OHL Alumni Central

Another Hockey Hall of Fame class, another denial for Rogie Vachon! Now that I’ve got my personal beef aside… Two Ontario Hockey League grads will be entering the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011. Doug Gilmour, Cornwall Royals grad, was one and Mark Howe, Toronto Marlboros grad, was the other.

Mark Howe wearing Cooper-Alls with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Howe is a curious case. No major NHL awards. No Stanley Cups. Despite a player’s assets, those are the two items that seem to ultimately define a Hall of Famer. However, Howe did have an exceptional career that was diminished in the end by knee and back injuries.

In his one season in the OHA with the Toronto Marlboros, 1972-73, Mark scored 38 goals and added 66 assists for 104 points in just 60 games. He was selected as the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy winner as the Memorial Cup MVP as the Marlboros won the national major junior title. Toronto lost just seven of its 63 regular season games that season.

Instead of playing another year of junior, Howe joined father Gordie Howe and brother Marty on the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. In his first year in the WHA, 1973-74, Mark was awarded the Lou Kaplan Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. He remained in the WHA until the merger with the NHL after 1978-79.

From 1979-80 until 1994-95, Howe played in the NHL for the Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings. Mark was originally drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1974 but never played with them. He was the NHL’s plus/minus leader in 1985-86 and he played for Stanley Cup finalists in 1986-87 with Philadelphia and 1994-95 with Detroit.

Nearly three years seperate them but the Sestito brothers got to play one season together with the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers in 2004-05.

Tom Sestito on the left and Tim Sestito on the right.

Tim Sestito played four years with the Whalers from 2001-02 to 2004-05. Undrafted by an NHL club, Tim has worked his way through the ranks from ECHL, to AHL and finally to the NHL. His first NHL game came in 2008-09 with the Edmonton Oilers. He played just one game with Edmonton but was captain of their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons.

The past two seasons, Sestito has been in the New Jersey Devils organization, splitting time between the Devils and their AHL affiliate, the Lowell Devils in 2009-10 and the Albany Devils in 2010-11. In 2009-10, Tim got up to New Jersey for nine games. This season, the number increased to 36.

Tom Sestito played three years for the Whalers from 2004-05 to 2006-07. His 42 goals led the team in his final Ontario Hockey League season. He added another 11 goals and 17 points in 19 playoff games that season as Plymouth captured the Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champions.

Tom was taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the third round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, 85th overall. Sestito has played a total of 13 games in the NHL to date, all with the Blue Jackets. He got into nine this season with Columbus but was shipped to the Philadelphia Flyers organization in late February. Tom spent the rest of the 2010-11 season with Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate, the Adirondack Phantoms.

With one in New Jersey and another in Philadelphia, at least the Sestito boys are trying to make it easy on their upstate New York family to capture some games.

Tim Sestito was recently featured in an article at OHL Alumni Central focused on the graduates of the 2002-03 Plymouth Whalers that are still active in professional hockey.

Andre Payette played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1996-97. He began his career with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, playing three full seasons there. In his final season in the OHL, Payette was shipped to the Kingston Frontenacs after just four games.

Known throughout his hockey career for his toughness, Andre amassed 694 minutes in penalties during 180 regular season games in the Ontario Hockey League. Payette wasn’t all knuckles, he was able to provide a bit of offense as well, topping out with 20 goals over 57 games in 1995-96.

Always on the prowl for rough customers, the Philadelphia Flyers drafted Andre in the tenth round of the 1994 NHL draft, 244th overall. Payette jumped right into action with Philadelphia’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Philadelphia Phantoms. In 56 games with the Phantoms in his rookie year, Andre sat out 209 minutes and provided ten points.

Payette never played for the Flyers but did appear in 155 games in the American Hockey League between the Phantoms, Rochester Americans, Lowell Lock Monsters, Manchester Monarchs, Houston Aeros, St. John’s Maple Leafs and Manitoba Moose. Andre also spent parts of three seasons with the Mohawk Valley Prowlers of the UHL, leading the club in PIM during the 2000-01 season with 244 in just 45 games.

Andre has played in Great Britain since the 2004-05 season, leading his team in PIM each season. In 2007-08, he lead the whole Elite Ice Hockey League in penalty minutes with 326. Payette played his first season in the EIHL with the Coventy Blaze and helped the squad become regular season and playoff champions. The following four seasons were spent with the Newcastle Vipers, the team that was EIHL playoff champion the first season Payette suited up with them.

This past season, Payette was the Assistant Captain of the Manchester Phoenix of the EPL (tier 2 to the EIHL). He returns this season to the EPL but this time with the Sheffield Steeldogs. He is lucky to do so. An accident on a four wheeler deep in the Quebec wilderness left Payette with five broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken foot. According to news reports, he crawled nearly eight kilometers before he could find help.

Andre Payette has just signed with the Steeldogs so his profile is not yet on the team’s official website. However, follow this link to check out the news article on the Sheffield site regarding the signing of Payette.

The above photo is borrowed from a Facebook group dedicated to Andre Payette, called Andre Payette… Hockey GOD!!

Andre Payette is on the OHL Alumni Big List.

Pat Maroon was lured away from the U.S.A.’s NAHL for the 2007-08 season by the ever-persuasive Hunter brothers. Maroon played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League with the London Knights and led the league’s first year players in assists (55) and points (90). He led the team in scoring that season, nearly 30 points better than the next player down the list.

Recently, Maroon was traded from the Adirondack Phantoms to the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League for another player developed by the Hunters, Danny Syvret. Maroon and Syvret had previously been teammates with the Phantoms during the 2008-09 season and the start of the 2009-10 season before Syvret was moved to Syracuse.

Pat was already property of the Philadelphia Flyers before playing a game in the Ontario Hockey League. He was taken in the sixth round of the 2007 draft, 161st overall. He has played with the Flyers AHL affiliate since graduating. In his rookie season with the Phantoms, Maroon was sixth in points in the league among rookies.

Maroon had a great start to the 2010-11 season with Adirondack and was providing the team with offense that they still desperately need. However, he was released from the team after nine games after a disagreement with the club and can finally now resume his season with the Crunch. He is joined in Syracuse by another former London Knight, Leigh Salters.

The Crunch have yet to post Pat Maroon’s profile on their official site. You can still check out his profile on the AHL official website.

Danny Syvret appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Andre Lacroix with the San Diego Mariners of the WHA.

When hockey fans think of the Peterborough Petes, they think of Chris Pronger, Steve Yzerman and Jamie Langenbrunner. When fans think of the Philadelphia Flyers, they think of Bobby Clarke, Bernie Parent and maybe Eric Lindros. When fans that are old enough think of the World Hockey Association, they think of the Howes, Bobby Hull and Jacques Plante.

In all three situations, the player that comes to mind should be Andre Lacroix.

Andre played three seasons in the OHA from 1963-64 to 1965-66. He began with the Montreal Junior Canadiens and switched to the Peterborough Petes after his first season. In Peterborough, Lacroix exploded offensively. In 1964-65, he scored 45 and added 74 assists for 119 points in just 49 games. The following season, he scored 40 and assisted on 80 for 120 points in 48 games. Both seasons, he was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as the league’s most outstanding player. In his final season, his 120 points gave him the Eddie Powers Trophy as the league’s top scorer. Always the playmaker with the soft hands, Andre led the league in assists for both his final two seasons.

Lacroix joined the expansion Philadelphia Flyers in their first season, 1967-68. Over the following two seasons, Andre lead the Flyers in points with 56 and 58. His NHL career consisted of 325 regular season games, mostly with the Flyers with partial seasons with each the Chicago Blackhawks and the Hartford Whalers.

It was in the WHA where the name Andre Lacroix will forever go down in history. He will forever be the league’s all-time leader in games played (551), assists (547) and points (798). He comes in slightly lower in the goals department, falling fourth in the league’s history with 251.

In six of his seven seasons in the WHA, Lacroix led his team in points. The only season he didn’t was his final season with the New England Whalers in 1978-79 when the team was led by Mark Howe. Andre twice won the Bill Hunter Trophy as the league’s top point-getter. The first time was with the Philadelphia Blazers in the first season of the WHA when he scored 50 and added 74 assists for 124 points. The second was two years later in 1974-75 with the San Diego Mariners. That season Andre scored 41 but added an astonishing 106 assists for 147 points.

At the time, his 106 assists were a professional hockey record and, along with Bobby Orr, was the only professional player to surpass the 100 assist mark. His six 100+ point seasons in a row is a feat to this day only shared by six other professional players.

Lacroix was selected to the Team Canada squad for the 1974 Summit Series that pitted the best Canadians of the WHA against the best of Russia. Andre did not disappoint as the second highest scorer on the team.

Check out some of the previous OHL Alumni Classics:

Gord Brooks

Art Stratton

Bill Sweeney