OHL Alumni Central

At a time when most would have thought that the North Americans would have abandoned hockey in the far east after the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011, an Ontario Hockey League grad is running away with the scoring title. Tied, in the assist category at least, is a teammate and yet another OHL alumnus.

Michael Swift sits 20 point higher than the next challenger with an astounding 71 points in 29 games. His 34 goals to date have matched his output from 2006-07 when he scored the same as captain of the Mississauga IceDogs. Swift’s 37 assists are tops in the league, as well, tied with teammate Bryan Young, a Peterborough Petes grad.

Michael played in the Ontario Hockey League for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four years were with the Mississauga IceDogs and for his final season, he moved with the franchise to Niagara. Swift was team captain in his final two seasons. His 100 points in 2007-08 with the Niagara IceDogs was good for a seventh place tie with Jack Combs of the Saginaw Spirit. The performance earned him the Leo Lalonde Trophy as the OHL’s top overage player.

Swift went undrafted but spent three years in the New Jersey Devils system with their AHL affiliate. This is his first year in the Asia League with High1. The team is currently tied for fourth in the seven team league. High1 is based in Seoul, Korea. The team’s home rink is the Goyang Sport Complex Arena which seats 3,000 for hockey.

Bryan Young is in his second year on the point for High1. Young played for the Peterborough Petes for three full seasons from 2003-04 to 2005-06. He was a fifth round pick of the Edmonton Oilers at the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, 146th overall. Bryan managed to get into 17 NHL games during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. For the most part, Young spent between 2006-07 and 2009-10 in the AHL and ECHL.

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

Since the name ‘International Hockey League’ is no longer in use in North America, Austria’s elite Erste Bank Eishockey Liga might think about changing their name to just that. The eleven team EBEL is truly an international hockey league. Just six of the eleven teams are based in Austria for 2011-12. There are two teams in Slovenia and one each in Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Halfway through the 54 game regular season schedule, the team is currently tied for ninth in the EBEL.

The latest team to join from outside Austria is Orli Znojmo. The ‘Eagles’ previously played out of the Czech Republic’s Extraliga 2. With the recent aquisition of Mike Danton, Orli Znojmo now has four Ontario Hockey League grads on the roster. One other, Jan Platil is rumoured to return to the team after being released by Tappara in Finland’s SM-Liiga. Platil started the season playing ten games with Znojmo.

Lubomir Stach played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. He began with the Belleville Bulls but was moved to the Guelph Storm during his first season. In 2005-06, he was picked up mid-season by the Peterborough Petes and the compact defenseman played a major role in the Petes winning the Robertson Cup. Lubomir contributed 18 points from the point in 19 playoff games. Stach spent the past five years in his native Czech Republic, the last two years mostly with Znojmo.

Mike Danton played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, as Mike Jefferson, from 1997-98 to 1999-00. He began with the Sarnia Sting, made a stop with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors before finishing his OHL career with the Barrie Colts. Like Stach, Danton was a member of a Robertson Cup winning team in his final OHL season. Danton was a fifth round pick of the New Jersey Devils at the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 135th overall. He has appeared in NHL games with the Devils and St. Louis Blues.

After a five year hiatus from the game, Danton returned to play two years at the Canadian university level with Saint Mary’s. He started the 2011-12 season with IFK in Sweden’s Division 1. He was just picked up by Znojmo a few days ago.

Richard Jarusek played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2008-09, with the Saginaw Spirit. Jarusek was a 49th overall pick of the Spirit at the 2008 CHL Import Draft. He returned to his homeland and played with the Under-20 version of Orli Znojmo in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Yet another Robertson Cup winner, Petr Kanko, played three years with the Kitchener Rangers from 2001-02 to 2003-04. Kanko was taken by the Los Angeles Kings after his first OHL season in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 66th overall. He played ten games with the Kings in 2005-06, playing the rest of his North American professional career with their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. Kanko returned to his native Czech Republic in 2008-09. This is first season in the EBEL and with Orli Znojmo.

Jan Platil played three years in the Ontario Hockey League with the Barrie Colts from 2000-01 to 2002-03. A seventh round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2001, Platil played three years with their AHL affiliate in Binghamton before returning to Europe for the 2006-07 season. Since, Jan has played in Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Austria. There is a pretty strong rumour that Platil will soon return to Znojmo.

On Monday, Ontario Hockey League Alumni Mark Fraser and Kurtis Foster were involved in a trade between the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Fraser moves to the Ducks and Foster goes to New Jersey. Both are big, stay at home defensemen with Foster having the edge in National Hockey League experience.

Mark Fraser with the New Jersey Devils.

Mark Fraser played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06, with the Kitchener Rangers. In his final season, he was the captain of the Rangers. After his first year in the OHL, Fraser was taken by the Devils in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 84th overall.

Since 2006-07, Mark has played in 98 NHL games with New Jersey. His most complete season came in 2009-10 when he played 61 games. This season, he has appeared in four for the Devils. The rest of his professional hockey career has been spent in the American Hockey League with the Lowell / Albany Devils.

Kurtis Foster played 256 regular season Ontario Hockey League games over five season with the Peterborough Petes from 1997-98 to 2001-02. At the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, Foster was taken in the second round by the Calgary Flames, 40th overall. Kurtis never played for the Flames but has appeared in 340 regular season NHL games with the Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim.

A proponent of eliminating touch icing from the game, Foster broke a leg in an icing incident during the 2007-08 season which not only nearly cost him his career, but his life due to complications on the operating table. He returned to play a full season with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2009-10 and played 74 games for the Edmonton Oilers in 2010-11. This year, Kurtis has dressed for nine games with the Ducks.

Kurtis Foster with the Minnesota Wild.