OHL Alumni Central

The Plymouth Whalers franchise dates back to the 1990-91 Ontario Hockey League season. The began as the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors, transforming to the Junior Red Wings before becoming the Whalers. The team really is ‘America’s Team’ in the OHL, having gone to the Robertson Cup finals three times since 2000 and winning once. The Whalers went to the 2007 Memorial Cup, losing to the host Vancouver Giants in the semi-finals. The Giants went on to be crowned Memorial Cup champions.

Currently, there are 77 Plymouth Whalers alumni known to us to be still actively playing in the hockey world. There are former Whalers in 23 different leagues in 14 countries throughout the world. Fourteen Plymouth grads are currently playing in the National Hockey League, including Tyler Seguin of the Boston Bruins, Stephen Weiss of the Florida Panthers, David Legwand of the Nashville Predators and Michal Neuvirth of the Washington Capitals.

What follows is a list, current to December 21, 2011. Any player that has played at least one game with the Whalers, Junior Red Wings or Ambassadors is considered an alumnus.

Ontario Hockey League grad Matt Armstong has recently finished his second successful season in the Australian Ice Hockey League. For the second consecutive year, Armstrong’s team, the Melbourne Ice, has won the Goodall Cup as the league’s playoff champion.

The Ice dominated the AIHL, which plays a 28 game schedule over the North American summer / Australian winter, with a record of 18 wins, 2 losses, 3 overtime wins and 5 overtime losses for 56 points. Matt finished third on the team in scoring and eleventh in the league with 53 points on 16 goals and 37 assists over 27 games.

Armstrong played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03, dressing for the Kitchener Rangers, Peterborough Petes, Plymouth Whalers and Barrie Colts over that time span. His most productive season in the OHL came with the Petes in 2001-02 when he scored 17 and added 21 assists in 65 games.

Undrafted by and NHL club, Armstrong spent two years at Concordia in the Canadian university system. His first year of professional hockey came in 2006-07 with The Hague in Netherlands. He led the last place team in goals (35), assists (37) and points (72) over 40 games. He finished fifth in the league in points and fourth in goals.

Before landing in Australia, Matt spent time in Germany, as well as, a handful of games in North America in the IHL and SPHL. Over 51 career games in the AIHL, Armstrong has registered 97 points.

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.

Mike Looby played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2005-06. He began his OHL career with the Brampton Battalion and called the Bunker home for two seasons. Looby spent the 2003-04 season with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds before heading to the Plymouth Whalers for the 2004-05 season. He split his final year between the Whalers and the Kingston Frontenacs.

After an early exit by the Frontenacs in Mike’s final OHL season (losing in the first round to the Sudbury Wolves in six games), it was off to the Central Hockey League’s Laredo Bucks. The Bucks won the CHL championship in 2005-06 and Looby played in 12 of the team’s playoff games, contributing a goal and two assists from the blue line.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Mike has spent most of his professional hockey career in the Central Hockey League. The exception was 2008-09 when he played in the East Coast Hockey League, split between the Dayton Bombers and the Gwinnett Gladiators. This past season, Mike played 54 games on the point for the CHL’s Wichita Thunder after starting the season with two games played for the Queen City Storm of the All-American Hockey League.

2011-12 brings about a major change in landscape for Looby. Mike will cross the Atlantic and play for Eaters Geleen in the Netherlands. This past season, Geleen finished sixth in the nine team Dutch elite league.

Ontario Hockey League grad Jason Bacashihua held the American Hockey League’s eighth best goals against average in 2010-11. Playing 42 games for the Lake Erie Monsters, Bacashihua recorded a 2.29 GAA and .917 save percentage with four shutouts.

Jason played one season in the Ontario Hockey League with the Plymouth Whalers in 2001-02. In leading the Whalers to a Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the OHL’s best regular season team, Bacashihua put up outstanding numbers and won several accolades.

In 46 games with the Whalers in 2001-02, Jason had a 2.34 GAA and a .921 save percentage. He was honoured with the Dinty Moore Trophy as the first year goaltender with the lowerst GAA. Together with Paul Drew, he won the Dave Pinkney Trophy for the goaltending duo with the lowest GAA. Not only was he selected to the OHL First All-Rookie Team, he was also named to the CHL All-Rookie Team.

Unfortunately, the Whalers ran up against a giant killer in the first round of the Robertson Cup playoffs that season. The London Knights, who finished eighth in the West, took out Plymouth in six games. London would be dispatched in the second round by the Erie Otters.

Bacashihua came into the Ontario Hockey League already a prospect of the Dallas Stars. After two seasons with the Chicago Freeze, prior to coming to Plymouth, Jason was taken in the first round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, 26th overall by the Stars. His only NHL action to date has been with the St. Louis Blues. Bacashihua played 19 games for the Blues in 2005-06 and 18 the following year. In 2005-06 and 2006-07, he was chosen to play for U.S.A. at the IIHF World Championships.