Did you know that a former Peterborough U10s player is playing at the Winter Olympics in South Korea? D-man Alex Plante is currently playing for the Korean national team despite being born in Manitoba, Canada.
Alex played 10 games for the NHL Edmonton Oilers before moving through European leagues to play at Korean side Anyang Halla based in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Halla play in the Asian Hockey League and Alex has been with them for just over three seasons during which he gained eligibility to play for the Korean national side ……. “at the end of the day, when I put the Korean jersey on, this is the team that invested into me, into my family, and provided me with a career and good housing and a good life over here – that’s the team I’m thankful to be a part of.”
The Peterborough link came from his father, former Toronto Maple Leaf draftee Cam Plante (inset above) who played for Pirates from 1992 to 1996. During his stay here, sons Alex and Tyler were familiar sights around the rink and Alex was known to have played for Pirates youngest side.
In the early days of the Phantoms, Cam once looked to bring Alex over to play in Peterborough because of issues with his league back home but despite frantic searches through paperwork, Phantoms were unable to find the evidence of playing here that the EPL at the time needed to allow him in. He did have eligibility to play for Chelmsford Chieftains after the family moved there from Peterborough in 1996 for half a season but nothing came of that one !
As a footnote, Peterborough hockey did get a mention during the BBC coverage of today’s game featuring Korea so Alex has at least put us on the world hockey map !