ATHABASCA — It’s a long way from Athabasca to Austria but a local hockey player hoisted the ICEHL (International Central European Hockey League) championship trophy over his head April 11.
Keegan Kanzig, 27, learned the fundamentals of the game in Athabasca before moving with family, then striking out on his own to follow his passion by moving to British Columbia.
“I grew up in Athabasca and I was 15 when I moved away to Fort Saskatchewan for a year and at 16 moved away from there to Victoria,” Kanzig said from his home near Calgary on May 20.
The move had him playing in the Western Hockey League (WHL) for the Victoria Royals and living with a billet family and from Victoria he was traded to the Calgary Hitmen for three-and-a-half seasons before going pro and spending time in California and New York state then playing for the Florida Everblades in the ECHL (East Coast Hockey League). From there he moved on to the Idaho Steelheads before joining the San Diego Sabres right before COVID-19.
"I played in San Diego kind of during the COVID year, so it was a short season then this last year, I went over to Austria,” he said.
Kanzig is a strength and conditioning coach in the offseason and had been contemplating playing in Europe, but not quite yet, when he got the call.
“I was thinking of staying in North America; I considered going to Europe at some point,” said Kanzig. “A former coach of mine from when I played in Victoria had just been hired in Salzburg with Red Bull and that team was looking for bigger defenseman who played a more physical role. A defensive defenseman who plays physical and the assistant coach Ben Cooper who I played with before threw my name in the mix.”
After some discussion with the general manager and both agreeing it sounded like a good fit, Kanzig packed up and headed to Austria.
“I was happy I got the call from them. I wasn't actively looking to go to Europe yet, but it was a good organization that I heard really good things about.”
And Kanzig is no stranger to winning championships and maybe more dubious accolades, like being the WHL’s most penalized player during the 2014-2015 season, but he also was in the 2010 Winter Games where his team won a bronze, helped win the 2018 ECHL Brabham Cup and the six-foot-six-inch defenseman would be a force to be reckoned without skates on.
“I use my height to my advantage,” laughed Kanzig.
Growing up Kanzig admired centre Joe Sakic who played for the Quebec Nordiques for seven years and another 14 with the Colorado Avalanche.
“As I got older and kind of fell into the defensive role more, Shea Webber was my favourite player for a long time,” he said. “(He’s) good defensively, toughness, a hard D-man to play against.”
And now Kanzig has an opportunity to keep brushing up on his German, the official language of Austria.
“I have an opportunity to go back to Salzburg," he said. "We'll be heading back there and hopefully we can get something similar to the season we had this year. We have a good number of returning players and I really enjoyed the experience so, I'm looking forward to getting back and having another great year.”
