In fact, he has two citizenships - American and Canadian. And his maternal ancestors once moved to Canada from Ukraine - that's where he got such a Slavic surname from. For the third year, hockey player Brandon Kozun has been living in Russia and stands for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.
The origins
He was born in 1990 in the American city of Los Angeles, but he became interested in hockey in the Canadian Calgary, where his family moved. Here he began to play for junior teams. At the age of 18, Brandon became the second most successful in the Western Hockey League, and the next year he won the “Bob Clark Trophy” - a prize that is awarded annually to the best goal scorer of the season using the “goal plus pass” system.
The brilliant game of the young striker could not fail to attract the attention of scouts from the NHL. In 2009, Brandon Kozun fell into the interests of a team from his hometown, “Los Angeles Kings,” and a year later he signed a contract with the Kings farm club, Manchester Monarks, playing in the American Hockey League.
AHL and NHL
For "monarchs" Kozun played four years. Manchester was separated from Los Angeles by four thousand kilometers: despite the fact that the local club regularly supplied its players to the “older brothers”, two cities were located on opposite ends of America.
Whether for this reason or for some other, but over all these years, Brandon Kozun has not played a single game in the NHL, although his performance in the AHL was not as impressive as at the junior level, but still quite stable. As a result, in the winter of 2013 he was given to the farm club of another famous team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Thus, the hockey player returned to Canada again.
In “Toronto Marlies,” the attacker showed himself well, and finally, in October 2014, Brandon Kozun made his debut in the NHL. In total that season, he spent twenty matches in the “maple leaves”, in which he scored two goals and gave two assists.
But the contract with “Toronto” by that time had ended, and Brandon, dissatisfied with the frequent presence on the bench in the NHL, moved overseas to the Finnish club “Jokerit”.
KHL
The Jokers played in the Continental Hockey League championship, and Brandon immediately became a solid base player. He helped the team from Helsinki break into the playoffs of the Gagarin Cup, and already next season Brandon Kozun in Lokomotiv from Yaroslavl, a more ambitious club, the contract with which he signed at first for one season.
But here Kozun has been speaking for the third year, he has been steadily scoring and giving away shows, and seems to be quite pleased with himself. He managed to play at the Winter Olympics in Korean Pyeongchang, where he became a bronze medalist in the Canadian team. He certainly would not have such an opportunity, if he had played in North America at that time.
Russia, USA and Canada
In an interview with the club publication of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, Brandon Kozun, who had already managed to get used to Russia, noted some features of life here in North America.
In our country, the hockey player noted, very few people speak English, unlike, for example, Finland itself, and therefore it was difficult for him to adapt at first. But here, in his opinion, there are a lot of beautiful girls and incredibly tasty cuisine, and Yaroslavl is a wonderful city. Brandon had no idea before that March 8 was not only his birthday, but also International Women's Day. He also remembered how incredibly surprised he was when he saw a man walking on a leash ... a duck in the center of St. Petersburg.
This, Brandon said, certainly you will not see either in the USA or in Canada. In hockey terms, he is even more comfortable playing here on wide venues. And certainly he likes that the coach of “Locomotive” Dmitry Kvartalnov completely trusts him, unlike the coaches from the NHL.
Well, it remains to wish the American Canadian success in his playing career, especially here in Russia.