Yutaka Fukufuji

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JapanJapan  Yutaka Fukufuji Ice hockey player
Yutaka Fukufuji
Date of birth 17th September 1982
place of birth Kushiro , Japan
size 183 cm
Weight 90 kg
position goalkeeper
number # 44
Catch hand Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 2004 , 8th round, 238th position
Los Angeles Kings
Career stations
until 2002 Kokudo Ice Hockey Club
2002-2003 Cincinnati Cyclones
2003-2004 Kokudo
2004-2005 Bakersfield Condors
2005-2007 Reading Royals
2007-2009 Bakersfield Condors
2009-2010 Destil Trappers Tilburg
2010-2014 Nikko Ice Bucks
2014-2015 Esbjerg Energy
since 2015 Nikko Ice Bucks

Yutaka Fukufuji ( Japanese 福 藤 豊 Fukufuji Yutaka ; born September 17, 1982 in Kushiro , Hokkaidō ) is a Japanese ice hockey goalkeeper who has been under contract with the Nikkō Ice Bucks in the Asia League Ice Hockey since 2015 .

Career

Yutaka Fukufuji made his debut for the Kokudo Ice Hockey Club in the Japan Ice Hockey League in the 2001/02 season and was instant Japanese champions with his team. In the summer of 2002 he moved to North America to the Cincinnati Cyclones in the East Coast Hockey League . For this he completed nine games in the 2002/03 season before returning to his homeland for the following season, where he also stood between the posts nine times for his ex-club Kokudo in the newly founded multinational Asia League Ice Hockey , in the he was runner-up with his team. In addition, he and his team won the Japanese national championship again in the same year. He was then selected in the eighth round of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft at position 238 by the Los Angeles Kings , making him the first Asian-born and trained player to make the leap into the American professional league. For a short time, Taro Tsujimoto was believed to be the first Japanese to be drawn by the Buffalo Sabers in the 1974 NHL Amateur Draft . This is what the former General Manager of the Buffalo Sabers and avowed draft opponent Punch Imlach claimed . However, the claim turned out to be a joke by Imlach. Such a player never existed. He was sent to the ECHL farm team , the Bakersfield Condors , for the 2004/05 season , where he took over the position of regular goalkeeper. With 27 wins in 44 games, as well as an average of 2.48 conceded goals and a catch rate of 91.9 percent, he was able to convince.

In August 2005 he received an entry-level contract with the Los Angeles Kings, but has not yet been taken into the NHL squad. For the 2005/06 season , the Kings had a new farm team in the ECHL with the Reading Royals , where Fukufuji was the back-up goalkeeper. For two games he also moved to the Kings AHL farm team, the Manchester Monarchs . In the 2006/07 season , the Los Angeles Kings were followed by injury bad luck with their goalkeepers. Both regular goalkeepers Mathieu Garon and Dan Cloutier were injured at the same time and Fukufuji was called up for the first time in the Kings NHL roster. Barry Brust of the Manchester Monarchs took up the post of regular goalkeeper for the Kings in early December 2006 and Fukufuji moved up to the Monarchs squad and was finally brought into the NHL for the first time in mid-December because he played a game as a back-up goalie should sit on the bench. He was then sent to the Long Beach Ice Dogs in the ECHL, before joining the Manchester Monarchs on the AHL farm team a few days later. In January 2007 he was ordered back to the NHL squad. On January 13, 2007, Fukufuji was used as the first Japanese in an NHL game. At the beginning of the third third of the game against the St. Louis Blues , he was substituted on at 4-5. After a little more than seven minutes he conceded the 4-6, the Kings came up to one goal, but lost in the end with 5-6. Fukufuji only got five shots on goal and blocked four of them. Overall, Fukufuji was on the ice in four games for the Kings.

After the end of the season, however, he received no new contract from the Los Angeles Kings and went back to the ECHL, where he was regularly on the ice for his former team Bakersfield Condors for another two years. The Japanese international spent the 2009/10 season with the Destil Trappers Tilburg in the Dutch Eredivisie . He led this as a regular goalkeeper to the runner-up. For the 2010/11 season he signed a contract in his home country with the Nikkō Ice Bucks from the Asia League Ice Hockey, where he spent the next four years. In the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons he achieved the best catch quota of all goalkeepers in the Asia League. After a detour to Esbjerg Energy , with which he became Danish runner-up in 2015, he returned to the Ice Bucks.

International

For Japan , Fukufuji took part in the junior division of the U18 Junior B World Championship in 2000 , the U20 Junior C World Championship in 2000 and the U20 World Championship of Division II in 2001 and 2002 . In the senior division, he was in his country's squad at the World Championships in the top division in 2001 , 2002 and 2004 and the World Championships in Division I in 2010 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 , 2016 and 2017 . In 2010, 2014 and 2017 he was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament, and in 2014 he was also elected the best player in his team, which only narrowly missed promotion to the top division. In addition, he represented Japan at the Winter Asian Games in 2011 , where he and his team the silver medal behind Kazakhstan won, and in 2017 when the team from the land of the rising sun behind Kazakhstan and South Korea took bronze. He was also named the tournament's best goalkeeper in 2011. Also at the qualifying tournaments for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018 .

Achievements and Awards

International

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fukufuji becomes first Japanese player in NHL. In: nhl.com. Retrieved November 23, 2018 .
  2. ↑ oddpicks.com, The Fake NHL Draft Pick - Things You Might Not Know

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fukufuji, Yutaka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 福 藤 豊 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese ice hockey goalkeeper
DATE OF BIRTH 17th September 1982
PLACE OF BIRTH Kushiro-shi , Japan