The Grand Rapids Griffins signed Alex Kannok Leipert to an AHL contract on July 10th, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson posted a story about the Thai-born Kannok Leipert‘s unique hockey background:
Kannok Leipert, a defenseman who recently signed with the Grand Rapids Griffins comes to Western Michigan from Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, where he was born in 2000. Or, as the crow flies, about 8,500 miles.
His father, Tim, was a Canadian living in Thailand teaching English when he got married, and Alex lived there until moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, when he was five. But the hockey bug had bitten him before that.
”We visited Canada when I was two and a half,” Kannock Leipert said. “We went to a Regina Pats game and I just fell in love with it; I said I wanted to play hockey and that was it,” he told abbotsford.canucks.com.
Robinson also spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson about Kannok Leipert’s hockey chops, as well as his Muay Thai training:
“What it’s gonna do, it’s gonna create momentum for our team when it’s needed,” he said of Kannok Leipert’s physicality. “I’m sure he’s smart enough to know when it’s time, when it’s not time, and, I think we’re excited to have that type of element on our back end.”
Kannok Leipert has played both forward and defense in his career, but will stick to the blue line in Grand Rapids.
“His skating is completely fine,” Watson said. “He’s a defender. He’s gonna be hard in the corners, willing to end plays so we can get pucks out. And he’s gonna be on our penalty kill, so he’s gonna be a valuable asset to us who can eat minutes.”
Continued; I’m not certain whether Kannok Leipert will start the season in Grand Rapids or Toledo, but the 6,’ 201-pound right-shooting defenseman played in his fourth AHL season last year, skating in 59 games for the Bakersfield Condors and posting 11 points and 93 penalty minutes, so he’s got AHL credentials.
