OHL Alumni Central

Ontario Hockey League grad Nathan Perrott disappeared from hockey after last season. Or did he? It turns out the well travelled former NHLer is playing close to home for the Walkerton Capitals in Ontario Senior A hockey.

Perrott played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1994-95 to 1996-97. Nathan played his first two full seasons with the Oshawa Generals. After five games with Oshawa in his third season, he was traded to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. His fists were always at the forefront as Perrott sat out 528 minutes in just 164 OHL games.

Drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the second round of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, 44th overall, Perrott made his first appearance in the NHL during the 2001-02 season with the Nashville Predators. He would also play with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Dallas Stars during his 89 game NHL career.

After just four games with the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies in 2007-08, Perrott headed to Russia where he played for Vityaz Chekhov of the KHL. Vityaz has a reputation for fighting. They’re much like the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970′s but with no ability to win. Two featured players on the KHL team, and former Ontario Hockey League players, are Chris Simon and Brandon Sugden.

In 2008-09, Nathan played just nine games with the KHL team and racked up 137 minutes in penalties. This past season, 2009-10, he returned to North America and played for the Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League.

Nathan Perrott can be found on the Walkerton Capitals roster page.

He never won a major award in the National Hockey League. He was never inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His season highs in the NHL maxed out at 26 goals and 45 points. Yet, the name Eddie Shack is one of the most well-known in the game of hockey.

Shack played five seasons with the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters in the Ontario Hockey Association from 1952-53 to 1956-57. In his final season, when the league consisted of just seven teams and only the Peterborough Petes were in their current location, the Biltmores were tops during the regular season and won the Robertson Cup as playoff champs. Shack’s 47 goals and 104 points was just two behind teammate and league leader Bill Sweeney (click on Bill’s name to see a previous post at OHL Alumni Central on him).

Eddie played over 1000 games in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins. his 465 total points is respectable but it is often said that Shack was mismanaged as a hockey player from the get-go in the NHL and despite mostly being put in a checking role, could have been an outstanding offensive threat in the league.

Shack did play for four Stanley Cup winning teams in Toronto during the 1960′s and he did play in three All-Star games. He was the first NHL player to score 20+ goals in a season for five different teams and is still only the second to accomplish this. He scored 26 with Toronto in 1965-66, 23 with Boston in 1967-68, 22 with Los Angeles in 1969-70, 25 with Buffalo in 1970-71 and 25 with Pittsburgh in 1972-73.

For a great read on Eddie, check out Clear the Track: The Eddie Shack Story (Peter Goddard Books). This is a great book written by Ross Brewitt that goes into great detail about the life and times of “The Entertainer” with much input from the man, himself.

Zdenek Nedved played three seasons in the OHL, although his first consisted of just 19 games. Nedved played with the Sudbury Wolves from 1992-93 to 1994-95. He has just signed on with HC Merano of Italy’s Lega Italiana Hockey Ghiaccio Serie A2.

In his second season in Sudbury, 1993-94, Zdenek contributed a balanced 50 goals and 50 assists for 100 points in 60 games. He was second on the Wolves only to Jamie Rivers’ stellar 121 performance. The following season Nedved scored 47 and added 51 assists for 98 points in 59 games. These numbers were good enough for the team lead in all three scoring categories.

In that 1994-95 season, the Wolves went to the semi-finals before bowing out to the Detroit Junior Red Wings in seven games. Detroit went on to win the Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champions then moved on to the Memorial Cup final game before succumbing to the Kamloops Blazers. In that playoff run, Zdenek did all he could offensively with 28 points in 18 games.

Zdenek represented the Czech Republic at the IIHF Under-20 World Hockey Championships in each of his last two seasons in Sudbury. The team was left off the podium both years but Nedved played well at a point per game pace.

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Nedved in the fifth round of the 1993 NHL draft, 123rd overall. Zdenek saw one game with the Leafs during his final season of junior and scored a goal on his first shift. Over the next three years after graduating from the OHL, Nedved played in Toronto’s system, making it onto the lineup of the big club just 30 more times.

1998-99 was the season Zdenek returned to Europe and never looked back. He has since been a well-travelled man. His first season in Europe was split between HC Sparta Praha in his native Czech Repubic and Lukko of Finland’s SM-Liiga. In 1999-00, he led Lukko in scoring with 46 points in 54 games. He would spend two more seasons in Finland after that.

2002-03 and 2003-04 were spent in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). 2004-05 saw him move to Norway for a season. The following two were playing in the Asia League. The past three years have seen him back in the Czech Republic’s Extraliga and also the Extraliga of neighbour Slovakia.

 Merano is currently sitting in seventh position in the nine team league. You can find the article on the team’s official website announcing the arrival of Zdenek Nedved here. The article is in Italian.

Check out this previous article on Jamie Rivers at OHL Alumni Central.

The Ontario Hockey League record for most goals in a season has stood at 87 for three decades now. During the 1980-81 OHL season, Ernie Godden of the Windsor Spitfires scored at a 1.28 goals per game pace over a full 68 game schedule. He added 66 assists for a points total of 153. In addition, he would add 13 goals and 29 points in an 11 game Windsor playoff run.

Why has the record lasted so long? Some will say that the star players in the OHL today don’t get to play a full schedule because of a number of reasons, including the World Juniors and extended NHL camps. Ray Sheppard played five less games in 1985-86 and scored 81 goals. Eric Lindros scored 71 in just 57 games during the 1990-91 season. Other factors would include a longer bench, better trained goaltenders and just an overall change in the game. Regardless, Ernie Godden’s record may stand for some time to come.

Ernie Godden played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1978-79 to 1980-81, all with the Windsor Spitfires. Over his OHL career, Godden put in 152 regular seasons goals and contributed 290 points over the three seasons. The feisty 5’8″ 160 lb’er also was a tough customer, earning 508 minutes in penalties.

In his second season with the Spitfires, 1979-80, Godden contributed 40 goals and 41 assists for 81 points in 62 regular season games then added to that total at a point per game pace in the playoffs. Windsor made it to the Robertson Cup finals before being swept by the Peterborough Petes.

Surprisingly, his 153 points in that final season in the Ontario Hockey League was not the best in the league. John Goodwin of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds scored 56 goals and assisted on another 110 for 166 points. Just one point behind Godden was Bernie Nicholls of the Kingston Canadians. In an 11 game playoff effort that saw the Spitfires lose out to the Kitchener Rangers in the semi-finals, nine points to one, Ernie did all he could with 13 goals and 29 points. However, his efforts did earn him the Red Tilson Trophy as the league’s most outstanding player.

Godden was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round of the 1981 NHL draft, 55th overall. In 1981-82, Ernie played five games with Harold Ballard’s Leafs and spent the rest of the season with their Central Hockey League affiliate, the Cincinnati Tigers. As a rookie, Ernie fared well in Cincinnati with 32 goals and 69 points in 67 games. He also brought his feistiness, sitting out 178 minutes in penalties.

The following two seasons, Godden spent all his time with Toronto’s AHL affiliate, the St. Catherines Saints. He spent 1984-85 in Austria with Klagenfurter before retiring from hockey.

The Federal Hockey League begins play this season, 2010-11, with six teams, one in Canada and five in the United States. The fledgling league has already signed up a few Ontario Hockey League grads. Among them is Miguel Delisle.

Delisle spent five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1998-99 to 2002-03. His first four full seasons were spent with the Ottawa 67′s and his final season was split between Ottawa, the Owen Sound Attack and the Kingston Frontenacs.

Over his Ontario Hockey League career, Delisle tallied 328 points over 304 regular season games with an additional 43 points in playoff action. In 2001-02, Miguel was the OHL’s goal scoring leader with 55. His 95 points that season placed him eighth in the league.

In the spring of 2001, Delisle accompanied the 67′s to Regina as the team made an unsuccessful attempt at the Memorial Cup. They earned the right by beating out the Plymouth Whalers in six games to win the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champion. He was also a part of the 1999 Memorial Cup winning 67′s team.

Miguel was selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL draft, 100th overall. He spent one season in the East Coast Hockey League in 2003-04, splitting his season between four different teams: San Diego Bulls, Idaho Steelheads, Dayton Bombers and Trenton Titans.

Delisle didn’t play in 2004-05 and played two years of University hockey before packing it in at the end of the 2006-07 season. This fall will mark the return to pro hockey for Miguel.

The Federal Hockey League will have six teams (Akwesasne, Rome, 1000 Islands, Brooklyn, Binghamton and Danbury) each playing a 60 game schedule. The league has a team salary cap of just over $5000 per week. Play will begin at the end of October, 2010.

Check out Miguel Delisle’s profile page on the Akwesasne Warriors official website.

Check out this previous post at OHL Alumni Central on the 1999 Memorial Cup winning Ottawa 67′s.

Miguel Delisle is on The Big List.