OHL Alumni Central

Michal Birner played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05 and 2005-06. His first season in the OHL was split between the Barrie Colts and the Saginaw Spirit. His final season in the Ontario Hockey League was played exclusively with Saginaw. While with Saginaw, he set the team’s mark for the fastest three goals scored.

Over the 2005-06 season, Birner was second on Saginaw Spirit scoring during the regular season, three points behind team leader Ryan McDonough. However, Michal played eight less games during the season. The missed games were in part due to Birner representing his native Czech Republic at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships (under-20) that were played in Canada. The Czechs left the tournament without a medal.

Birner also represented the Czech Republic on the international stage earlier on in his hockey career when he was on the roster for the 2004 IIHF World Under-18 Championships. Michal contributed five points in seven games as the Czech’s won bronze with a win over Canada in Belarus.

Birner was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round of the 2004 NHL draft, 116th overall. He spent his first full season after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League with the Blues’ AHL farm team, the Peoria Rivermen. The following season, he started with Peoria and ended with the Portland Pirates. In 2008-09, he played two games with the AHL’s Iowa Chops before being demoted to the ECHL. Birner chose not to report and instead signed with Pelicans of Finland’s SM-Liiga.

Michal’s season with Pelicans lasted only six games and he was sidelined for the rest of the season with a broken hand. This past season, he remained in the SM-Liiga but with TPS, a storied team that has been around since 1929 (as a sports club, TPS has been around since 1922). His 45 regular season points with TPS was good enough for third on the team in scoring, only four points from the leader. More importantly, TPS won the league championship.

Birner is signed on with TPS for the upcoming 2010-11 season.

Check out Michal Birner’s profile page on the TPS official website.

Check out this recent post on Michal’s teammate with the Spirit, Patrick Asselin.

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.

Marek Kvapil played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League, 2004-05, with the Saginaw Spirit. Kvapil started that season with HC Slavia Praha in the Czech Republic under-20 league. After eight games, he made the move to the Ontario Hockey League and was an offensive powerhouse on a Spirit team that had the least goals for in the OHL. He added seven games for the Czech Republic at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships where he produced two goals and three assists as the Czech’s lost out to Canada in the semi-finals but beat the USA for the bronze.

Kvapil finished up his season in Saginaw with 25 goals and 37 assists for 62 points in just 53 games. With the Spirit scoring just 150 goals on the season, Marek factored in on 43.4% of the team’s total goals, despite missing 15 games.

Kvapil found his way into the Ontario Hockey League record books during his short career. He is tied for the OHL record for the fastest goal to begin a period. He scored four seconds into the third period of a game against the Mississauga IceDogs.

The Tampa Bay Lightning drafted Marek in the sixth round of the 2005 NHL draft, 163rd overall. He spent three years following his one year stint in the Ontario Hockey League playing for teams in the AHL and ECHL (AHL – Springfield Falcons, Norfolk Admirals; ECHL – Johnstown Chiefs, Mississippi Sea Wolves).

Kvapil will start his third season in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga this upcoming season. His first two seasons were played with HC Vitkovice but he has made a change this year and signed on with HC Kometa Brno. Marek hopes to help lift Brno from 12th in the 14 team league in 2009-10 to at least a playoff berth this season. In the Extraliga, the top ten teams make the post season.

Marek had the fortune of representing the Czech Republic this past spring at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Germany as the Czechs won the gold medal. He was mentioned in this previous post regarding OHL alumni on the Czech team for the tournament.

Check out Marek Kvapil’s profile page on the HC Kometa Brno official website.

Check out this great profile of Marek Kvapil in the alumni section of the Saginaw Spirit official website.

Geoff Platt played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials and moved with the team to Saginaw for the 2002-03 season. During that season, Platt was a member of Team Canada at the under-18 world championships. Platt split the 2003-04 season between the Saginaw Spirit and the Erie Otters. He finished off his career in 2004-05 with the Otters.

Undrafted, Geoff appeared in 15 NHL games with the Columbus Blue Jackets in his first season out of the OHL. In total, Platt would appear in 46 NHL games over three seasons with the Blue Jackets and the Anaheim Ducks. The rest of his time in North America was spent in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Syracuse Crunch and the Portland Pirates.

In 2008-09, Geoff Platt played for Dynamo Minsk of the KHL and Ilves of Finland’s SM-Liiga. 2009-10 was Geoff’s first full season with Minsk. His 26 goals and 44 points in 56 games earned him a spot at the KHL all-star game. Geoff is signed on to play for Dynamo Minsk for the 2010-11 season.

Check out Geoff Platt’s profile page at the Dynamo Minsk official website. The site is in Russian.

The Hannover Indians completed their first season in Germany’s Bundesliga 2 in 2009-10 after competing in the lower Oberliga for the past decade. The Bundesliga is a level below the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Germany’s elite hockey league. The team finished 13th in the 14 team division.

Two Ontario Hockey League alumni are signed on with the Hannover Indians for the 2010-11 season. D.J. (Dirk Joachim) Jelitto played just one season in the OHL, playing the rest of his junior hockey in his native United States. In 2002-03, Jelitto played five games for the Sarnia Sting and 21 for the Saginaw Spirit.

From 2005-06 to 2007, D.J. played in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) for the Utah Grizzlies. After just three games in the 2007-08 season, he moved on to the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League (CHL). He played for the Blazers again in 2008-09. In each of his two seasons with Oklahoma City, D.J. netted 25 goals. 2009-10 was his first season with the Hannover Indians. He contributed 30 points in 51 games which was good enough for third on the team in scoring.

Jamie Chamberlain played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02. he was a member of the Peterborough Petes for his first three seasons. In his final season, he started the season with the Kingston Frontenacs but after nine games, he found his way back to Peterborough. He was drafted by the Dallas Stars in the ninth round of the 1999 NHL draft, 265th overall.

After junior, Chamberlain played four seasons in the Canadian university ranks with the University of Western Ontario. For the most part, Jamie was a point per game player with the Mustangs.

Jamie has been a member of the Hannover Indians since 2006-07. In the first three seasons, when the Indians were a member of the Oberliga, Jamie’s point production was great. Chamberlain contributed 217 points in just 144 regular season games. In 2007-08, he netted a incredible 43 goals in just 51 games and led the team in total points with 84. This past season, in the Bundesliga, Jamie had 15 goals and 32 assists for 47 points in 46 games which was good enough for the team lead.

Check out D.J. Jelitto’s profile page on the Hannover Indians official website.

Check out Jamie Chamberlain’s profile page on the Hannover Indians official website.

Ontario Hockey Alumnus, John Hughes, played with the team last season but has signed with Tampere in Finland for the 2010-11 season. Check out this previous post on John Hughes.