Player Of The Week–Plymouth Whaler defenceman James Wisniewski has been named the player of the week for the week ending Nov 3rd. The 18-year-old Canton, Michigan native posted 5 goals and 8 points in three games last week. Wisniewski was also named the NHL’s player of the week.
CHL Top 10–After spending last week as the top team in Canadian junior hockey the Sarnia Sting dropped one spot in the weekly CHL rankings to the #2 spot. The Western Hockey Leagues Red Deer Rebels took over the top spot after spending last week at #3. Other OHL teams in the top 10 include the Ottawa 67′s at #4, the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors at #8 and the Belleville Bulls at #10.
Players of the Month For October–On Friday the OHL announced the players of the month for October. The Player of the month is Corey Locke of the Ottawa 67′s. Locke scored 11 goals and chipped in with 16 assists for 27 points in 10 games in October. He was named OHL Player of the Week for the week ending October 20th. The 18-year-old, Newmarket, Ontario native helped lead Ottawa to a 7-2-1 record during the month.
The Goaltender of the Month is Barrie’s Paulo Colaiacovo. Colaiacovo, a 19-year-old native of Mississauga, Ontario posted a 7-2-1 record in October to go along with a 1.71 goals against average and a .938 save percentage.
The Rookie of the Month is John Vigilante of Plymouth. The 17-year-old, Dearborn, Michigan native scored 7 goals and 15 points in 11 games in October. Vigilante recorded points in 9 of 11 games last month including a 4-point game against Owen Sound on October 27th.
The Defenceman of the month was Kingston’s Bryan Rodney. The 18-year-old London, Ontario native scored 2 goals and 18 points in 10 games with the Fronts last month. The 3rd year defenceman had 7 multiple point games including three 3-point games (against Toronto on Oct. 13th, Mississauga on Oct. 23rd and Peterborough on Oct. 25th).
Dmytruk Sent Down–With the return of defenceman Ryan MacKa to the Greyhound lineup, the Greyhounds sent defenceman Rob Dmytruk down to the Rayside Balfour Sabrecats of the NOJHL. Dmytruk was acquired from the Sudbury Wolves for a 7th round draft pick that could become a 5th round pick if Dmytruk were to play 30 games with the Hounds. Hot Stuff–The Kitchener Rangers have been one of the OHL’s hottest teams of late. They have won 7 straight games and find themselves sitting atop the Midwest division standings with a 10-3-2-1 record, good for 23 points.
Hot Stuff 2–The Belleville Bulls are also on a hot streak having won 5 games in a row and 8 of their last 10 games. The Bulls are 11-3-0-1 and trail the East Division leading Ottawa 67′s by one point with a game in hand.
All-Star Teams Announced–The OHL All-Star teams were announced for the Hershey Cup CHL All-Star Series which will be coming up soon. The Eastern Conference team consists of goaltenders Andy Chiodo of Toronto St. Michael’s and Michael Mole of Belleville; defencemen Brendan Bell of Ottawa, Kevin Klein of Toronto St. Mike’s, Lukas Krajicek of Peterborough, Shane O’Brien of Kingston as well as Jan Platil and Jeremy Swanson of the Barie Colts; and forwards Tim Brent of Toronto, Ben Eager, Nathan Horton and Brandon Nolan of Oshawa, Matthew Foy and Corey Locke of Ottawa, Eric Himelfarb of Barrie, Jay McClement of Brampton, Patrick O’Sullivan of Mississauga, Eric Staal of Peterborough, Matthew Stajan of Belleville and Anthony Stewart of Kingston. The Eastern Conference team will compete against the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference All-Stars on November 19th in Vancouver.
The Western Conference team is as follows: goaltenders Robert Gherson of Sarnia and Tyson Kellerman fo Saginaw; defencemen David Bowman and Tim Gleason of Windsor, Carlo Colaiacovo of Erie, Trevor Daley of Sault Ste. Marie, Steve Eminger of Kitchener and Dennis Wideman of London; the forwards will be Dustin Brown and Daniel Paile of Guelph, Gregory Campbell, Petr Kanko and Derek Roy of Kitchener, Miguel Delisle of Owen Sound, Chad Larose and Stephen Weiss of Plymouth, Rick Nash and Corey Perry of London, Kris Newbury of Sarnia and Kyle Wellwood of Windsor. The Western conference team will meet the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Dillio Conference All-Stars on Nov. 27th in Kitchener, Ontario. As a sidenote, if Rick Nash, Carlo Colaiacovo, Stephen Weiss and Steve Eminger are not sent back to junior by their respective NHL club’s by November 20th the OHL will name alternate players to take their places on the Western Conference roster.
Aquino Ruled Ineligible, for now–Oshawa General overage forward Anthony Aquino has been ruled ineligible to compete with the Oshawa Generals, for now anyway. A U.S. court has ruled that, until another U.S. court hears an ontario Hockey League appeal of the situation, the Dallas Stars prospect can’t compete for the Generals.
The situation is whether an NHL drafted 20-year-old player that leaves college hockey to compete in the CHL for an overage season is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent if he remains unsigned.
A rule was instituted by the OHL that prevented college players from competing in an overage season if they have never played a season in the OHL before.
Aquino, with the help of the NHLPA, filed suit against the OHL and was granted an injunction in U.S. court which allowed him to join the Generals, the team that owned his OHL rights, after leaving Merrimack University.
There is no word as to when the OHL’s appeal will be heard, but until further notice Aquino is ineligible to play.
