Perhaps fitting for a guy who hails from a nation with a famous multi-use army knife, Keanu Derungs can play both wings for the Victoria Royals. And also now for the Swiss junior national hockey team in the 2021 IIHF world championship.
鈥淸Derungs] is very versatile and plays both sides of the ice,鈥� said Royals GM and head coach Dan Price. 鈥淟ooking ahead, he is carving out a role for us as a top-six forward, and on the power play.鈥�
The 18-year-old native of Ilanz, Switzerland, displayed a developing touch around the crease and was named Royals top rookie in 2019-20 with 15 goals and 14 assists for 29 points in 57 games. With the start of the current Western Hockey League season delayed indefinitely due to the pandemic, Derungs has been playing on loan from the Royals to EVZ Academy of the Swiss pro second division, where he has three assists in 16 games.
The five-foot-11 Derungs鈥� previous international experience includes 16 games, with three goals and six assists, for the Swiss Under-17 team.
Switzerland is in Group A in Edmonton. That means Derungs will play sa国际传媒 鈥� which includes WHL Kamloops Blazers goaltender Dylan Garand from Langford and former BCHL Victoria Grizzlies captain Alex Newhook 鈥� in group play. The other teams in the group are Finland, Germany and Slovakia.
Each WHL team is allowed two import players. The Royals鈥� are Derungs and 20-year-old captain Phillip Schultz, who has represented Denmark twice in the world juniors.
Switzerland and Denmark are emblematic of the emerging second tier of hockey nations. The tier is headlined by Germany. It had three players, two in the first round, picked among the first 34 selections in the 2020 NHL draft. It also boasts the reigning NHL MVP Leon Draisaitl, who this week joined basketball鈥檚 Dirk Nowitzki as the only North American-based sportsmen to be named German athlete of the year, and first hockey player chosen for the honour. Draisaitl was the opposite side in a topsy-turvy turn in sports this year with soccer player Alphonso Davies of Bayern Munich named co-winner of the Lou Marsh Award as Canadian athlete of the year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a testament to how hockey is growing globally,鈥� said Price.
Derungs becomes the fourth Royals player to compete in the world junior championship since the club came to the Island in 2011-12. The undersized but highly mobile defenceman Joe Hicketts won gold with sa国际传媒 in 2015 at Toronto and placed sixth in 2016 at Helsinki. Forward Igor Martynov represented Belarus in 2018 and the forward Schultz played twice for Denmark, including in the 2019 tournament co-hosted by Vancouver and Victoria.
