OHL Alumni Central

Updated June 10, 2011: Eric Beaudoin has resigned with Biel for the 2011-12 season.

Eric Beaudoin played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1997-98 to 1999-00, all with the Guelph Storm. In his first season, the Storm won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the league’s regular season champion and the Robertson Cup as the OHL’s playoff champion with a series win over the Ottawa 67′s.

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Eric provided the Storm steady offense with 71 and 72 points in his final two seasons. His final season saw him notch 38 goals which was the most on the team.

Beaudoin was a fourth round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, 92nd overall. However, it was with cross-state Florida Panthers where Eric played all his 53 NHL games.

For the 2005-06 season, Beaudoin left for Europe. During that season, he played for the Newcastle Vipers of Great Britain’s EIHL, two teams in Finland’s SM-Liiga and finally ended up with Mora of Sweden’s Elitserien. He spent the following two seasons with Mora before switching to Linköping for 2008-09 and Rögle in 2009-10. He wore the ‘C’ for Rögle and produced his highest point total since coming to Europe with 34 points.

Left without a home for the first half of this season, Beaudoin was finally picked up by Biel of Switzerland’s National League A this past week.

Eric Beaudoin’s profile can be found at Biel’s official website roster page.

Eric Beaudoin is among the over 700 Ontario Hockey League grads on the OHL Alumni Big List.

Mark Messier has a top notch assistant coach for the 2010 Spengler Cup in Ontario Hockey League legend, Doug Shedden.

Doug Shedden played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OMJHL) from 1977-78 to 1980-81. He began with the Hamilton Fincups and was traded to the Kitchener Rangers in his first season. His true success came when he was traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds during the 1979-80 season. He finished that season with exactly 100 points and then went on to a 51 goal and 123 point performance in his final season.

In 1980-81, Shedden was one of four Greyhounds with 12o points or more during the regular season. He was third on the team in scoring and tenth in the league. The team won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as the regular season champion. They made it to the Robertson Cup finals before losing out to the Kitchener Rangers. Although the Rangers finished on top of the Emms Division that season, they did it with just 69 points.

Doug was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the fourth round of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, 93rd overall. From 1981-82 to 1985-86, Shedden was a mainstay with the Penguins. Although his NHL career would last until the 1990-91 season, 87% of his 325 NHL points came as a Pittsburgh Penguin. Over his NHL career, Shedden played 416 regular season games with Pittsburgh, Detroit Red Wings, Quebec Nordiques and Toronto Maple Leafs.

His pro career continued on for two seasons after his final NHL game. Shedden split the 1991-92 season between HC Davos of Switzerland’s National League B and Bolzano in Italy. In 1992-93, Doug finished off his career with the Muskegon Fury of the Colonial Hockey League.

Never skipping a beat, Shedden has been a head coach somewhere each year since retiring as a player. He has won championships four times in the Central Hockey League (1993-94, 1994-95, 2001-02, 2002-03) and once in the Colonial Hockey League (1999-00). He was named as the Commissioners Trophy recipient in the Central Hockey League for the 1993-94 season as Coach of the Year.

Doug had a three year stint as head coach in Finland’s SM-Liiga. In 2008, he coached Team Finland to a Bronze medal at the IIHF World Hockey Championships.

Shedden is currently in his third year as head coach of Zug in Switzerland’s National League A.

Shedden will have six Ontario Hockey League grads to direct at the Spengler Cup. Find out who there are here.

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Jeff Toms is no stranger to the Spengler Cup. What will be a change for the Ontario Hockey League grad at this year’s tournament is the jersey on his back. Toms has normally played for Team Canada at the Davos, Switzerland invitational. This season, his club Genève-Servette of Switzerland’s National League A are one of the invited teams so he’ll be competing against Canada at the end of December.

Jeff played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1991-92 to 1993-94, all with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. In his first season, he was part of the Greyhounds team that took the Robertson Cup and went undefeated in the round robin of the Memorial Cup before losing in the final to the Kamloops Blazers. The following season, the Greyhounds lost in the Robertson Cup final to the Peterborough Petes in five games but earned a berth in the Memorial Cup as the host team. Sault Ste. Marie went on to exact revenge on the Petes in the Memorial Cup final.

In his final season in the OHL, Jeff led the Greyhound in goals with 52. The team had another long playoff run but was knocked out by the Detroit Junior Red Wings in the semi-finals.

Toms was taken by the New Jersey Devils in the ninth round of the 1992 draft, 210th overall. He put in 236 games in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers. In his final season in North America, he led the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage in goals and points with 30 and 63.

Jeff began the 2003-04 season in Russia’s RSL but soon made his way to Switzerland where he finished off the season with Basel of the National League A. Toms has been in the league ever since. He has averaged over a point per game during his career in Switzerland and now wears the ‘A’ on his jersey for Genève-Servette.

Take a look at Jeff’s profile at the team’s official website by going to the roster page and clicking on the arrow beside his name. Note that OHL grad Dan Fritsche also appears on the roster.

Just yesterday, we featured another Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds grad, Ric Jackman, who has gone to play in Europe.

Ontario Hockey League alumnus Mark Popovic has left the NHL behind for a second time to test the European waters. In 2008-09, Popovic ventured to Russia to play for St. Petersburg of the KHL. This season, 2010-11, he has landed in Switzerland to play for HC Lugano of the Swiss National League A.

Mark played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2001-02, all with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. In his final two seasons in the OHL, he was a member of Team Canada at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. In 2001, Canada won the Bronze Medal and the following season they won the Silver.

In his final two seasons with the Majors, the team advanced to the Eastern Conference finals before being beat out 4 games to none both seasons. In 2000-01 the defeat was at the hands of the Ottawa 67′s, a team the would be the eventual Robertson Cup champions. In 2001-02 the Barrie Colts swept the Majors en route to a Robertson Cup loss to the Erie Otters. In that final season, Popovic was selected to the CHL Third All-Star team.

Mark was selected by the Anaheim Ducks in the second round of the 2001 NHL draft, 35th overall. He appeared in one game with Anaheim and over four seasons with the Atlanta Thrashers appeared in an additional 80 games.

In the off-season, Mark runs a hockey camp in Midland, Ontario. Check out the website for more information.

Check out Mark Popovic’s profile page at the National League A official website.

Mark appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central listing the St. Michael’s / Mississauga Majors that played professionally in 2009-10.

Shawn Heins played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 1991-92 and 1992-93. Heins started his OHL career with the Peterborough Petes, playing 49 games in his first season. Five games into his second season, he ended up with the Windsor Spitfires where he finished out the season.

Although not drafted, Shawn made his way into 125 NHL games over six seasons from 1998-99 to 2003-04. Heins played parts of five seasons with the San Jose Sharks and also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Atlanta Thrashers. He also spent time with five minor league teams in the ECHL, AHL and IHL.

Shawn left North America for Europe for the 2004-05 season and has not looked back. He spent his first two seasons in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). His first was with the Eisbaren Berlin and second with the Hannover Scorpions. Since 2006-07, he has been with Fribourg-Gotteron of Switzerland’s National League A, is current team captain and is under contract through the 2011-12 season.

Seven times in his professional career, Heins has led his team in penalty minutes. He has led Fribourg-Gotteron in each of his four seasons with the club. He also led the Hannover Scorpions in 2005-06 with 196 PIM in just 43 games. In 1997-98, he led the Kansas City Blades of the IHL with 303 PIM in 82 games and in 1996-97, he led the Mobile Mysticks of the ECHL with 253 PIM in just 56 games. Twice, he has led the National League A in PIM, 2006-07 and 2008-09.

Despite these numbers, Heins still remains a point producing defenseman and a quality player. He was an AHL first team all-star in 1999-00 with the Kentucky Thoroughblades when he produced 63 points from the blueline in 69 games. His 238 PIM would have led the team if it were not for teammate and fellow Ontario Hockey League grad Garrett Burnett who spent a whopping 506 minutes in the box in just 58 games. Shawn was also named to the all-star team at the most recent Spengler Cup.

Check out the profile page of Shawn Heins at the Fribourg-Gotteron official website.

In the following video, Shawn Heins comes to the aid of teammate and knocks out an opposing player in a playoff game this spring.