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Where are they now?

cw

Administrator
Staff member
Periodically, I look at where past Leafs wound up.

Here's an informal listing of names I looked up:

NHL (a couple of notables among many still in the NHL)
Joey Crabb playing for Washinton
Keith Aulie playing for Tampa

AHL
Christian Hanson with Bruins
Luca Caputi - was in ECHL and now back up to AHL with Ducks
Jay Rosehill
Kris Newbury - has played a bit in NHL

ECHL
Ben Ondrus
Phil Oreskovic

Europe
Niklas Hagman in KHL
Mark Bell in Germany
Matt Lashoff in Swiss league
Marcel Mueller in SEL
Justin Pogge in Italy
Jeremy Williams - Austria and elsewhere last year and this
Tim Stapleton - KHL
Martin Gerber - SEL
Ryan Hollweg - Czech
Jaime Sifers - DEL
Andy Wozniewski - playing 3rd season in Swiss league
Brendan Bell in SEL
Mikael Tellqvist in KHL
Alexander Suglobov - has bounced around KHL

Not with any team per hockeydb.com
Pavel Kubina - reportedly looking at three UFA offers
Jeff Finger
Jason Blake
Brett Lebda - recently cut from AHL team
Jonas Frogren - looks like he was cut from two KHL teams
Chad Kilger - never played again after he left Leafs
Bates Battaglia - competed with brother in "The Amazing Race"

fyi

Sorry if they are any dupes with threads below. I didn't want to create a thread for each one.
 
Looks like Karel Pilar has jumped around quite a bit, but he's still playing pro hockey.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=56847

Hedin -- the next Lidstrom -- playing in the SEL:
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=33996

Dmitry Vorobiev still playing in the KHL (though he never actually played in North America, so he may not count):
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=77362
 
Looking back at some drafts:

Still playing in Europe
Maxim Kondratiev - 2001 draft, KHL last 5 years (Leetch trade)
Jarkko Immonen - 2002 draft, KHL last 4 years (Leetch trade)
Staffan Kronwall - 2002 draft, KHL last 2 years
David Turon - 2002 draft, Italy
Martin Sagat - 2003 draft, Czech

Still playing in NA
Chad Rau - 2005 draft, AHL, played 9 games in NHL last year for Wild
Alex Berry - 2005 draft ECHL
Tyler Ruegsegger, 2006 draft, AHL

No team found on hockeydb
Todd Ford - 2002 draft
Dominic D'Amour - 2002 draft
Nicolas Corbeil - 2001 draft, ode to Keon14
Scott May - 2002 draft, mgro was a fan
John Doherty, 2003 draft, last played in CHL in 2008
Johan Dahlberg - 2003 draft, last played hockey in 2007

Of the 7 players drafted by JFJ's Leafs in 2006, six have played in the NHL (Tlusty, Kulemin, Reimer, Holzer, Stalberg, Komarov) and five are still with NHL teams (Holzer in AHL).  Six is the most of any NHL team in that draft. 823 games played by that 2006 Leafs draft group is second to Boston. 314 pts by that group is 3rd to Boston (Kessel, Lucic, Marchand) and Washington (Backstrom, Perreault, Varlamov,  Neuvirth). Pretty good job by JFJ's group that year.

 
The moral of the story: unless you're already a star player, don't lose your job in the Leafs organization.
 
RedLeaf said:
The moral of the story: unless you're already a star player, don't lose your job in the Leafs organization.

Because this happens exclusively to ex leafs players? Every other player who makes it to the NHL retires from the NHL?
 
Joe S. said:
RedLeaf said:
The moral of the story: unless you're already a star player, don't lose your job in the Leafs organization.

Because this happens exclusively to ex leafs players? Every other player who makes it to the NHL retires from the NHL?

True. I guess cw had me focusing in on the Leaf players only.
 
Justin said:
So Andrew Raycroft and Justin Pogge are BOTH playing in the Italian league? Oh my goodness... ::)

Statistically, Pogge is outplaying Raycroft ... and outscoring him!
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0014012013.html

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0012372013.html

:)
 
cw said:
Justin said:
So Andrew Raycroft and Justin Pogge are BOTH playing in the Italian league? Oh my goodness... ::)

Statistically, Pogge is outplaying Raycroft ... and outscoring him!
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0014012013.html

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0012372013.html

:)

Living and playing in Italy must be a blast regardless of how the NHL careers went.  I guess Raycroft made some good money at least so for him it's probably pretty good.  Pogge never got to cash in so I suppose he needs the work.  But man I just looked up where Pogge's team is based, northern part of Italy near the Austria border.  It must be amazing there.
 
Zee said:
Living and playing in Italy must be a blast regardless of how the NHL careers went.  I guess Raycroft made some good money at least so for him it's probably pretty good.  Pogge never got to cash in so I suppose he needs the work.  But man I just looked up where Pogge's team is based, northern part of Italy near the Austria border.  It must be amazing there.

Yeah I would pay them to play in that league. holy cow.
 
Dr. Bobby Leafer said:
I've kind of been wondering where Ron Wilson is.

But for now Wilson is happy on his boat, a pleasure craft for the waterways around his home in Hilton Head, S.C., and spending time with his family.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2013/02/28/ron_wilson_saw_firing_coming_remains_friends_with_brian_burke_says_tim_hunter.html
 
Many former Leafs in the remaining UFA list.
Antro and Poni, Grabs and Kabs, White, Cola, Gill, Sullivan, Wellwood, Steckel, Boyes.
Lots of memories in that list.
I'd imagine some of them will be playing in Europe as well.
 
drummond said:
Dr. Bobby Leafer said:
I've kind of been wondering where Ron Wilson is.

But for now Wilson is happy on his boat, a pleasure craft for the waterways around his home in Hilton Head, S.C., and spending time with his family.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2013/02/28/ron_wilson_saw_firing_coming_remains_friends_with_brian_burke_says_tim_hunter.html

and enjoying that contract extension to its fullest.
 
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