Forward Kohei Sato becomes the second player from Japan in the ECHL after joining Orlando for the 2024-25 season.
The Orlando Solar Bears have announced forward Kohei Sato has agreed to terms on an ECHL Standard Player Contract for the 2024-25 season.
Sato, 27, is the second native Japanese player to sign in the ECHL this offseason, joining Yuki Miura of the Iowa Heartlanders.
The 6-foot-1, 187-pound left-shooting forward comes to the Solar Bears after spending the 2023-24 campaign with the Belfast Giants of the EIHL, based in the United Kingdom, and the 2022-23 season with KeuPa HT and JoKP of Metsis (Finland).
In his two professional seasons, Sato tallied 56 points (28-28-56) in 91 regular-season games.
Internationally, Sato has competed for the Japan Men’s Ice Hockey National Team and medaled three times at the Division 1 (B) World Championships in 2019 (Bronze), 2022 (Silver), and 2023 (Gold).
Sato played five seasons of NCAA Division I College Hockey at University of New Hampshire (2017-21) and Bentley University (2021-22). In 135 games, he scored 41 points (15-26-41).
While playing for the North Iowa Bulls during the 2015-16 season, Sato led the team to an NA3HL championship and was voted to the All-Tournament Team after scoring 17 points (9-8-17) in 19 playoff games.