Denis Akimoto

Denis Akimoto
Date of birth	August 20, 1991
size	180 cm
Weight	90 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
2007-2010	Saitama Sakae High School
2010-2013	Tōyō University
2013-2016	Nippon Paper Cranes
2016-2017	EHC Timmendorfer Strand 06
since 2017	Nippon Paper Cranes

Denis Akimoto ( Japanese 秋 本 デ ニ ス , Akimoto Denisu ; born August 20, 1991 ) is a Japanese ice hockey player who has been under contract with Nippon Paper Cranes from the Asia League Ice Hockey since 2017 .

Career

Denis Akimoto, son of a Russian woman and a Japanese man, grew up in Khabarovsk in the far east of Russia. He attended Saitama Sakae High School , where he played on the ice hockey team. After graduating from school, he played from 2010 to 2013 for the team at Tōyō University , where he was studying at the time. After graduating, he moved to the Asia League Ice Hockey to Nippon Paper Cranes in 2013 , with which the defender was able to win the ALIH title straight away. In 2016 he moved to Germany for a year at EHC Timmendorfer Strand 06 , for which he played in the Oberliga Nord . Then he returned to the Cranes in Kushiro .

International

For Japan Akimoto took part in the junior division of the U18 World Cup in 2009 and the U20 World Cup in 2010 and 2011 in Division I. He was also on the ice for the East Asians at the 2011 Winter Universiades in Erzurum, Turkey and in 2013 in Trentino , Italy .

He was nominated for the first time for the 2014 World Cup in Division I for the Japanese men's team . In his very first world championship game, he scored the surprising 2-1 winner seven minutes before the end of the match against the Olympic seventh and favorite for promotion to the top group Slovenia . He nourished the hopes of the Japanese ten years after relegation for the first time back to the highest level of the ice hockey world championships. In the end, the team narrowly missed promotion due to a 4-5 defeat after a penalty shoot-out in the last game against Hungary .

Achievements and Awards

• 2014 won the Asia League Ice Hockey with the Nippon Paper Cranes

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Asia League regular season	4th	132	14th	38	52	120
Asia League playoffs	2	12	1	1	2	10
Major league regular season	1	41	11	19th	30th	101
Major League Playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-

(Status: end of the 2017/18 season)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} "Japan writes history v Slovenia" at www.iihf.com, accessed on July 27, 2014.
2. ↑ 秋 本 デ ニ ス（AKIMOTO DENIS）. In: Nippon Paper Cranes. Retrieved July 27, 2014 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ Profile ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at www.universiadetrentino.org, accessed July 27, 2014. 

Web links

• Denis Akimoto at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Denis Akimoto at eurohockey.com