Yushiro Hirano

Yushiro Hirano
Date of birth	August 18, 1995
size	184 cm
Weight	89 kg
position	striker
Shot hand	Right
Career stations
2011-2013	Shirakaba Gakuen High School
2014-2015	Tingsryd's AIF
2015-2016	Youngstown Phantoms
2016-2017	Tōhoku Free Blades
2017-2018	Kalmar HC
since 2018	Wheeling Nailers
since 2019	Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins

Yūshirō Hirano ( Japanese 平野 裕志 朗 , Hirano Yūshirō ; born August 18, 1995 , Tomakomai , Hokkaidō ) is a Japanese ice hockey player who has been under contract with the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League since January 2019 and in parallel has been used by the Wheeling Nailers in the ECHL since August 2018 .

Career

Yūshirō Hirano began his career in the ice hockey team of the Shirakaba Gakuen High School in Memuro , for which he was on the ice in Japan. After graduating from school, he went to Sweden in 2014, where he was active at Tingsryds AIF in Sweden in the top youth division J20 SuperElit and the third-class men's division 1 . After a year with the Youngstown Phantoms from the United States Hockey League , he returned to his Japanese homeland, where he played ice hockey for the Tōhoku Free Blades in the Asia League . In December 2017 he moved back to Sweden, where he met the Kalmar HC in the Division 2 , played, the fourth-highest division of the country and in 2018 with the club in the Hockeyettan rise.

Hirano moved to North America for the 2018/19 season and joined the Wheeling Nailers from the ECHL in August 2018 . In January 2019, he also received a contract from the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins , the cooperation partner of the Nailers from the higher-ranking American Hockey League (AHL).

International

For Japan, Hirano participated in the junior division at the U18 World Championships in Division I in 2012 and 2013 and the U20 World Championships in 2013 in Division II and 2015 , when he led his team onto the ice not only as the team captain, but also as the top scorer (together with the Kazakhs Arkady Shestakov ) and third-best scorer of the tournament behind the Kazakhs Nikita Michailis and Arkady Shestakov was also voted the best player of his team.

For the Japanese men's team he made his debut at the age of 19 years at the World Championship Division I 2015 . Also in 2016 and 2017 , when he was the best preparer of the tournament, he played in Division I. He also represented his colors in the qualification for the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang 2018 . At the Winter Asian Games 2017 he finished third with the Japanese behind Kazakhstan and South Korea .

Achievements and Awards

• 2013 Promotion to Division I, Group B, at the U20 World Cup, Division II, Group A.
• 2015 top scorer of the U20 World Cup in Division I, Group B
• 2017 bronze medal at the Winter Asian Games
• 2017 Best assists in the World Championship of Division I, Group B
• 2018 promotion to the hockey team with the Kalmar HC

Asia League statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
Regular season	2	40	23	25th	48	54
Playoffs	1	5	2	3	5	2

(Status: end of the 2017/18 season)

Web links

• Yūshirō Hirano at eliteprospects.com (English)
• Yūshirō Hirano at eurohockey.com