OHL Alumni Central

Pat Maroon was lured away from the U.S.A.’s NAHL for the 2007-08 season by the ever-persuasive Hunter brothers. Maroon played just one season in the Ontario Hockey League with the London Knights and led the league’s first year players in assists (55) and points (90). He led the team in scoring that season, nearly 30 points better than the next player down the list.

Recently, Maroon was traded from the Adirondack Phantoms to the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League for another player developed by the Hunters, Danny Syvret. Maroon and Syvret had previously been teammates with the Phantoms during the 2008-09 season and the start of the 2009-10 season before Syvret was moved to Syracuse.

Pat was already property of the Philadelphia Flyers before playing a game in the Ontario Hockey League. He was taken in the sixth round of the 2007 draft, 161st overall. He has played with the Flyers AHL affiliate since graduating. In his rookie season with the Phantoms, Maroon was sixth in points in the league among rookies.

Maroon had a great start to the 2010-11 season with Adirondack and was providing the team with offense that they still desperately need. However, he was released from the team after nine games after a disagreement with the club and can finally now resume his season with the Crunch. He is joined in Syracuse by another former London Knight, Leigh Salters.

The Crunch have yet to post Pat Maroon’s profile on their official site. You can still check out his profile on the AHL official website.

Danny Syvret appears in this previous post at OHL Alumni Central.

Danny Syvret played in the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-02 to 2004-05, although his first season had him see only one game. His entire Ontario Hockey League career was played with the London Knights, culminating in a season 99.999% of us could only imagine in our wildest dreams.

In his final season in the OHL, Syvret scored 23 goals and added 46 assists for 69 points in 62 games on the blueline for the Knights. The Knights, of course, won the Robertson Cup as playoff champion in the Ontario Hockey League and won the Memorial Cup on home ice at the Labatt Centre in London.

He was a part of Canada’s gold medal winning team at the 2005 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships when Canada downed Russia easily, 6-1, in the final played at Grand Forks, North Dakota. That was just the beginning.

Syvret was awarded the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s most outstanding defenseman. A fine stepping stone to being selected the Canadian Hockey League’s Defenseman of the Year. Danny’s +70 was the league’s best plus/minus. He was also a Canadian Hockey League and Memorial Cup tournament all-star.

Despite this amazing success, Syvret was not picked until the third round of the 2005 NHL draft by the Edmonton Oilers, 81st overall. Danny saw 26 games with the Oilers over his first two seasons. The rest of his time was spent in the American Hockey League with the Hamilton Bulldogs and Grand Rapids Griffins.

2007-08 was a step back as Syvret didn’t appear in any NHL games and split his season with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons and Hershey Bears.

The past two seasons, Danny has been in the Philadelphia Flyers organization. He appeared in 23 NHL games with the Flyers over the two seasons and spent the rest of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Philadelphia / Adirondack Phantoms.

Syvret has been picked up by the Anaheim Ducks organization for the 2010-11 season. It would be nice to see Danny become a regular with the NHL team but there’s a good chance he’ll play a portion of his games in Syracuse with the AHL Crunch.

Danny Syvret is not up on the Anaheim Ducks or Syracuse official websites yet, but his AHL profile can be found here.

Bell as a Syracuse Crunch

Former Ottawa 67′s standout defenseman, Brendan Bell, has has enough of North American hockey and has signed on with Avangard Omsk of Russia’s KHL for the 2010-11 season.

Brendan played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03, all with his hometown Ottawa 67′s. Twice, he was part of 67′s teams that went to the Robertson Cup final. In 2000-01, the 67′s won the Robertson by beating out the Plymouth Whalers and went on to an unsuccessful Memorial Cup Tournament in Regina. In 2002-03, Ottawa lost out to the Kitchener Rangers in the final.

In his final season in the OHL, Brendan was honoured with the Max Kaminsky Trophy for the league’s top defenseman.

Brendan was picked 65th overall in the 2001 NHL draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bell played a total of 32 games over two seasons, 2005-06 and 2006-07, with the Leafs. He also put in 16 games with the Phoenix Coyotes over two seasons, 2006-07 and 2007-08. In 2008-09, he had his most successful, and last, NHL season, playing 53 games on the blueline with the Ottawa Senators.

This past season, 2009-10, Brendan played the entire season in the AHL with the Peoria Rivermen and the Syracuse Crunch. His combined points total between the two teams made him the top point-getter on the Crunch.

The move puts him on an Avangard Omsk team that finished 11th overall in the 24 team KHL despite a team centred around the great Jamomir Jagr. The story can be found on the team’s official website. The site is in Russian. The translation is roughly:

HC Avangard – News May 20, 2010 “Vanguard” is in talks with Brendan Bell

————————————————– ——————————

Omsk Avangard in talks with a Canadian defender attacker plan
Brendan Bell from the system “Ottawa. In 2001, Bell in the NHL Entry Draft was selected
in round 3 under the 65 rooms of the club “Toronto Maple Leafs.”
The past season of 27-year-old defender clearance (height 188 cm, weight 96 kg) held in
AHL club: Peoria Rivermen “and” Syracuse Crunch “, recorded in its assets in the 71-th
Game 52 (14 +38) points. In the National Hockey League played 101 games in which
scored 28 (7 +21) points. During his career overseas, speaking in different
leagues, Bell scored 85 washers and made 312 broadcasts.

Brendan Bell’s profile page on the Syracuse Crunch official website can be found here.