3 Belleville Bulls to Lead the Ontario Hockey League in Scoring
Education3 Belleville Bulls to Lead the Ontario Hockey League in Scoring
The Belleville Bulls entered the Ontario Hockey League for the 1981-82 season. The team has enjoyed success with two Robertson Cup appearances and two entries into the Memorial Cup tournament. Three times in Belleville’s OHL history, a team player has won the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy as the OHL’s points leader during the regular season.
In 1984-85, Dave MacLean led the OHL with 154 points on 64 goals and 90 assists in 63 games. His goals, assists and points totals from that season remain as team records. MacLean finished ten points ahead of the number 2 scorer, Wayne Groulx of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
Dave MacLean played in the OHL from 1981-82 to 1984-85, beginning with the Oshawa Generals and coming over to Belleville in a trade during his second season in the league. In his final two seasons, he scored 58 and 64 goals.
MacLean was taken by the Hartford Whalers in the fourth round of the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, 64th overall. He played just two years of professional hockey after graduating from the OHL, one in the AHL and one in the IHL. This is reflective of the top ten scorers in 1984-85 with only Dave Lowry of the London Knights moving on to a significant NHL career. Lowry played over 1000 NHL games with the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames.
In 2000-01, Kyle Wellwood of the Belleville Bulls led the OHL with 118 points on 35 goals and 83 assists in 68 games. He finished two points ahead of Jason Spezza. Ironically, the following season would see Wellwood traded to the Windsor Spitfires in exchange for Spezza.
Kyle played in the Ontario Hockey League from 1999-00 to 2002-03, starting with the Bulls and finishing with the Spitfires. He was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2001 fifth round of the NHL Entry Draft, 134th overall. Wellwood is currently a member of the Winnipeg Jets after playing with the Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and San Jose Sharks.
In 2001-02, Nathan Robinson led the OHL with 110 points on 47 goals and 63 assists in 67 games. He finished two points ahead of Mike Renzi and five points ahead of Jason Spezza as the Bulls occupied the top three positions.
Robinson played in the OHL from 1998-99 to 2001-02, all with the Belleville Bulls. Undrafted, Nathan was picked up as a free agent by the Detroit Red Wings after the OHL. In total, Robinson has played in seven NHL games, five with Detroit and two with the Boston Bruins. Nathan has played in Europe since the start of the 2006-07 season. This past year, he played with Adler Mannheim of Germany’s DEL and Blues in Finland’s SM-Liiga. This season, he is in Austria with the Vienna Capitals of the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga.