20 Plymouth Whalers Alumni Playing in the Nationla Hockey League

Photo by Rena Laverty - Although he could have played as an overage this year in Plymouth, Tom Wilson (shown here with the Whalers during the 2013 OHL Playoffs) made the NHL’s Washington Capitals out of their training camp at the start of the 2013-14 season.

The email came to the Whalers office from Edward Fraser of The Hockey News:

For our upcoming Future Watch edition, we’re working on a feature looking at the CHL programs that have produced the most NHLers over the past 25 years (min. 200 GP) and we have Plymouth in the top 10. In order to confirm our count, can you please send me a list off all of your alum who’ve gone on to play in the NHL (and not just players drafted from your team, but all players who played, regardless of where they finished their OHL career)? Thanks in advance.

Depending on the movement of Plymouth alumni between the National Hockey League and American Hockey League at any given time, there are annually between 20-25 Whalers alumni active in the NHL.

Here’s the current list: Skaters: Rickard Rakell (Anaheim); Gregory Campbell (Boston); Chris Terry and Brett Bellemore (Carolina); John Mitchell (Colorado); James Wisniewski and Jared Boll (Columbus); Tyler Seguin (Dallas); Stephen Weiss (Detroit); Justin Williams (Los Angeles); James Neal (Nashville); Tim Sestito (New Jersey); JT Miller (New York Rangers); David Legwand (Ottawa); Tom Sestito (Vancouver); Tom Wilson (Washington); Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg).

Goaltenders: Michal Neuvirth and Matt Hackett (Buffalo); Justin Peters (Washington).

Others going between NHL and AHL: Michal Jordan (Carolina-Charlotte); Vince Trocheck (Florida-San Antonio); Rob Zepp (Philadelphia-Lehigh Valley).

DATABASE: Current Whalers in the NHL and AHL

The thing to note about this list is the cross section of players and where they are in the respective NHL careers.

Stars? How about Tyler Seguin?

Prime Time Performers? Hard to beat Justin Williams’ three Stanley Cups and Conn Smyth Trophy.

Solid performers? How about James Wisniewski, James Neal, David Legwand and John Mitchell?

Up-and Coming Players? How about Rickard Rakell and Tom Wilson, who two years ago were playing in Plymouth?

Honest Grinders? How about Gregory Campbell, Jared Boll and Chris Thorburn?

The Unknown Goaltender? How about Rob Zepp who played in the minor leagues and Europe for 14 years before getting a shot this season with Philadelphia?

There’s more than Plymouth players moving up to the National Hockey League. Mike Vellucci, Jim Rutherford, Terry McDonnell, Tom Webster, Paul Maurice, Peter DeBoer and Steve Spott all worked as coaches or general managers of the team before moving on to the NHL.

The truth is, it’s an honor to be associated with all of them.