OHL Alumni Central

Thank god for the cut & paste function on word processors! If I had to type out Székesfehérvár more than once, this article would never happen. Don’t even bother trying to pronounce it…

Székesfehérvár is one of eleven teams in Austria’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). Like four other teams in the league, Székesfehérvár is not actually located in Austria. Located 65 km southwest of Budapest, Székesfehérvár is the only Hungary based team in the EBEL.

Adam Munro

Two Ontario Hockey League grads are currently on the roster of Székesfehérvár. Adam Munro and Justin DaCosta are doing their part for the much improved team. In 2010-11, the club finished tied for last, when the EBEL consisted of ten teams, and finished out of the post-season. Currently, at just over the halfway point of the 54 game schedule, Székesfehérvár sits fifth and poised for a berth in the playoffs.

Adam Munro played between the pipes in the Ontario Hockey League for five years from 1998-99 to 2002-03. Munro starred with the Erie Otters until eight games into his final season when he was shipped to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In 2000-01, Adam had the best save percentage in the OHL. In the following season, Adam helped the Otters to a Robertson Cup victory, after topping the Barrie Colts in the final, four games to one.

Taken in the first round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, 29th overall, Munro played a total of 17 National Hockey League games. He was on the ice for seven with Chicago in 2003-04 and ten with the Blackhawks in 2005-06. Munro spent 2010-11 in Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey su Ghiaccio (LIHG) with Cortina.  So far this season with Székesfehérvár, Munro has played in 27 games, posting a 2.74 GAA and .921 save percentage.

Justin DaCosta began his 2011-12 season with Chamonix of France’s Ligue Magnus. After just six games on the point with the French squad, DaCosta headed east. Justin played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts. He played with the Owen Sound Attack before finishing his career with the Mississauga IceDogs.

Undrafted by an NHL club, DaCosta spent time in the Canadian university system and North American minor pros before travelling to Europe this season. In 2010-11, he played with the Allen Americans of the Central Hockey League.

Székesfehérvár is an ancient city with an area population of around 140,000. The team plays out of a 3,500 seat arena, which should feel like home to Justin after his days in Owen Sound!

I remember being at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto a few years back and being a little confused during a game between the Marlies and the Rochester Americans. It was Oreskovic versus Oreskovich and I, quite frankly couldn’t remember which one was which.

Phil Oreskovic

Phil Oreskovic and Victor Oreskovich are both grads of the Ontario Hockey League, played in the league at the same time for two years and are listed at exactly the same height and weight.

Phil Oreskovic played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07. He played the bulk of his OHL career with the Brampton Battalion, moving over to the Owen Sound Attack at the trade deadline in his final season. The stay at home defenseman was the fifteenth overall pick of the Battalion in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

Oreskovic was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 82nd overall. He appeared in ten games with the National Hockey League club in 2008-09, his only NHL experience to date. After three years as a regular with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Phil was moved to the Hershey Bears for 2010-11. So far in 2011-12, he’s played a scattering of games for the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League.

After starting his second season with University of Notre Dame in the NCAA in 2005-06, Victor Oreskovich returned to Canada and played the rest of the season and all of 2006-07 with the Kitchener Rangers. He put up decent numbers in his only full OHL season, scoring 28 and totalling 60 points in 62 games. 

Oreskovich came to the Ontario Hockey League already an NHL prospect. Victor was taken in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalance, 55th overall. He has appeared in the NHL with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. Currently a member of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, Oreskovich has appeared in one game with the Canucks, so far this season.

Victor Oreskovich

Andris Dzerins played two years in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08 and 2008-09, both with the Kingston Frontenacs. In each season with Kingston, Dzerins reached 20 goals, 20 in his first and 21 in his second. Previous to the OHL, Andris played junior in Latvia, Sweden and Finland.

Since leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Dzerins has been with Dinamo Riga of Russia’s KHL. The team plays out of the 10,300 seat Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. In its recent history, Dinamo has been mediocre, finishing around .500 each season. This season has started out as no exception with the team beginning with a 7-8 record and sitting in seventh in the eleven team KHL West Conference. Riga is captained by former NHLer Sandis Ozolins.

Like mostly every other player on Dinamo Riga, Dzerins is an annual fixture on Latvia’s national team. He played for Latvia two years in the IIHF under-18 D1 World Juniors, winning one gold and one silver. He followed that up with two years with the under-20 team, also winning a gold and silver. Over the past two seasons, he has been a member of Latvia’s squad at the World Championships. In 2011, he contributed five assists in six games.

Joining Andris on Dinamo Riga are two other Ontario Hockey League grads. Arvids Rekis played four seasons with the Erie Otters from 1996-97 to 1999-00. Juris Stals played the 2001-02 season with the Sarnia Sting and the following season with the Owen Sound Attack. Both were teammates of Dzerins on the 2011 Latvia team at the Worlds. Rekis was a member of the Team Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stals was the only one of the three drafted by a National Hockey League club. He was a ninth rounder of the New York Rangers in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

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.

Portuguese and English we would assume would be the languages Ontario Hockey League grad Justin DaCosta would be most familiar with. I wonder how his French is? DaCosta has signed up with Chamonix of France’s Ligue Magnus for the 2011-12 season. Although a few OHL alumni find their way to the Ligue Magnus each year, it is mostly populated with players from the QMJHL, France and Eastern Europe.

Justin spent this past season in the Central Hockey League with the Allen Americans. The Americans were dominant during the regular season but couldn’t make it past the conference finals in the playoffs. DaCosta played in 44 games with Allen during the regular season and an additional 13 in the playoffs. He was a call-up for one game by the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League.

DaCosta played in the Ontario Hockey League for four years from 2002-03 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts, playing 47 games in his rookie season. After just nine games the following season, Justin was shipped off to the Owen Sound Attack. In 2004-05, a mid-season trade sent him to his hometown, Mississauga. He finished out his OHL career with the IceDogs, putting in a career year with 42 points in 57 games in 2005-06.

Undrafted, DaCosta took advantage of the great OHL scholarship program and played two seasons with the University of New Brunswick.

In three years of pro, Justin has played for five teams in four leagues. Other than his game in the AHL this past season, his highest level of hockey was with the ECHL’s Stockton Thunder in 2009-10.

Chamonix will be looking for big things from DaCosta as they try to have their first .500 season since being promoted from tier 2 in 2005-06. The regular schedule of the Ligue Magnus consists of just 26 games. However, a soccer style country-wide playdown is intertwined. The Coupe de France begins with teams of all senior levels playing down (the equivelent of the Boston Bruins playing the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League in some cases). In the end, two teams, most always from the Ligue Magnus, meet in Paris (Bercy) to determine the winner of the Coupe de France in a one game showdown.

Chamonix plays out of the 1700 seat Patinoire Richard Bozon set in the beautiful French Alps.

You can read the article announcing Justin DaCosta’s signing at the Chamonix official website (in French).