OHL Alumni Central

It’s nearly Spengler Cup time again. Overshadowed each holiday season by the IIHF World Juniors, the Spengler does boast some high calibre hockey. The tournament, held each season in Davos, Switzerland, starts on December 26 and features six teams this season. Participating this year will be Canada, HC Davos, Kloten Flyers (Switzerland), Dinamo Riga (KHL), HC Vitkovice (Czech Republic) and EHC Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams (Germany).

On Team Canada, there will be five Ontario Hockey League alumni. Also, assistant coach Doug Shedden played in the OMJHL for three seasons.

Shawn Heins played in the Ontario Hockey League for two seasons, 1991-92 and 1992-93, with the Peterborough Petes and Windsor Spitfires. Heins has played a total of 125 NHL regular season games during his pro career with the San Jose Sharks, Pittsburgh Penguins and Atlanta Thrashers. Shawn is currently the captain of Gotteron in Switzerland’s National League A.

Ryan Parent played four seasons with the Guelph Storm from 2003-04 to 2006-07. Parent was the 18th overall pick at the 2005 NHL Entry Draft by the Nashville Predators. Ryan has played in a total of 106 NHL regular season games with the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks. He has played the first half of the 2011-12 season with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL.

Eric Beaudoin played three seasons with the Guelph Storm from 1997-98 to 1999-00. He was a fourth round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1998, 92nd overall. He has played 53 NHL games, all with the Florida Panthers. Beaudoin is currently a member of Biel in Switzerland’s National League A.

Blaine Down played three seasons with the Barrie Colts from 1999-00 to 2001-02. Down’s current team in ZSC of Switzerland’s National League A.

Rico Fata played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1995-96 to 1998-99. He played his first year with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the rest of the OHL career with the London Knights. Rico was the sixth overall pick at the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Calgary Flames. Fata has appeared in 230 NHL regular season games with the Flames, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Thrashers and Washington Capitals. This season, Rico is a member of Geneve-Servette in Switzerland’s NLA.

Assistant coach Doug Shedden played in the OMJHL for three seasons from 1977-78 to 1979-80, appearing with the Hamilton Fincups, Kitchener Rangers and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Shedden is the coach of Zug in the NLA.

Okay… one of the three only played four games for the Kingston Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season, but the other two were fortified stars in the Ontario Hockey League.

Wesley Snell, age 35, played four games for the Frontenacs during the 1993-94 season with no goals, assists or PIM. Snell has played in Switzerland since the 1997-98 season, with a healthy mix between the National League A and National League B. This is his first season with HC Sierre in the NLB after two seasons with Zug of the NLA.

Paul Dipietro is the senior man on Sierre and the envy of all us 40-somethings. At 41, Dipietro has stepped down from the NLA this season after playing in the upper league since 1998-99 (with exception to 2004-05 when his former NHL friends flooded the European hockey market). Paul has spent the last six seasons with Zug and has competed for Switzerland on the world stage each season during that time.

Dipietro played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1986-87 to 1989-90, all with the Sudbury Wolves. He exploded offensively in his final season, scoring 56 goals and totalling 119 points, finishing second in OHL scoring to Keith Primeau of the Niagara Falls Thunder. The Montreal Canadiens liked what they saw and drafted Paul in the fifth round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, 102nd overall. With the Habs in 1992-93, Dipietro got his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup.

In total, Dipietro played 192 regular season and 31 playoff games in the National Hockey League between 1990-91 and 1996-97. Besides Montreal, Paul also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings. After playing in Germany for the 1997-98 season, Paul made the switch to Switzerland with a bang. In 1998-99, DiPietro led the NLA in goals with 38 in 45 games with Ambi-Piotta.

Lee Jinman is 35 and will turn 36 in January. Jinman played three years in the Ontario Hockey League from 1993-94 to 1995-96. Most of his career was spent with the North Bay Centennials but he was shipped to the Detroit Whalers for the playoff run in his final season. In his first year with North Bay, the team won the Robertson Cup with a victory over Detroit. In that final season with the Whalers, Detroit fell to the Peterborough Petes in the semi-finals. In both his final two seasons, Jinman finished in the OHL’s top ten scorers.

Jinman was a second round pick of the Dallas Stars in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, 46th overall, but never played in the National Hockey League. After playing five years in the North American minor leagues, Lee left for Europe, yet to return. He tried the waters in Great Britain, Sweden and Austria before settling in Switzerland for the start of the 2005-06 season. Jinman has been a fixture on HC Sierre since that season and has contributed offensively at an astounding 2.16 points per game during that time.

This past season, he led the league in assists with 52 and was second in points with 82 in 43 games.  He has twice led the league in points, 2005-06 and 2008-09. Lee shows no signs of slowing down in 2011-12. He has begun the season with 19 points in just 8 games for HC Sierre.

Sierre has an interesting historical link to NHL players. The team has set the stage for the swan songs of NHL veterans Jacques Lemaire, Mel Bridgeman and Marian Stastny. Lemaire played two seasons with Sierre after retiring from the Montreal Canadiens. Bridgeman split the final season of his playing career between Sierre and the Vancouver Canucks. After playing a season with the disastrous Toronto Maple Leafs in 1985-86, Stastny went to Sierre to cleanse his hockey soul for one season, 1986-87.

He was Ahren Nittel with the Windsor Spitfires. He’s usually now listest as Ahren Spylo-Nittel. His current team, Biel of Switzerland’s National League A simply lists him as Ahren Spylo. No matter the name, this Ontario Hockey League grad is going strong in Europe.

Ahren played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2000-01 to 2002-03. He started his OHL career with the Windsor Spitfires and moved over to the Oshawa Generals midway through his final season.

Spylo-Nittel was taken by the New Jersey Devils in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, 85th overall. Ahren played three seasons with New Jerseys AHL affiliate, the Albany Rivers Rats, from 2003-04 to 2005-06. In his second season, while only playing 50 games, he led the team in goals with 25.

He made the jump to European hockey in 2006-07 and with exception to a couple of games played in the ECHL in 2009-10, he has been there since. Ahren has made stops in Germany and Russia as well as his current league in Switzerland. With the Nürnburg Ice Tigers of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2007-08, he led the team in goals (41) and points (61) in 56 games. He was selected to Team Nord Amerika for the 2008 DEL All-Star game. As a member of the DEL’s Adler Mannheim, he competed in the 2009 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland.

This is his first season with Biel and he currently leads the team in goals and points, running neck and neck with teammate and Ontario Hockey League grad, Rico Fata. The team has just extended Spylo-Nittel’s contract through next season.

You can check out Ahren Spylo-Nittel’s profile at the Biel official website.

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.

In keeping with the Spengler Cup theme of late, today we’re looking at a member of Genève-Servette that happens to be an Ontario Hockey League grad. Despite relative success in North America since leaving the OHL after the 2004-05 season, Dan Fritsche opted to play in Switzerland this season. Perhaps, following his roots as his uncle John played several years in Switzerland. Genève-Servette is one of the six teams participating in the annual Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland over the Christmas holidays.

Fritsche played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05. He was a member of the Sarnia Sting until his final season when he was moved to the London Knights to bolster their powerhouse team. The Knights, of course, went on to win the Hamilton Spectator as regular season champs, the Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champs and the Memorial Cup as CHL champs.

Dan twice was a member of Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships. In 2004, USA won gold win a victory over Team Canada. In 2005, Fritsche finished just out of the top ten scorers with seven points but the USA didn’t fare too well with a fourth place finish.

Fritsche was picked up in the second round of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, 46th overall. Dan caught on right away with Columbus and played regularly for three seasons from 2005-06 to 2007-08. In 2008-09, he split his season between the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild. This past season, 2009-10, he was back in the Blue Jackets organization playing for their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Despite only 42 points with the Crunch, Dan was five points out of the team lead. He represented Syracuse at the AHL All-Star Classic.

Dan is featured in these previous posts at OHL Alumni Central:

OHL Alumni at the 2010 Spengler Cup

Alumni of the 2004-05 London Knights Still Active in 2009-10

OHL Alumni at the 2010 AHL All-Star Classic

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