OHL Alumni Central

I remember being at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto a few years back and being a little confused during a game between the Marlies and the Rochester Americans. It was Oreskovic versus Oreskovich and I, quite frankly couldn’t remember which one was which.

Phil Oreskovic

Phil Oreskovic and Victor Oreskovich are both grads of the Ontario Hockey League, played in the league at the same time for two years and are listed at exactly the same height and weight.

Phil Oreskovic played four years in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2006-07. He played the bulk of his OHL career with the Brampton Battalion, moving over to the Owen Sound Attack at the trade deadline in his final season. The stay at home defenseman was the fifteenth overall pick of the Battalion in the 2003 OHL Priority Selection.

Oreskovic was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the third round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, 82nd overall. He appeared in ten games with the National Hockey League club in 2008-09, his only NHL experience to date. After three years as a regular with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, Phil was moved to the Hershey Bears for 2010-11. So far in 2011-12, he’s played a scattering of games for the South Carolina Stingrays of the East Coast Hockey League.

After starting his second season with University of Notre Dame in the NCAA in 2005-06, Victor Oreskovich returned to Canada and played the rest of the season and all of 2006-07 with the Kitchener Rangers. He put up decent numbers in his only full OHL season, scoring 28 and totalling 60 points in 62 games. 

Oreskovich came to the Ontario Hockey League already an NHL prospect. Victor was taken in the second round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalance, 55th overall. He has appeared in the NHL with the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks. Currently a member of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, Oreskovich has appeared in one game with the Canucks, so far this season.

Victor Oreskovich

Mike Duco played five seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 2003-04 to 2007-08, although he played just five games in 2003-04. Duco played his entire OHL career with the Kitchener Rangers and ended his time in junior with a Robertson Cup as OHL playoff champions and a trip to the Memorial Cup.

The 2007-08 Kitchener Rangers hosted the 2008 Memorial Cup and made it to the final game. Unfortunately, the Spokane Chiefs won the final, 4-1. The tournament capped a fine season for Mike, scoring 32 goals during the regular season and totalling 22 points in 20 playoff games.

Duco went undrafted by an NHL club but signed with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. Despite a ten game stint with the NHL’s Florida Panthers in 2009-10 and two games in 2010-11, Mike has spent all his pro career with Rochester.

2011-12 will bring a change in scenery for Duco. Mike has become property of the Vancouver Canucks and will most likely play the upcoming season with their brand new AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves. Prior to the upcoming season, the Manitoba Moose had been the AHL affiliate for the Canucks but with the rebirth of NHL hockey in Winnipeg, things have changed.

Ontario Hockey League grad Mike Wilson has played just seven games over the past four seasons. After not playing for the first half of the 2010-11 season, Wilson has been picked up by the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL and has one goal in his first two games with the club.

Wilson played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1992-93 to 1995-96, all with the Sudbury Wolves. In his final season, he contributed 47 points from the blue line in 64 regular season games. The Wolves made it to the Robertson Cup semi-finals that season before losing to the Detroit Junior Red Wings in seven games. He was selected to the CHL All-Rookie Team in his first season.

Mike was taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, 20th overall. The Canucks traded his rights in the summer of 1996 to the Buffalo Sabres as part of the deal that brought Alexander Mogilny to Vancouver and placed Mike Peca in a Sabres uniform.

Wilson has played a total of 336 regular season games in the NHL with Buffalo, the Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers. He was a part of Buffalo’s 1998 team that made it to the Eastern Conference finals.

Beginning with the 2004-05 NHL lockout season, Wilson spent two seasons playing in several locations in Europe. Mike played games for teams in Norway, Austria, Switzerland and Finland.

After taking 2006-07 and 2007-08 off, Wilson played five games with the ECHL’s Trenton Devils in 2008-09, with an additional five games in the playoffs. He played just two games with the Toledo Walleye in 2009-10.

Check out Mike Wilson’s profile page at the Toledo Walleye official website.

Check out these previous articles on Wilson’s teammates with the Sudbury Wolves:

Jamie Rivers

Zdenek Nedved

The Fischtown Pinguins 2009-10 points leader and Belleville Bulls grad Chris Stanley is back for another season with the German club. The Fischtown Pinguins play in the Eishockeyspielbetriebs Gesellschaft, or ESBG, or 2. Bundesliga. Whatever you want to call it, the league is tier 2, a step below the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). The Pinguins finished 11th in the 14 team league in 2009-10, out of the playoffs.

Chris Stanley played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Belleville Bulls. Stanley provided consistent offence on a very successful string of Bulls teams. He was part of the 1998-99 team that won the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey League playoff champions, beating out the London Knights. The team made an unsuccessful appearance at the Memorial Cup that season. The following year, the Bulls bowed out in the Eastern Conference finals to the Barrie Colts.

Stanley was picked by the Vancouver Canucks in the fourth round of the 1997 NHL draft, 90th overall. Chris chose instead to go the Canadian university route after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. Stanley played for Dalhousie University from 2001-02 to 2003-04.

For 2004-05 and 2005-06, Chris played with the Las Vegas Wranglers of the East Coast Hockey League. The first season, the Wranglers failed to make the playoffs. The second season, Las Vegas had a great regular season with 112 points but couldn’t shake their nemesis, the Alaska Aces.

2006-07 saw Stanley make the jump to the European game. Playing for the Heilbronner Falken of the German Oberliga (tier 3), Chris was the team’s goal scoring leader with 44 goals in just 50 games. After making stops in Italy, Austria and then being promoted to the German 2.Bundesliga, Chris became a member of the Fischtown Pinguins at the start of the 2009-10 season.

Chris was Fischtown’s top point -getter over the 2009-10 season with 50 in 51 games. the 50 points placed him 23rd in the league.

Check out Chris Stanley’s profile page at the ESBG official website.

The Fischtown Pinguins official website can be found here.

German Hockey Cards!

Art Rutland played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League (OMJHL at the time) from 1976-77 to 1979-80. Except for the last half of his final season when he played for the Brantford Alexanders, Rutland’s entire OHL career was played with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. His second season with the Greyhounds was well-observed by Ontario hockey fans as he was teammates with Wayne Gretzky.

By far Art’s most outstanding season in the Ontario Hockey League was his last full season with the Greyhounds, 1978-79. Despite the fact that the Sault finished last in the Leyden Division and second last to the Brantford Alexanders in the whole OHL, the Greyhounds boasted three players in the top six point getters in the league. Art led the way in third place overall with 139 points. Right behind, in fourth, was Brian Gualazzi with 134 points including 74 goals. In sixth was John Goodwin with 129 points in his rookie season en route to being awarded the Emms Family Award as top first year player.

Rutland contributed 365 points over his four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League despite playing on dismal teams that placed either last or second to it. He would get some redemption as a member of the Central Hockey League’s Dallas Black Hawks in 1980-81 when the team finished first overall in the league. Art was the CHL’s assist leader that season with 65.

Art Rutland was taken by the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the 1979 NHL draft, 68th overall. He would never play at that level and played just three seasons on the North American pro hockey circuit (1980-81 and 1981-82 with the Dallas Black Hawks and 1982-83 with the Fredericton Express of the American Hockey League).

In 1983-84, Rutland made the journey to Germany where he would be a scoring phenom over seven of his final eight seasons of pro hockey. Over the eight seasons, he would play in Germany’s Bundesliga 2 each season except for 1987-88 when he played in Italy with Vipiteno.

He began with Duisburg SC and played just one season there. His final four seasons were played with Landsberg EV, a team that has since been relegated to the Oberliga. In his final seven seasons of pro hockey, he led his team in scoring each season.

The 1985-86 and 1986-87 seasons are what will never let Germany forget the presence of Art Rutland. While playing for Selb, Rutland had a combined total of 397 points in just two seasons (total includes regular season and relegation round). His first season with Selb saw him net 94 goals for 199 total points and his second season was four goals better but one point less, 98 goals and 198 points. In his second season, he was joined by London Knights grad Jim McRae who had a not-too-shabby 155 point season with Selb. McRae and Rutland were teammates on more than one occasion throughout their careers.

In all, Rutland played 267 games in Europe and contributed 834 points. These number equate to more than a three points per game pace over the eight years.