2000-01 SPX Rookies (66 players) Career Checks

[kmitchel]

Hey folks,

After another post of mine - I took a look at the 76 players who were SP'd /1500 or given a CHL game jersey in the 2000-01 SPX (or update) sets. It's been (almost) 14 years since release - here's what happened to them.

Listed below is card #, player, team on the card, NHL GP, and current status (from hockeydb.com)

Active NHL players are indicated in GP with a + (there are 6-8 of them depending on how you count two players), and as many players seemed to end their career in 13-14 in the KHL (and other overseas leagues), I do wonder if they are still active, but hockeydb doesn't have the stats yet.

The most NHL games played is Scott Hartnell's 964+. The fewest games played is shared by Marc Andre Thinel and Jeff Bateman in the CHL game jersey subset who didn't play an NHL game. If you only look at the /1500s it's a tie between Mike Minard (G) and Greg Kuznik who played 1 game.

The soonest to leave hockey were Dale Rominski (3 GP) and Kyle Freadrich (23 GP) who ended their pro hockey careers in 2000-01.

At least one player, Josef Vasicek, has passed away in the tragic Lokomotiv Yaroslavl accident but I didn't check the players, I just noticed the team he sadly played for last.

Anyways, here's the stats.

91 Herbert Vasiljevs Atl 51 Playing in DEL
92 Eric Nickulas Bos 118 Out of Hockey (08-09 DEL was last season)
93 Brandon Smith Bos 33 Out of Hockey (09-10 DEL was last season)
94 Jeff Cowan Cgy 413 Out of Hockey (11-12 DEL was last season)
95 Serge Aubin CBJ 374 Out of Hockey (11-12 DEL was last season)
96 Mike Minard Edm 1 Out of Hockey (07-08 CHL was last season)
97 Steven Reinprecht LA 663 Playing in DEL
98 David Gosselin Nas 13 Out of Hockey (11-12 LNAH was last season)
99 Colin White NJ 797 Out of Hockey (11-12 NHL was last season)
100 Willie Mitchell NJ 804+ Out of Hockey (Fine, in Florida - but really no one is watching)
101 Steve Brule NJ 2 Out of Hockey (12-13 LNAH was last season)
102 Steve Valiquette NYI 46 Out of Hockey (11-12 Italy-A was last season)
103 Petr Mika NYI 3 Out of Hockey (07-08 Czech was last season)
104 Chris Kenady NYR 7 Out of Hockey (05-06 ECHL was last season)
105 Johan Witehall NYR 54 Out of Hockey (05-06 SEL was last season)
106 Jani Hurme Ott 76 Out of Hockey (09-10 SM-liiga was last season)
107 Jean-Guy Trudel Pho 5 Out of Hockey (09-10 Swiss-A was last season)
108 Dale Rominski TB 3 Out of Hockey (00-01 IHL was last season)
109 Greg Andrusak SJ 28 Out of Hockey (03-04 Swiss-B was last season)
110 Martin Havlat Ott 753+ New Jersey Devils
111 Jeremy Stevenson Ana 207 Out of Hockey (08-09 IHL was last season)
112 Sergei Vyshedkevich Atl 30 Out of Hockey (10-11 KHL was last season)
113 Johnathan Aitken Bos 44 Out of Hockey (06-07 Austria was last season)
114 Keith Aldridge Dal 4 Out of Hockey (04-05 AHL was last season)
115 Rich Parent Ott 32 Out of Hockey (05-06 DEL was last season)
116 Kaspars Astashenko TB 23 Out of Hockey (10-11 EIHL was last season)
117 Matt Elich TB 16 Out of Hockey (08-09 IHL was last season)
118 Dieter Kochan TB 21 Out of Hockey (06-07 AHL was last season)
119 Kyle Freadrich TB 23 Out of Hockey (00-01 IHL was last season)
120 Justin Williams Phi 848+ Los Angeles Kings

121 Andrew Raycroft 280 Out of Hockey (13-14 Swe-1 was last season)
122 Zdenek Blatny 25 Out of Hockey (13-14 Austria was last season)
123 Pavel Brendl 78 Out of Hockey (13-14 DEL-2 was last season)
124 Jason Jaspers 9 Playing in DEL
125 Fedor Fedorov 18 Playing in KHL
126 Jordan Krestanovich 22 Out of Hockey (12-13 EIHL was last season)
127 Marc-Andre Thinel NONE Out of Hockey (09-10 France was last season)
128 Damian Surma 2 Out of Hockey (13-14 CHL was last season)
129 Jeff Bateman NONE Out of Hockey (07-08 AUS was last season)
130 Sheldon Keefe 125 Out of Hockey (04-05 AHL was last season)

152 Lee Goren Bos 67 Out of Hockey (12-13 SEL was last season)
153 Pavel Kolarik Bos 23 Playing in Czech
154 Greg Kuznik Car 1 Out of Hockey (12-13 Italy-A was last season)
155 Josef Vasicek Car 460 Out of Hockey (10-11 KHL was last season, deceased Lokomotiv)
156 Rick Berry Col 197 Out of Hockey (08-09 DEL was last season)
157 David Aebischer Col 214 Out of Hockey (13-14 Swiss-A was last season)
158 Rostislav Klesla CBJ 659 Playing in Czech
159 Marty Turco Dal 543 Out of Hockey (11-12 Austria was last season)
160 Tyler Bouck Dal 91 Out of Hockey (13-14 DEL was last season)
161 Mike Comrie Edm 589 Out of Hockey (10-11 NHL was last season)
162 Eric Belanger LA 820 Out of Hockey (13-14 KHL was last season)
163 Marian Gaborik Min 813+ Los Angeles Kings
164 Scott Hartnell Nas 964+ Columbus Blue Jackets
165 Jason Labarbera NYR 182+ Playing in AHL (Norfolk, Anaheim farm team)
166 Rick DiPietro NYI 319 Out of Hockey (13-14 AHL was last season)
167 Ruslan Fedotenko Phi 863 Out of Hockey (13-14 KHL was last season)
168 Petr Hubacek Phi 6 Playing in SM-liiga
169 Roman Cechmanek Phi 212 Out of Hockey (07-08 Czech was last season)
170 Roman Simicek Min 63 Out of Hockey (09-10 Slovak was last season)
171 Mark Smith SJ 377 Out of Hockey (07-08 NHL was last season)
172 Jakob Cutta Was 8 Out of Hockey (13-14 SM-liiga was last season)
173 Marc Chouinard Ana 320 Out of Hockey (09-10 DEL was last season)
174 Darcy Hordichuk Atl 542 Out of Hockey (12-13 AHL was last season)
175 Bryan Adams Atl 11 Out of Hockey (12-13 DEL was last season)
176 Jarno Kultanen Bos 102 Out of Hockey (08-09 SM-liiga was last season)
177 Eric Boulton Buf 638+ ?? Under contract for NYI - hasn't played in 14-15, not listed on TSN's injury list
178 Brian Swanson Edm 70 Out of Hockey (11-12 ECHL was last season)
179 Lubomir Sekeras Min 213 Out of Hockey (10-11 Slovak was last season)
180 Eric Landry Mon 68 Out of Hockey (11-12 Swiss-A was last season)
181 Mike Commodore NJ 484 Out of Hockey (13-14 KHL was last season)
182 Johan Holmqvist NYR 98 Playing in Swe-1
183 Jeff Ulmer NYR 21 Playing in Austria
184 Ossi Vaananen Pho 479 Playing in KHL
185 Alexander Khavanov StL 348 Out of Hockey (06-07 Swiss-A was last season)
186 Bryce Salvador StL 782+ New Jersey Devils
187 Reed Low StL 256 Out of Hockey (06-07 AHL was last season)

 

[JTMcCool]

That's awesome. Nice work!

Ahhh, memories of Pavel Brendl.

 

[clippers00]

as a yotes fan, i miss vaananen. it was good to see him play well for finland during the olympics!

 

[Pacman69]

I'll have to look through mine, I Know I have a bunch of duplicate serial,number cards ie 200/1500 twice .

Maybe I have some high and low number ones for your sets



Pacman

 

[sedinfan]

Entertaining read... Rich Parent is a blast from the past, I still remember wincing when reading about him on the injury log one day: 'ruptured testicle and contusion of the scrotum, out 10-14 days'. Had to google him today to see what the story behind the injury was... apparently he took a MacInnis slapshot to the groin, ouch! I think i'd be out 10-14 years myself!

 

[bamlinden]

I agree. Very entertaining. I remember many of those names. I especially remember Steve Valiquette and his NYR Spiderman goalie mask. I guess it's better to be remembered for something.

Nicely done Kev.

 

[timber09]

Wow - I didn't realize what a presence North Dakota had on this set. May have to pick up a few of these bad boys.

Jeff Ulmer was on the 1997 NCAA National Championship team at North Dakota

Lee Goren was the go to guy and reeled in a ton of awards for the 2000 National Championship UND team and was an AS player for the Minot Top Guns (unfortunately they couldn't sneak past the MSU-Beavers as their was a stud defenseman for the Beavers that led them to victory over the Top Guns - yes, I am reliving glory years - ha!)

Reed Low (aka Real Slow) - was a crowd favorite for the SJHL Minot Top Guns as well. I think he had somewhere in the neighborhood of 38,000 PIMs during his tenure there. Wow I saw him in some big tilts.

 

[kmitchel]

I'll have to look through mine, I Know I have a bunch of duplicate serial,number cards ie 200/1500 twice .

Maybe I have some high and low number ones for your sets

Pacman

If you have a chance, please let me know - and if you're moving them, I'd love to pick up a set of double serial #'s - I've seen them before for Turco (?) and others but never grabbed them.

Entertaining read... Rich Parent is a blast from the past, I still remember wincing when reading about him on the injury log one day: 'ruptured testicle and contusion of the scrotum, out 10-14 days'. Had to google him today to see what the story behind the injury was... apparently he took a MacInnis slapshot to the groin, ouch! I think i'd be out 10-14 years myself!

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
[that's all]

Wow - I didn't realize what a presence North Dakota had on this set. May have to pick up a few of these bad boys.

Joe, is it just those three that you want? I've got a spare Ulmer 0022/1500 if you want me to mail it to ya.


Kevin

 

[Moose#11]

so about 10-12 guys had decent NHL careers.with Justin Williams garnishing the lions share of accolades with multiple Cup wins and a Conne Smyth.if you asked me (or anyone else for that matter) back then who was the most likely future "Star" i doubt Williams would have been given a vote.a lesson to be learned by all those RC crazed speculators out there.btw,great job in researching this out.there are a few other rookie crops that could use the same dilligence.

 

[nybravest]

so about 10-12 guys had decent NHL careers.with Justin Williams garnishing the lions share of accolades with multiple Cup wins and a Conne Smyth.if you asked me (or anyone else for that matter) back then who was the most likely future "Star" i doubt Williams would have been given a vote.a lesson to be learned by all those RC crazed speculators out there.btw,great job in researching this out.there are a few other rookie crops that could use the same dilligence.

Gaborik was "the" guy from that year. Also I kind of remember that Williams was a decent name to pull that year.