OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League grad Jeremy Akeson was recently given a new chance to participate in the ECHL playoffs for the 2010-11 season. Akeson began the season with the Trenton Devils. The Devils are in last place in the ECHL’s Eastern Conference and an impossible distance from the eighth and final playoff spot. His new team, the Wheeling Nailers are poised to take one of the final playoff seeds in the East.

Akeson played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05, all with the Ottawa 67′s. Twice with Ottawa, Jeremy played in the Robertson Cup finals to decide the playoff champion of the OHL. Twice, the 67′s were defeated in the final. In 2002-03, they were beat out by the Kitchener Rangers and in 2004-05, they fell to the London Knights. Both the Rangers and the Knights went on to win the Memorial Cup in those seasons.

Because of the timing of his career in Ottawa, Akeson played nearly a full season’s worth of games over his four seasons due to Ottawa’s playoff success. Jeremy graduated with 63 playoff games under his belt.

After leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Akeson chose the Canadian University route. Jeremy played three seasons with St. Francis Xavier University.

2010-11 was Jeremy’s third season with the ECHL’s Trenton Devils and he wore an ‘A’ on his jersey this season through 54 games before being traded. His top offensive season in the ECHL to date was his first when he scored 17 and added 25 assists for 42 points in 60 games.

Check out Jeremy Akeson’s profile on the ECHL official website.

Thanks to the Inside The Trenton Devils website for the above picture.

The KHL regular season has come to a close in Russia for 2010-11 and Traktor Chelyabinsk finds themselves in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, 11 points out of a playoff spot. Chelyabinsk is the current club of Ontario Hockey League grad, Vitaly Yachmenev.

Yachmenev played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1993-94 and 1994-95 and took the league by storm. In his first season, he led the league with 61 goals and was named not only the OHL’s rookie of the year but the CHL’s rookie of the year as well. He helped the North Bay Centennials to a Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season champs and a Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champions. Vitaly added 32 points in 18 playoff games for the Centennials. The team’s luck ran out at the Memorial Cup, going 0-3.

The following season, Yachmenev scored 53 for the Centennials while adding 52 assists for 105 points in 59 games. The 105 points was good enough for ninth in the OHL. He helped Russia to a Silver Medal at the IIHF Under-20 World Hockey Championships. Vitaly was also awarded the William Hanley Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s Most Sportsmanlike Player. The award is representative of the way Yachmenev has played the game throughout his career. His highest penalty minute total came in 2005-06 with just 30 in Russia’s Super League.

After his first season with North Bay, Yachmenev was drafted surprisingly low, going in the third round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 59th overall to the Los Angeles Kings. Vitaly put in  almost 500 games in the NHL with Los Angeles and the Nashville Predators before skipping to Russia for the start of the 2003-04 season. Unfortunately, the goal scoring ability that he showed with the Centennials never really resurfaced and he topped out with a season of 19 goals with the Kings.

In his eighth season in Russia, Yachmenev scored just four goals and added 12 assists in 43 games for Chelyabinsk. His current contract expired at the end of this season.

Vitaly spent the year playing with another Ontario Hockey League grad, Alexander Buturlin, on Traktor Chelyabinsk.

Check out Vitaly Yachmenev’s profile page at the KHL official website.

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Mike Murphy hasn’t missed a beat since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. The Carolina Hurricanes prospect has been putting up great numbers between the pipes in the American Hockey League over the past two seasons, biding his time until he gets the call from the Hurricanes.

Murphy played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2005-06 to 2008-09, all with the Belleville Bulls. Over the last two seasons, Mike was the Belleville Bulls. It was his stellar goaltending that had the team finish first in the Eastern Conference both seasons. He led Belleville to the Robertson Cup final in 2007-08 before losing in seven games to the Kitchener Rangers.

Because Kitchener was the host of the 2008 Memorial Cup, the Bulls were the fourth team in the tournament. Belleville lost out to Kitchener in the semi-final.

In both those last two seasons in the OHL, Murphy was the OHL Goaltender of the Year, an OHL First Team All-Star, a CHL All-Star, had the OHL’s best goals against average and save percentage. He also won the Dave Pinkney Trophy in his final season for the team with the lowest GAA.

Mike was selected by Carolina in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, 165th overall. Murphy played last season with their AHL affiliate, the Albany River Rats. He switched to the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL this season as the Hurricanes switched affiliates. Over both seasons in the AHL, Murphy has maintained a GAA less than 3.00 and a save percentage over .900.

Check out Mike Murphy’s profile page at the Charlotte Checkers official website.

Chris Eade as a member of EC Bad Nauheim in Germany.

Former Ontario Hockey League defenseman Chris Eade was a last minute pickup by the Rapid City Rush at the Central Hockey League’s transaction deadline. Rapid City is in a dogfight with the Colorado Eagles for first place in the Turner Conference of the CHL. Eade should help to bolster the blue line.

Chris Eade played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2002-03. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and played with the club until five games into the 2001-02 season when he was shipped to the Erie Otters. His destiny was to end up in the United States as staying with North Bay would have meant his final season in the OHL would have been played in Saginaw.

In the 2001-02 season, Eade contributed 40 points in 59 games from the blue line for the Otters. He contributed another 12 in 21 playoff games as Erie knocked off the Barrie Colts in the Robertson Cup finals to become playoff champions of the Ontario Hockey League.

Chris Eade was taken in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Florida Panthers, 115th overall. Instead of turning pro right away, Eade took the Canadian university route and played four seasons with the Western Mustangs from 2003-04 to 2006-07.

Eade played one full season with the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL in 2007-08 before heading to Europe and Germany’s Oberliga. Chris played two seasons, 2008-09 and 2009-10 with EC Bad Nauheim, sharing time with Ontario Hockey League and Western Mustang grads, Ryan Hare and Kyle Piwowarczyk. In his first season with Bad Nauheim, Eade was fifth on the team in points (52) and second in assists (47) in 54 games. He led the team’s defensemen in scoring.

Chris started out the 2010-11 season in Hungary with Ferencváros and had 21 points in 25 games with the team before heading back to North America and the Rapid City Rush.

Check out Chris Eade’s profile page at the Rapid City Rush official website.

Chris Eade also appears in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central featuring OHL grads playing for EC Bad Nauheim.

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After a year and a half off, Ontario Hockey League grad Darryl McArthur is back in action. McArthur signed with the Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League on January 6.

McArthur played a game for the Guelph Storm in 1995-96 then played three more full seasons with the Ontario Hockey League club after that. McArthur was a part of the Robertson Cup winning Storm team of 1997-98. Guelph went to the Memorial Cup and lost in the final to the Portland Winter Hawks in overtime, 4-3.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Darryl played the better part of two seasons in the Canadian university system with University of New Brunswick.

For the most part, McArthur has spent his career in the CHL, IHL and UHL. He got into two games with the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros in 2002-03 and played a season in Germany’s Oberliga in 2004-05 with the Leipzig Ice Lions. He played five seasons with the CHL’s Austin Ice Bats before their extinction after the 2007-08 season. Darryl was the last captain of the ill-fated franchise.

Texas currently sits in the middle of the Berry Conference of the CHL. The conference is tight and the Brahmas have four to five games in hand on most of the other teams. Potentially, the team could soon be in second place and gunning for first.

Check out Darryl McArthur’s profile page on the Texas Brahmas official website.

The other day, we featured another member of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm Robertson Cup winning team, Eric Beaudoin.

 We did a post last year on the members of the 1997-98 Guelph Storm team that were still active in pro hockey for the 2009-10 season. Since Darryl took a timeout last season, he was not included in the article.