International Hockey Roundtable
First Japanese player to score in AHL signs in Austria
Yushiro Hirano, the first Japanese-born player to score a goal in the AHL, is taking his career to Europe. The 28-year-old right winger has signed a one-year contract with HC Innsbruck, the Austrian-based ICEHL club announced on Monday.
“I’m very excited and can hardly wait for the start of the season,” Hirano is quoted on the club’s website. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know the city, the club and my new teammates.”
Originally from Tomakomai, Japan, Hirano first went to Europe in 2014 when he spent a season playing for Tingsryds AIF – mostly for the club’s U20 team, but also six games for the men’s team in Sweden’s third-tier HockeyEttan, where he recorded three assists. The following season, it was to the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms, where he put up 46 points in 54 games.
Hirano has spent the past six seasons shuttling between the AHL and ECHL in the systems of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils. On January 23, 2022, Hirano became the first Japanese-born player to score a goal in the AHL when he connected just 10 seconds into the Abbotsford Canucks’ home game against the San Diego Gulls. He then scored another the following day.
All told, Hirano recorded seven goals and 17 points in 45 AHL games, and 203 points in 236 ECHL regular-season and playoff games. Last season, he was held pointless in four games with the AHL’s Utica Comets and had 67 points in 77 ECHL regular-season and playoff games for the Adirondack Thunder.
“I had the pleasure of coaching against Yushiroh’s team several times last season,” said Innsbruck head coach Jordan Smotherman, who was formerly the coach and GM of the ECHL’s Worcester Railers. “He stood out from the team every time. He is a tall, strong skater, physically strong and has a good shot. He was extremely dangerous on the power play. I hope it will be the same in Innsbruck.”
Internationally, he is Japan’s best offensive player when free to play. In both the 2022 and 2023 IIHF World Championship Division I Group B, Hirano was the tournament leader in goals and named Top Forward. He also scored this goal in 2023 against Serbia:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DNVna8mEqA[/embed]
When asked about the goal after the game, Hirano smiled and said, “That was a good goal, actually. Sometimes in practise, I do something similar to the goalie, that fake, but that was the first time in a game. That was awesome, yeah.”
His performance in Tallinn in 2023 helped Japan advance to Division I Group A in 2024 in Bolzano, where his team surely missed him as Hirano was committed to the ECHL playoffs. As a consequence of signing in the ICEHL, however, the playoffs will be finished before this year’s Division I Group A in Romania, and therefore Hirano will be available to help Japan.