OHL Alumni Central

Kris Vernarsky played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02, all with the Plymouth Whalers. In his second and third season, the Whalers made it to the Robertson Cup finals. Vernarsky currently stands 12th on the Whalers on the all-time games played list with 238. He is also tied for 11th on the Whalers all-time play-off games played list with 55. During his Ontario Hockey League career, Kris represented the United States at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Tournament twice.

Vernarsky was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round of the 2000 NHL draft, 51st overall. He has appeared in a total of 17 NHL games, all with the Boston Bruins. 14 games were during the 2002-03 season and three were the following year.

Kris spent some time in the AHL with the Providence Bruins but has been a mainstay in the UHL/IHL since 2005-06. In the lifespan of the most recent version of the IHL (2007-2010), Vernarsky is forever placed in the top 20 for IHL career games, goals, assists and points.

With the demise of the IHL and the Port Huron Icehawks, the team Vernarsky has played with for the past three seasons, Kris finds himself starting the 2010-11 season with the Wheeling Nailers of the East Coast Hockey League.

Kris Vernarsky’s profile page has yet to appear on the Wheeling Nailers official website, but the site can be found through this link.

Check out this previous post on Cory Stillman, another OHL Alumnus left without a job by the demise of the Port Huron Icehawks.

Evan Brophey with the Chicago Blackhawks during a pre-season game.

Evan Brophey played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2002-03 to 2006-07. He began his OHL career with the Barrie Colts and shifted to the Belleville Bulls during the 2004-05 season. Brophey became a Plymouth Whaler druing the 2005-06 season and finished his Ontario Hockey League career with the Whalers during the 2006-07 season.

Brophey came into his own as an offensive threat in his final season as the Whalers made a successful run to the Memorial Cup tournament via the Robertson Cup as the Ontario Hockey League’s playoff champion. Evan led Plymouth in points during the 2006-07 season with 107 on 36 goals and 71 assists over 68 regular season games. The 107 points tied him with Bryan Little of the Barrie Colts for sixth in Ontario Hockey League scoring. The 107 points is also the ninth best single season total in Plymouth Whalers history, one point ahead of Tyler Seguin’s 106 point performance this past season.

Brophey was drafted in the third round of the 2005 NHL draft by the Chicago Blackhawks, 68th overall. He has been with Chicago’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League.

This past season, Evan surpassed the 200 game plateau with the IceHogs, making him only the second Rockford player to reach this milestone. His point production with the IceHogs has been decent but far below the 100 point man he was in junior.

Check out Evan Brophey’s profile page on the Rockford IceHogs official website.

Check out this recent post on one of Evan Brophey’s Plymouth Whaler teammates, Wes Cunningham.

The Kalamazoo Wings of the East Coast Hockey League have the good fortune to have retained the services of the two Ontario Hockey League grads for the upcoming 2010-11 season. Each of the grads comes from the two Ontario Hockey League teams located in the state of Michigan, the Plymouth Whalers and Saginaw Spirit.

Andrew Fournier played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, all with the Plymouth Whalers, although his first season consisted of only three games. He was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Whalers in 2006-07. He came out offensively in his final season, scoring 35 goals and 40 assists for 75 points in 64 games which placed him second on the team in scoring. He captained the team in that final season.

Undrafted, Fournier played his first season of professional hockey in 2008-09. He split the campaign between the ECHL’s Florida Everblades and Dayton Bombers. This past season, his first with Kalamazoo, Andrew led the team in scoring with 27 goals and 44 assists for 71 points in 70 games.

Patrick Asselin played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His first four seasons were played with the Saginaw Spirit and during his final season, the Spirit traded him to the Oshawa Generals where he was to help a power-packed Generals team go deep into the playoffs. His 78 total points in his final season put him third on the Generals in scoring behind the dynamic duo of John Tavares and Brett MacLean.

In 2008-09, Asselin’s first year pro, he played in Germany’s Oberliga (third tier, behind DEL and Bundesliga) with Herne. He scored 39 goals and added 40 assists for 79 points in 50 games with Herne which placed him two points out of the top spot on the team in total points. He returned to North America and the East Coast Hockey League this past season, starting with the Idaho Steelheads and taking a turn with the Utah Grizzlies before ending up in Kalamazoo.

Check out Andrew Fournier’s and Patrick Asselin’s profile pages on the Kalamazoo Wings official website.

Wes Cunningham as a Binghamton Senators hopeful at 2009 try-outs.

Wes Cunningham played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08. His OHL career began with the Owen Sound Attack and in his rookie season he was a member of the gold medal winning Team Ontario at the World Under-17 Hockey Championships.

During his second season, Cunningham was traded to the Belleville Bulls. The Bulls traded him during the following season, 2005-06, to the Plymouth Whalers where Wes would finish out his career. Wes was a big part of the Plymouth Whalers 2006-07 Robertson Cup win and subsequent appearance at the Memorial Cup. He was an OHL all-star defenseman in his final season with the Whalers.

Cunningham spent the past two seasons in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Elmira Jackals. He has been traded to the newest ECHL franchise, the Greenville Road Warriors. Starting in 2010-11, Greenville is housing the franchise formerly known as the Johnstown Chiefs.

Check out Wes Cunningham’s profile page on the official ECHL website.

Ryan Ramsay will play his fourth season in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2010-11 with his fourth different team. Ramsay has signed on with Kolner Haie (Cologne Sharks) after leading the Straubing Tigers in scoring for 2009-10 on a team that finished 13th in the 15 team DEL.

Ramsay played in the Ontario Hockey League for five seasons from 1999-00 to 2003-04. He began in the east and moved further west as his career went on. Ryan started with the Peterborough Petes  but was traded to the Kitchener Rangers during the 2000-01 season. He played a full season with the Rangers in 2001-02, scoring 24 goals and 48 points for Kitchener.

2002-03 and 2003-04 were spent in Plymouth with the Whalers. Ryan was a good source of offence for the Whalers, contributing 88 points over 59 games in his first season and 77 points over 61 games in his second.

Ramsay spent three seasons in the American Hockey League With the Worcester IceCats and the Peoria Rivermen. He had a short stint with the Alaska Aces of the ECHL during the 2005-06 season.

In 2007-08, Ryan went off to Germany. His first season was spent with Krefeld Pinguine and his second with the DEG Metro Stars before last year’s stint with Straubing. Last season, Cologne didn’t fair much better than Straubing, finishing 10th in the 15 team DEL over the 56 game regular season schedule.

Ryan currently has been dropped from the Straubing Tigers official website and has not quite made it onto the Kolner Haie official website. This article does appear on the Kolner site regarding the signing of Ryan Ramsay. The article is in German.

Check out Ryan Ramsay’s profile page on the Deutsche Eishockey Liga’s official site.

You might enjoy these previous articles on OHL alumni playing for the DEL’s two playoff finalists for 2009-10:

Augsburger Panther

Hannover Scorpions