OHL Alumni Central

It has been a recurring theme here lately to feature Ontario Hockey League grads that are getting a little long in the tooth. Recently, players like Paul DiPietro, Lee Jinman and Craig Rivet have been highlighted at OHL Alumni Central. Yesterday, a 39 years young Chris Simon signed on with Metallurg Novokuznetsk of Russia’s KHL. Chris will turn 40 during the 2011-12 season.

Be one of the few to have a Chris Simon hockey card from the KHL!

Simon on the right as a member of Vityaz Chekhov.

Chris played in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons from 1988-89 to 1991-92. The Ottawa 67′s drafted him 42nd overall in the 1988 OHL Priority Selection and Chris played with the club until two games into his final season. For the rest of 1991-92, Simon played for the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds. The Sault finished first in the Emms Division and took out the North Bay Centennials in seven games to win the Robertson Cup. The Greyhounds went undefeated in the round-robin at the Memorial Cup and lost to the Kamloops Blazers in the final game.

Simon was taken by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, 25th overall. Before playing a professional hockey game, Chris was traded to the Quebec Nordiques in the deal that sent Eric Lindros to the Flyers. In 2003-04, Simon and Lindros would play together in the New York Rangers arena, MSG.

Chris played 782 regular season and 75 playoff games in the National Hockey League from 1992-93 to 2007-08. He wore the jerseys of the Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, Washington Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild. In his one year with the Avalanche, 1995-96, he helped the team to a Stanley Cup victory.

In 2008-09, Simon made the jump to KHL and played for Vityaz Chekhov. The team was, and still is, the laughing stock of the league and only provides entertainment to its fans through fighting. Chris fit right in, leading the league in penalty minutes in his first season with 263 in just 40 games. It was the first of three years with Chekhov and in the second season he was team captain. Chris wasn’t all fists with the team, he contributed 82 points in 116 games over the three seasons. He shown signs of offensive talent throughout his career with a 29 goal season with the Capitals in 1999-00 and 36 goals in 57 games with the 67′s in 1989-90.

Simon’s new club, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, is currently sitting tied for eighth position in the KHL’s East Conference. The team also features former NHLers Brent Sopel and Sergei Brylin. Novokuznetsk is still looking for their first post season appearance in the league.

Joining Simon on Novokuznetsk is one other Ontario Hockey League grad. Maxim Kitsyn returns to the city of his birth after playing for the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors in 2010-11. Kitsyn came to the Majors in January of 2011 and played 32 regular season games down the stretch. He contributed 19 points in 20 playoff games as the Majors made it to the Robertson Cup finals before losing to the Owen Sound Attack. He was also a member of the gold medal winning Russian team at the 2011 IIHF World Junior Championships in Buffalo, New York.

Maxim was a 17th overall pick of Mississauga’s at the 2010 CHL Import Draft. He went in the sixth round of the NHL Entry Draft the same year to the Los Angeles Kings, 158th overall. Kitsyn has contributed just a goal and assist in 17 games with Novokuznetsk thus far in 2011-12.

Ontario Hockey League grad Max Spiridonov was recently traded to his tenth KHL team in eleven years. Spiridonov began the season with 16 games for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, where he contributed six points, and was moved to Ak Bars Kazan. In the process, he moved from ninth in the KHL’s East Conference and out of a playoff spot and into fourth in the East, destined for the post season.

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Max played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the London Knights, 1996-97 and 1997-98. In his second season with London, Spiridonov earned the Jim Mahon Trophy as the highest scoring right winger in the league with 54 goals and 99 points. It was enough to get a late round look from the Edmonton Oilers. Max was taken in the ninth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 241st overall.

For three years after leaving the Knights, Spiridonov played on a handful of teams in the IHL, AHL and ECHL. In 2001-02, he returned to his native Russia and, with exception of a half season spent in Switzerland, has been there since.

Max’s 10 RSL/KHL teams:

• Salavat Yulayev Ufa
• Amur Khabarovsk
• Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
• Severstal Cherepovets
• Dynamo Moscow
• Metallurg Novokuznetsk
• Barys Astana
• Dinamo Minsk
• Metallurg Magnitogorsk
• Ak Bars Kazan

In 2002-03, with Amur Khabarovsk, Max led the RSL in goals with 21. In 2003-04, he played 19 games for the ill-fated Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. The only team Spiridonov has played two full seasons with is Barys Astana in 2008-09 and 2009-10. He wore the ‘A’ for Astana in the second season.

Andris Dzerins played two years in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08 and 2008-09, both with the Kingston Frontenacs. In each season with Kingston, Dzerins reached 20 goals, 20 in his first and 21 in his second. Previous to the OHL, Andris played junior in Latvia, Sweden and Finland.

Since leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Dzerins has been with Dinamo Riga of Russia’s KHL. The team plays out of the 10,300 seat Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. In its recent history, Dinamo has been mediocre, finishing around .500 each season. This season has started out as no exception with the team beginning with a 7-8 record and sitting in seventh in the eleven team KHL West Conference. Riga is captained by former NHLer Sandis Ozolins.

Like mostly every other player on Dinamo Riga, Dzerins is an annual fixture on Latvia’s national team. He played for Latvia two years in the IIHF under-18 D1 World Juniors, winning one gold and one silver. He followed that up with two years with the under-20 team, also winning a gold and silver. Over the past two seasons, he has been a member of Latvia’s squad at the World Championships. In 2011, he contributed five assists in six games.

Joining Andris on Dinamo Riga are two other Ontario Hockey League grads. Arvids Rekis played four seasons with the Erie Otters from 1996-97 to 1999-00. Juris Stals played the 2001-02 season with the Sarnia Sting and the following season with the Owen Sound Attack. Both were teammates of Dzerins on the 2011 Latvia team at the Worlds. Rekis was a member of the Team Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stals was the only one of the three drafted by a National Hockey League club. He was a ninth rounder of the New York Rangers in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

It’s always a horrible tragedy when a commercial jetliner goes down. When Air France flight 447 crashed in 2009, enroute from Brazil to France, 228 lives were immediately lost. The impact would have been devastating to the family, friend and co-workers of each and every one of those souls.

Josef Vasicek as a member of the Czech Republic National Team.

When the charter carrying the members of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of Russia’s KHL crashed this past week, 43 lives were lost. Of course, most of the fatalities were not run-of-the-mill individuals. Many were not just known by family and friends but by the populations of whole countries and even continents. A good number of the 140,000,000 in Russia would have at least heard of the players from Yaroslavl and many were known throughout the hockey circles of Europe and North America. The impact is still incomprehensible.

The names of Pavol Demitra and Ruslan Salei would stand out most to the NHL hockey fan. The coaching staff, consisting of Brad McCrimmon, Igor Korolev and Alexander Karpovtsev, were all retired veterans of the National Hockey League.

One player that lost his life played junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League. Josef Vasicek played two seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, 1998-99 and 1999-00. In his final season with the Greyhounds, Vasicek put up great numbers with 26 goals, 46 assists for 72 points in just 54 games. He added another 2o points for Sault Ste. Marie in 17 playoff games.

Josef played for the Czech Republic at the 2000 IIHF World Junior Tournament, helping his team to a Gold Medal. A regular on the Czech national team, he won gold at the 2005 World Hockey Championships and played in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Vasicek came to the Ontario Hockey League already a prospect of the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes took him in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Drat, 91st overall. In total, he played 460 games in the NHL from 2000-01 to 2007-08, mostly with Carolina. He played a half season with the Nashville Predators in 2006-07 and last played in the NHL with the New York Islanders in 2007-08.

Josef went to the Stanley Cup finals twice in his NHL career, both times with the Hurricanes. In 2002, the team lost to the Detroit Red Wings and in 2006, they were Stanley Cup champions.

2011-12 was to be Vasicek’s fourth season with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. In his first season, the team made it to the finals before losing in seven games to Ak Bars Kazan. The past two seasons, Yaroslavl has been beaten in the Western Coference finals. This past playoffs saw Josef lead the league in assists (15) and points (22) despite not making the finals.

He has played in the KHL All-Star game for the past two seasons and wore the ‘A’ on his jersey with Lokomotiv.

Josef and the rest of the players from Lokomotiv Yaroslavl will be sadly missed throughout the hockey world.

Ontario Hockey League grad Oskar Osala has left North America behind and has signed on to play for Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk of Russia’s KHL for the 2011-12 season.

Osala played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga IceDogs in 2005-06 and 2006-07. In his final season with the IceDogs, Oskar played for Finland at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. His five goals were tops in the tournament.

Oskar was a fourth round pick of the Washington Capitals in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, 97th overall. After a year in Finland’s SM-Liiga in 2007-08, when he was named rookie of the year, Osala found his way onto the Hershey Bears roster. Oskar was a call-up to the Capitals for two games in the 2008-09 season and helped the Bears to a Calder Cup championship in the AHL.

This past season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL, Oskar contributed 42 points in 59 games for his most productive sesaon in the AHL to date. Osala helped the Checkers make it to the Eastern Conference finals before being swept by eventual Calder Cup winner, the Binghamton Senators. Ironically, in the first round of the playoffs, the Checkers took out Oskars old team, the Hershey Bears, in six games.