LAFC’s Korean megastar Son Heung-min isn’t the only Asian athlete taking his talents to Southern California, as the Kings signed Japanese forward Kenta Isogai to a two-year, minor-league contract Wednesday.
Isogai, 20, was born in Nagano, six years after the Czech Republic’s historic Olympic triumph in his hometown. While this deal sets him on track to skate out the next two seasons in the minors – the Kings’ AHL affiliate is the Ontario Reign and their ECHL club is the Greenville Swamp Rabbits – Isogai could make history if he were to make the NHL by being the league’s first Japanese-born skater.
Only one player born in Japan has competed at the highest level, Hokkaido’s Yutaka Fukufuji, a goalie who played in four games for the Kings during the 2006-07 season. Though his NHL experience was rather limited, Fukufuji remains active in the Asia League at age 42.
Fukufuji was the first Japanese goalie ever drafted and just the second Japanese player taken, though 1992 Montreal Canadiens selection Hiroyuki Miura never laced up his skates for an NHL contest.
The Kings also featured what is believed to be the only NHL regular with Japanese citizenship, defenseman Jordan Spence. He was born in Australia to a Japanese mother and lived in Japan until age 13, when his family migrated to Canada. Spence was traded at this year’s entry draft to the Ottawa Senators, but played in 150 games over the past two campaigns for the Kings.
Some players of Japanese descent have made an impact in the NHL, none deeper than that of Paul Kariya, whose father was born in a British Columbian internment camp during World War II. As a Duck, Kariya would become the first of two NHL captains of Japanese descent – Montreal’s Nick Suzuki is the other – and later became the first player of Asian descent to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
While Isogai was undrafted, he has toiled diligently in Japan, Russia, Austria and, for the past five years, North America. His journey took him to the Western Hockey League for the past two seasons, where he put up 166 points in 123 games and 25 points in 16 playoff games.
Perhaps generously listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, Isogai thrives not only on speed and skill, but also tenacity and fearlessness. He was an invitee at Kings development camp in July and has now played his way into a firm spot within the lower levels of the organization.