OHL Alumni Central

Igor Radulov played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League. As a rookie with the Mississauga IceDogs in 2001-02, Radulov put in 33 goals and added 30 assists for 63 points in 62 games. Igor was second to Patrick O’Sullivan on the team in every offensive category.

Before he came to the Ontario Hockey League, Radulov was drafted into the National Hockey League. Igor went in the third round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, 74th overall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Radulov got into seven games with Chicago in his first year of professional hockey and 36 in 2003-04 while splitting time with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League.

Then came the lockout season… Radulov left for Russia in 2004-05 when there was no NHL hockey to be played. He has been in the RSL/KHL since. After starting the season with Severstal Cherepovets, his sixth team in Russia since 2004-05, he has moved to Vityaz Chekhov, a team he played parts of three seasons with from 2006-07 to 2008-09.

Vityaz sits in last place in the KHL’s West Conference and third from the bottom overall. Just recently, we featured a former member of Vityaz Chekhov, Nathan Perrott.

Check out Igor Radulov’s profile page on the KHL official website.

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I think it’s a fair comparison to say that Robert Esche is the American version of Sean Burke. Burke was always available to wear the Team Canada Jersey, representing his country in nine different tournaments and actually playing full-time for the national team for parts of four seasons. Esche has appeared in eight tournaments for Team USA and is still quite active in professional hockey. The two even played for the same NHL teams, at different times.

Robert Esche played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1997-98. His first two seasons were with the Detroit Junior Red Wings and he switched with the franchise in his final season as they became the Plymouth Whalers. In his final season, he was selected Second Team All-Star goaltender. Twice during his junior career, Robert tended goal for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championships.

Esche was selected in the sixth round of the 1996 NHL Entry draft by the Phoenix Coyotes, 139th overall. He played three games with the Coyotes the first season while spending most of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons. In that first season, Esche was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team.

Robert played parts of eight seasons in the NHL with the Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers. At his pinnacle, 2003-04 with the Flyers, he was named the winner of the Jennings Trophy with a 2.04 GAA and .915 save percentage over 40 regular season games. He led the Flyers deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs before losing in the Eastern Conference finals to eventual Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning.

In 2007-08, Esche made a drastic change of scenery, jumping to Russia’s KHL (then called the RSL). He was an instant star between the pipes in Russia, posting a 1.86 GAA with AK Bars Kazan in his first season then a 1.87 with nine shutouts in 38 games for SKA St. Petersburg the following season. He also played in the All-Star game that season. Esche played last season with St. Petersburg and once again posted stellar numbers.

This season, Esche has signed on with Dynamo Minsk and is helping the team stay on top of the KHL’s Western Conference.

Check out Robert Esche’s profile at the KHL official website.

Joining Esche on Dynamo Minsk are these two former Ontario Hockey League players (click names to go to previous post at OHL Alumni Central):

Max Spiridonov

Geoff Platt

Maxim Rybin is now in his tenth season of play in Russia’s RSL/KHL since graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. Add that to the three partial season that Rybin played in the RSL before playing in the OHL and you have a 29 year old veteran of professional hockey with twelve seasons under his belt. Before coming to the OHL, Rybin was named the RSL Rookie Forward of the Year for the 1998-99 season.

Rybin played two seasons with the Sarnia Sting, 1999-00 and 2000-01. In his first season with Sarnia, Maxim was second on the team in points and goals to Jeff Heerema with 56 points and 29 goals. In his final season, he led the Sting in goals with 34 and was second to Eric Himelfarb in points with 70.

Maxim was taken by the Anaheim Ducks in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft, 141st overall. He never played a single game of professional hockey in North America, instead returning immediately to Russia.

Rybin is teammates with another Ontario Hockey League grad, Alexei Semenov. Semenov played three seasons with the Sudbury Wolves from 1998-99 to 2000-01. The two players were featured in yesterday’s post at OHL Alumni Central, naming the eleven players that will be playing for the five teams competing against Team Canada at the 2010 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

St. Petersburg has competed in the Spengler on several occasions in the past and were champions three times. The team is home to former NHL stars Maxim Afinogenov and Alexei Yashin. The team currently sits third in their conference in the KHL standings.

Check out Maxim Rybin’s profile page at the SKA St. Petersburg official website.

Nikita Alexeev played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Erie Otters. The Otters were Midwest Division regular season champions in Alexeev’s final two seasons and Hamilton Spectator winners in 2000-01. The Otters were ousted in the Western Conference finals that season by the Plymouth Whalers, four games to one. Nikita was selected to the OHL’s Third Team All-Star squad in his final season.

Alexeev was taken eighth overall in the 2000 NHL draft by the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 44 games with the Lightning in his first season of professional hockey and only 34 in his second. It wasn’t until the 2006-07 season when Nikita would play in the NHL again. He put in 78 games between the Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks. That would be his last season in North America.

2007-08 saw Nikita shift to Russia’s KHL (at the time still called the RSL). He entered the league with Ak-Bars Kazan and has been with team since. Kazan has won the KHL championship (Gagarin Cup) the past two seasons and are currently sitting three points out of first place in the league’s Eastern Conference.

Check out Nikita Alexeev’s profile page on the Ak-Bars Kazan official website.

Nikita appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central listing the graduates of the Erie Otters still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 seasons.

Alexander Buturlin played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1999-00 and 2000-01, both with the Sarnia Sting. Over the two seasons, he averaged more than a point per game with 112 points in 104 games.

Twice during his junior career, Buturlin appeared on the world stage, representing his homeland, Russia. Both times, 1999 Under -18 IIHF World Championship and 2001 IIHF Under-20 World Championship, Russia was left off the podium.

Buturlin was taken by the Montreal Canadiens in the second round of the 1999 NHL draft, 39th overall. Other than his two seasons with the Sting, Alexander has only played in the Russian Super League/Kontinental Hockey League. This includes two seasons before his Ontario Hockey League days when he played in the RSL with CSKA Moscow as a 16 and 17 year old.

Not including those two partial seasons before playing in the Ontario Hockey League, Buturlin is now entering his tenth season in the Russian elite league. After 16 games with HC Spartak Moskva, he has been traded to Traktor Chelyabinsk. Ironically, Spartak sits in tenth position in the KHL’s Western Conference and Chelyabinsk sits in tenth in the Eastern.

Alexander leaves the company of two Ontario Hockey League grads in Moscow. Branko Radivojevic and Stefan Ruzicka remain members of HC Spartak and have very recently been featured at OHL Alumni Central (click names to go to articles).

Buturlin also appears in an earlier post at OHL Alumni Central featuring the Sarnia Sting grads that were still active in professional hockey during the 2009-10 season. Click here to read the article.

Check out Alexander Buturlin’s profile page on the KHL official website (in English).

Alexander Buturlin and 650+ Ontario Hockey League grads can be found on the OHL Alumni Central Big List.