OHL Alumni Central

Back in 1974-75 and 1975-76, Greg Hotham played for the Kingston Canadians. Three decades later, both of Greg’s sons, Andrew and Scott, also played in the Ontario Hockey League. All three are blue liners.

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Greg in the fifth round of the 1976 NHL Amateur Draft, 84th overall. Between 1979-80 and 1984-85, Greg played in 230 regular season NHL games with the Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. He retired from the American Hockey League after the 1989-90 season, after playing 513 regular season games with the New Brunswick Hawks, Baltimore Skipjacks and Newmarket Saints (all three are extinct now).

The oldest Hotham son, Scott, played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He began with the North Bay Centennials and moved with the club to Saginaw, where he played one game with the Spirit in 2002-03. After that game, Scott went back to Canada to play for the Mississauga IceDogs. The following season, he was traded early again, this time to the Barrie Colts.

Scott Hotham went undrafted and spent the four years post-OHL with St. Mary’s University. Hotham entered the world of pro hockey in 2009-10, mostly with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades but also playing nine games with the Rochester Americans of the AHL. In 2010-11, he played for Lillehammer in Norway’s Get-Ligaen. This season, he is playing in Austria’s Erste Bank Hockey League (EBEL) for Olimija Ljubljana.

Andrew Hotham’s career has paralleled brother Scott’s in several ways. Both played for the Barrie Colts (at the same time) and Saginaw Spirit (not at the same time) in the Ontario Hockey League. Both played four years with St. Mary’s. Both had a cup of coffee with the Rochester Americans.

Andrew played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07 with the Barrie Colts, Erie Otters and Saginaw Spirit. He played with St. Mary’s from 2007-08 to 2010-11, joining the Americans after the CIS season had ended. With St. Mary’s, Andrew was an All-Canadian First Team All-Star in his final three seasons and was the Atlantic’s Most Valuable Player for 2010-11, This season, Hotham is playing for the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.

Well over halfway into the 54 game Erste Bank Eishockey Liga schedule, Ontario Hockey League grad John Hughes is atop the Austrian league’s scoring race. Hughes has a slim lead with 49 points as a member of Olimpija Ljubljana. Last season, he was fifth in points while leading the league in assists.

John Hughes with Olimpija Ljubljana.

John played in the Ontario Hockey League for four seasons from 2004-05 to 2007-08. He was the first overall pick by the Belleville Bulls at the 2004 OHL Priority Selection. He played with Belleville until a trade sent him to the Brampton Battalion during the 2006-07 season. Hughes finished his OHL career with 283 points in 256 regular season games.

Undrafted, Hughes made his way to Europe immediately upon leaving the OHL. This is John’s second season with Ljubljana. He has also played for teams in Finland in Germany. The team is sitting in fifth place in the eleven team EBEL in what well could be Ljubljana’s best showing in the Austrian elite league.

Joining John Hughes on Olimpija Ljubljana are two defenseman that also played their junior hockey in the Ontario Hockey League. Jamie Fraser played four seasons in the OHL from 2002-03 to 2005-06. His first two years were spent with the Brampton Battalion and his final two were with the Sarnia Sting. Undrafted, Fraser spent five years from 2006-07 to 2010-11 in the North American minors, mostly in the American Hockey League. He did get to play one NHL regular season game in 2008-09 with the New York Islanders. 2011-12 marks Fraser’s first year playing in Europe.

Scott Hotham is in his second year playing in Europe after playing for Lillehammer in Norway’s Get-Ligaen in 2010-11. Hotham played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05 with the North Bay Centennials, Saginaw Spirit, Mississauga IceDogs and Barrie Colts. Scott followed up his junior career with four years with St. Mary’s of the CIS. In his first year of pro hockey, 2009-10, he split his season with the Florida Everblades of the ECHL and the Rochester Americans of the AHL. Scott’s brother and father also are graduates of the Ontario Hockey League.

Scott Hotham played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He began his OHL career with the North Bay Centennials in 2001-02. Hotham followed the team when it moved to Saginaw in 2002-03 and became the Spirit.

Scott’s career with Saginaw was very short-lived as he was traded to the Mississauga IceDogs after just one game. He played the rest of the 2002-03 season with the IceDogs then was traded 10 games into the 2003-04 season to the Barrie Colts, where he would finish out his OHL career.

After four seasons in the Canadian university system with St. Mary’s, Scott has just completed his first season of professional hockey. Hotham played most of the 2009-10 season with the Florida Everblades of the ECHL, but was called up to the AHL’s Rochester Americans for 9 games during the season.

As stated in this article on the official website of the Lillehammer Ishockey Klubb, Scott is on his way to Norway for the 2010-11 season. The story is in Norwegian. What follows is the article translated into English via Google Translate:

Scott Hotham ready L.I.K.!

Lillehammer Ice Hockey Club secured a Thursday night the signature of the Canadian defender Scott Hotham for the season 2010/2011. 25 years old Hotham split last season between Florida Ever Blades in the ECHL and the Rochester Americans of the AHL, and described as a player back with good playmaker skills.
- A very exciting player and a type of back we need, especially since we lost Darrell Hay. Hotham has both strong physical presence, excellent view and great skills as playmaker. There is also a player we’ve had time to consider and which we have received a lot of great feedback on equal concludes coach Thor Nilsen.

As mentioned shared Hotham season 2009/2010 between the ECHL club Florida Ever Blades and the Rochester Americans of the AHL (American Hockey League). In the ECHL, he delivered 38 points in 72 games including playoffs, by 7 goals and 31 assists, while it was 2 points in 9 games (2 goals) in the AHL.

Hotham began his junior career with the Couchiching Terriers in the OPJHL (Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League) where he spent his first season, was voted Rookie of the team. As a 16-year-old, he impressed enough to make their way to the very strong Junior League OHL (Ontario Hockey League) was short.

4 seasons later, Hotham recorded 249 OHL games for four different clubs. The last two seasons he played for the Barrie Colts in his hometown Barrie. Hotham was among other things, to set the record for the Barrie Colts for at least innslupne target rates. season with 171 backward in 2003/2004. But it was the following season, in 2004/2005, Hotham really did put his name in the club’s history books. His 50 points in 62 games (11 goals and 39 assists) is today the 4th highest score by a back in the club’s history. At the same time 39 assists in one season 4 place all-time among the club’s defensemen.

Hotham made his debut as a professional hockey player at the end of the season 2004/2005, when he played two league matches due and 10 playoff games for the Rockford IceHogs in Uhl (United Hockey League). Hotham allowed the further professional career be a bit on hold and went to college CIS League where he played four seasons for Saint Mary’s University while studying in trade. In the last three years he was at the top of the league in points and was also uttatt on various All-Star team in 2009 before he returned to professional hockey and the Florida Ever Blades.

Scott Hotham is the rest of the son of Greg Hotham who can look back in 230 NHL games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first half of the 1980s. Hotham sr. was like his son, also a back with good offensive abilities. And while we’re on Hotham family, then new corpse back a younger brother, Andrew Hotham, which follows in big brother’s footsteps and plays for Saint Mary’s in the college league.

View Scott Hotham’s profile page on the AHL’s official website.

View Scott Hotham’s profile page on the Florida Everblades official website.

View Scott Hotham’s profile page on the ECHL’s official website.

Scott Hotham appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

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