OHL Alumni Central

Another Ontario Hockey League great has decided to hang up the blades. At 39 years old and with 19 NHL seasons under his belt, Adam Foote has announced his retirement.

Foote played three seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds from 1988-89 to 1990-91. In his final season, he was name an OHL First Team All-Star while leading the Greyhounds to a Robertson Cup victory and a Memorial Cup berth.

Adam was selected by the Quebec Nordiques in the second round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, 22nd overall. With exception to six games played in the AHL in his first professional season, Foote has been one of the NHL’s premier defensemen since.

Other than three years played with the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2005-06 to 2007-08, Foote has remained with the Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. In total, Adam played in 1153 regular season and 170 playoff games in the NHL. He was the alternate captain to Joe Sakic in the four years leading up to his hiatus in Columbus. With Columbus, he was team captain for the three seasons. He got his ‘A’ back upon his return to Colorado and when Joe Sakic called it quits two years ago, Foote was named team captain in his place.

Foote was part of two Stanley Cup winning teams with the Avalanche. In 1996, Colorado swept the Florida Panthers. In 2001, it took seven games to defeat the New Jersey Devils. Adam also won gold with Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and the 2004 IIHF World Cup. In total, Foote was on Team Canada for three Olympic Games and two World Cups.

I’m not sure what Jason Lafreniere has done since retiring from hockey after the 2004-05 season, but travel agent would be a definite possibility. 27 teams in 19 pro seasons amounts to a lot of travel and a lot of change.

Lafreniere played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1983-84 to 1985-86. He began his OHL career with the Brantford Alexanders and the following season moved with the club to Hamilton where they were called the Steelhawks. In his finals season, Jason was shifted to the Belleville Bulls after 14 games to fortify a potential Memorial Cup contender.

Possibly the most sportsmanlike player to grace the Ontario Hockey League, Lafreniere sat out a total of just 18 minutes in the penalty box during 191 career regular season OHL games. In that time, he contributed 308 points. The ability to play the game without sin resulting in Jason being awarded the William Hanley Trophy as the league’s Most Sportsmanlike in his final season.

That final season saw an offensive outburst of 132 points that tied him with two others for second in Ontario Hockey League scoring. When it came to the Robertson Cup playoffs, Jason’s 32 points were tops in the league despite the fact that his Belleville Bulls lost in the finals to the Guelph Platers 8 points to 4.

Lafreniere was taken by the Quebec Nordiques in the second round of the 1985 NHL draft, 36th overall. He played 56 games with the Nordiques in his first pro season as well as an additional 12 games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In all, Jason played 146 games in the NHL over five seasons with the Nordiques, New York Rangers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Over his 19 pro seasons, Jason played on teams in ten different countries: Canada, United States, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Great Britain, Holland, Poland and Spain. His stint in Spain was for just one game with FC Barcelona and he registered a hat trick. His stay in Poland in his final season, 2004-05, lasted just two games and his time in Slovenia with Olimpija Ljubljana was for four games.

His list of credentials also includes a year and a half with the Canadian National Team in 1990-91 and part of 1991-92. The list of leagues he played in is understandably long as well, including: AHL, NHL, IHL, DEL (and German Bundesliga before being called DEL), LIGH in Italy, Austrian Bundesliga (pre-EBEL days), Central Hockey League, West Coast Hockey League, Bundesliga 2 in Germany, British National League, etc.

Jason is NOT on The Big List!

David Ling played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1994-95, all with the Kingston Frontenacs. Although he had three great seasons with Kingston, Ling is mostly known for his final season in the OHL. After point productions of 63 and 77 in his first two seasons, David exploded for 61 goals and 74 assists for 135 points in 62 games in his final season in the Ontario Hockey League.

That 135 point performance left him just four points behind Marc Savard of the Oshawa Generals for the OHL lead. It should be noted that David played four less regular season games than Savard. The interesting thing about Ling is that he led the Frontenacs in penalty minutes in his first two seasons with a whopping 275 and 254. In his final season, he still put his time in at the sin bin but his 136 PIM obviously signified a major role change.

In 1994-95, Ling was awarded the Red Tilson Trophy as Ontario Hockey League MVP, the Jim Mahon Trophy as the highest scoring right winger in the OHL and was also named the Canadian Hockey League’s player of the year.

Ling was drafted deep down in the seventh round of the 1993 NHL entry draft by the Quebec Nordiques. Of course, this was before his outstanding senior year. Despite being tough and feisty, his 5’9″ and 185 lb. (175-197, depending on the source) build maybe didn’t fit into the 1990′s NHL template of 6’4″, 200+ lb. players. Over his professional career to date, David has played just 93 NHL games, mostly with the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to three games with the Montreal Canadiens.

David spent most of his days of North American hockey in the AHL and the old IHL. He last played in North America in the 2007-08 season with the Toronto Marlies. In 2004-05, with the Marlies’ predecessor in St. John’s, he finished third in league scoring behind Jason Spezza and Mike Cammalleri with 28 goals and 60 assists for 88 points in 80 games. While in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, David wore either the ‘A’ or ‘C’ throughout his days with their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.

In 2005-06, Ling tested the European market and played his first of two seasons in the Russia Super League. In 2008-09, he returned to Europe and split his season between Biel of Switzerland’s National League-A and Jokerit of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

This past season, David played for Amur Khabarovsk of Russia’s KHL. Khabarovsk finished tenth in the twelve team Eastern Conference and out of playoff contention. Ling played 46 of the team’s 56 regular season games, contributing 8 goals and 24 assists for 32 points. He is signed on to play for Amur Khabarovsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out David Ling’s profile page on the Amur Khabarovsk official website (in Russian).