockey League grad Joe Grimaldi is currently at camp with the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League. If the Falcons don’t take the tough defenseman, he has a roster spot locked up with the Rapid City Rush of the Central Hockey League.

Grimaldi played two seasons with the Ottawa 67′s of the Ontario Hockey League, 2005-06 and 1006-07. The American born player started the 2005-06 season with the University of Nebraska – Omaha before heading Northeast to Ottawa to finish off the season.

Professional hockey has come with a well-used suitcase for Joe. In four years, Grimaldi has dressed for nine different teams in three leagues. Springfield and Rapid City are two teams he has yet to play for. Joe’s portfolio of teams is as follows:

• Elmira Jackals – ECHL
• Rochester Americans – AHL
• Peoria Rivermen – AHL
• Albany River Rats – AHL
• Fresno Falcons – ECHL
• Gwinnett Gladiators – ECHL
• Cincinnati Cyclones – ECHL
• Evansville Icemen – CHL
• Colorado Eagles – CHL

This past season, 2010-11, Grimaldi played 45 regular seasons games for the Eagles after coming over from Evansville. He sat 171 minutes in penalties and formed a pretty deadly duo with Alex ‘Weapon X’ Penner. Through 21 playoff games, Joe sat another 83 minutes.

Colorado finished the regular season tied for first with Rapid City in the Turner Conference. The Eagles made it to the finals before losing to Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs.

Making it to the finals in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio (LIHG) is uncharted territory for HC Fassa. This past season, the team finished tied for seventh in the nine team league and exited early in the quarter-finals. The team has so far signed three Ontario Hockey League grads to help bring more success in 2011-12.

Jamie Vanderveeken played parts of four seasons on the blue line in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his career playing just five games for the Guelph Storm in 2002-03. Vanderveeken played a full season with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors in 2003-04 before splitting his 2004-05 season three ways between Toronto, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Ottawa 67′s.

With the Ottawa 67′s, Jamie would get the chance to play in the Memorial Cup in 2004-05. The London Knights won the Robertson Cup and were also Memorial Cup hosts. Ottawa made the tournament as the Robertson Cup finalists. In an ironic twist of fate, Vanderveeken was traded to London for the 2005-06 season and was once again on the Robertson Cup finalists as London was beat out by the Peterborough Petes.

Undrafted, Jamie has spent most of his professional hockey career in the Central Hockey League, winning a championship with the Rapid City Rush in 2009-10. This past season, he was traded by Rapid City to the Arizona Sundogs mid-season.

An opponent of Jamie Vanderveeken at the 2005 Memorial Cup and a teammate of his with the London Knights in 2005-06, Trevor Kell is leaving the New Jersey Devils organization after four years to experience hockey in the Italian Alps. Kell played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07. His first three years were spent with the Knights and his final season saw him in a Sarnia Sting uniform.

Trevor was picked in the fifth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, 131st overall but has been in the Devils organization throughout his professional hockey career. Each season, he has split his time between the ECHL and AHL affiliates of the NHL Devils. Each season, he spent more and more time with the AHL club. This past season, he was captain of the ECHL’s Trenton Devils.

Matt Piva played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2004-05 to 2008-09. He began his OHL career with the Oshawa Generals and along the way wore the jerseys of the Toronto/Mississagua St. Michael’s Majors and Niagara IceDogs. He spent 2009-10 with the University of Western Ontario Mustangs of the OUA before taking the 2010-11 season off.

HC Fassa plays out of Canazei, Italy, a city nestled in the Italian Alps. The team plays out of the 3500 seat Stadio del Ghiaccio Gianmario Scola.

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.

With the 2010-11 hockey season long in the books, it’s fun to look back and take stock of the Ontario Hockey League Grads that populated the hockey world. The Ottawa 67′s, long considered one of the best developers of hockey talent, had, by our count, 89 alumni still actively playing hockey. For the list, we included CIS university hockey and Ontario Senior Men’s Hockey (WOAA, MLH).

Some of these players will not be on the list next year as they have retired following the 2010-11 season. One of these players is Joe Talbot. Talbot had the highest single season point production, including OHL, this season. In his fourth season with the Sheffield Steelers of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League, Talbot finished fourth in league scoring with 90 points in 61 games.

Many players appeared with different teams throughout the season. For simplicity’s sake, we only named the team each player ended the season with, or was their primary team. For example, if Joe Blow played 65 games with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL and one game with NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, his team would be, of course, the Marlies. Or, if Joe Blow played the start of the season with the Calgary Flames but was traded to the New York Rangers at the trade deadline, his time, obviously, be the Rangers.

I we think we caught them all. Ottawa 67′s fans – enjoy! (Clicking on the names that are hyperlinked will take you to a previous article on that player.)

League acronyms defined:

EIHL – Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League

DEL – Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga

LIHG – Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio

AHL – American Hockey League

CHL – Central Hockey League

CIS – Canadian Universities

EBEL – Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga

ECHL – East Coast Hockey League

FHL – Federal Hockey League

KHL – Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League

NHL – National Hockey League

SPHL – Southern Professional Hockey League

WOAA – Western Ontario Athletic Association