OHL Alumni Central

Richard Rochefort as a member of the Augsburg Panther of Germany's DEL.

Hockey – It’s popular everywhere. Ontario Hockey League grad Richard Rochefort is one of a handful of Canadians that is bringing credibility to the Asia League Ice Hockey.

Rochefort played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1996-97. His first two seasons were played with the Sudbury Wolves and his final season was split between the Wolves and the Sarnia Sting. Richard was a steady 20+ goal scorer in each of his three seasons and had seasons of 65, 65 and 70 points.

Rochefort was drafted in the seventh round of the 1995 NHL draft by the New Jersey Devils, 174th overall. He spent five seasons, from 1997-98 to 2001-02, with the Albany River Rats of the American Hockey League.

Starting in 2002-03, Richard became a world traveller, toting his hockey equipment from country to country. He has played in Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Germany and Japan. This past season, Rochefort played in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) with the Augsburg Panthers.

This upcoming season, 2010-11, Richard returns the ALIH with the Nikko Icebucks. The Icebucks have been less than marvelous over the past few seasons. They’re counting on Rochefort to help them into a top four position in the seven team league in order to move on to the post season.

Richard played previously in the ALIH for two seasons, 2007-08 and 2008-09. Both seasons were played with the Seibu Prince Rabbits which played out of Tokyo. The team is now defunct.

The ALIH official website is in English and can be found here.

The Nikko Icebucks website is only in Japanese and is not quite ready to go the for new season. The site can be found here.

Check out this previous post on the Asia League Ice Hockey.

Adam Keefe (#24 in blue) doing what he loves to do most.

A few days ago, we posted about London Knight’s alumnus, Danny Bois. Danny’s 913 regular season penalty minutes were by far a London Knights career standard. Adam Keefe, a former Sudbury Wolve and Kitchener Ranger, tops Bois with 975 career Ontario Hockey League regular season penalty minutes.

Adam Keefe played in the Ontario Hockey League for one more season than Danny Bois at five. He played from 2000-01 to 2004-05, beginning with the Sudbury Wolves and switching over to the Kitchener Rangers during the 2001-02 season. In his third season, he was a part of the Kitchener team that won the Hamilton Spectator as the regular season leader in the Ontario Hockey League, the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champion as well as the being the recipient of the Memorial Cup.

Adam enters the 2010-11 season as a returning member of the Toledo Walleye of the East Coast Hockey League. This past season, Keefe appeared in just 24 regular season games for Toledo due to injury. He played four playoff games for the Walleye and had four goals, mostly from a hat-trick against Charlotte.

Keefe started his professional career in Toledo after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2005-06, he split his season between the Toledo Storm of the ECHL and the Manitoba Moose of the AHL. Adam has since played for the Victoria Salmon Kings of the ECHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL and the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL before returning to Northern Ohio.

Older brother Sheldon was an Ontario Hockey League scoring machine with Toronto St. Michael’s Majors and the Barrie Colts. He was a second round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning but saw only 125 games in the National Hockey League and dropped away from professional hockey after the 2004-05 season.

Check out Adam Keefe’s profile page at the Toledo Walleye official website.

Adam is also featured in a previous post at OHL Alumni Central about the 2002-03 Memorial Cup winning Kitchener Rangers.

Rob Dmytruk played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. Each season he played in the OHL, he found himself on a different team’s roster.

Dmytruk’s Ontario Hockey League career began with the Belleville Bulls. His second season consisted of only 19 games with the Sudbury Wolves. In his final season, he went west and played for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In total, Rob played in 89 regular season games in the OHL as well as six total playoff games.

After his Ontario Hockey League career, Dmytruk went the Canadian university route and played five seasons at Wilfred Laurier University. In his fourth season, 2006-07, he developed into an offensive defenseman scoring 11 goals and adding 21 assists for 32 points in 28 games. In his final two seasons with Laurier, Rob was a first team all-star.

2008-09 was Rob Dmytruk’s only season of professional hockey in North America and he bounced around between three different clubs in two leagues. He began the season with the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL and moved on to the Rapid City Rush and Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.

This past season, Dmytruk moved to the European hockey scene and played with Eindhoven Kemphanen in the Netherlands. He continued his offensive ways with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points in 42 games.

This upcoming season, Rob has shifted to France’s Ligue Magnus and the Ducs Dijon. We’ve noted before that not many Ontario Hockey League alumni play in the Ligue Magnus. Hopefully Rob will find great success with Dijon.

Rob Dmytruk’s profile has yet to appear on the Ducs Dijon official website but you can follow this link to the story on the the website announcing the arrival of Rob.

Jason Jaspers played in the Ontario Hockey League for three seasons from 1998-99 to 2000-01, all with the Sudbury Wolves. Over the three years, Jaspers put in 116 regular season goals and finished third in OHL scoring in 1999-00 with 46 goals and 107 points, behind Sheldon Keefe of the Barrie Colts and teammate Norm Milley.

Jaspers has been playing in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) since 2006-07. His first three seasons were with Adler Mannheim (Mannheim Eagles). Last season he moved over to the Kolner Haie (Cologne Sharks) and has recently signed a contract through 2012 with the club.

Jason was drafted by the Phoenix Coyotes in the third round of the 1999 NHL draft, 71st overall. From 2001-02 to 2003-04, Jaspers played a total of nine games with the Coyotes, spending the rest of his time in the AHL with the Springfield Falcons. His best season with the Falcons was his last, 2005-06, when he scored 29 goals and added 37 assists in 77 games.

In the upcoming 2010-11 DEL season, Jason is joined by another Ontario Hockey League grad, Ryan Ramsay, who we featured just recently in this post.

Check out Jason Jaspers’ profile page on the official Kolner Haie website.

Bobby Chaumont as a Missisippi RiverKing.

The Braehead Clan and the Dundee Stars are the newest additions to Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), starting play for the 2010-11 season. Added to the Edinburgh Capitals, the two teams bring the Scottish total to three, which will surely create great rivalries and great interest.

The Clan have signed an Ontario Hockey League alumnus that they hope will put some pucks in the net. Bobby Chaumont played four years in the OHL from 2001-02 to 2004-05, all with the Sudbury Wolves. A steady goal-scorer, Chaumont added 24, 23, 31 and 31 goals in his four seasons with the Wolves.

Chaumont has his name written in the Ontario Hockey League history books as the only player to not miss a regular season game over his four year OHL career. He played in each of Sudbury’s 68 games over his four seasons for a total of 272 consecutive games. This is a pretty amazing feat considering OHLers are also full-time students and often play 2 to 3 games over a weekend.

Bobby spent one season in the Canadian university system, 2005-06, with Dalhousie. He spent 2007-08 in the ECHL with the Dayton Bombers, but has spent the rest of his time in the world of professional hockey in the Central Hockey League. His last two seasons have been spent with the Mississippis RiverKings. He’s netted more than 20 goals in each of his three seasons in the CHL.

The Sudbury native lead the RiverKings in goals scored over the 2008-09 season, netting 28 in just 49 games. He was named to the CHL’s all-rookie team in 2006-07 as a member of the Laredo Bucks.

Check out Bobby Chaumont’s profile page on the Braehead Clan’s official website.

For the time being, Bobby Chaumont’s profile page remains on the Mississippi RiverKing’s official website.

Above photo courtesy of Les Stockton @ Flickr.