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Testwuide becomes Korean
Testwuide becomes Korean
U.S.-born player may represent his new country
Mike Testwuide, here in an exhibition game with the Philadelphia Flyers at the New Jersey Devils, may represent Korea in the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B. Photo: Christopher Pasatieri / Getty Images
The American forward was born in Vail, Colorado. After graduating at Colorado College, Testwuide played in the Philadelphia Flyers organization for four years, which he spent with the AHL affiliate Adirondack Phantoms before being traded to the Flames organization in 2013 playing a couple of games for their AHL affiliate Abbotsford Heat. In 170 AHL games he scored 34 goals and 39 assists.
Testwuide moved to Korea for the 2013/14 season playing for Anyang Halla. In 94 games in the Asia League he recorded 60 goals and as many assists. He was third in scoring for this year’s Asia League runner-up behind Brock Radunske, who was naturalized two years ago, and Ki Sung Kim, who recently became the first Korean-trained player who was named MVP of the Asia League.
After having played in Korea for two full hockey seasons, a minimum of 16 months and receiving his Korean passport, Testwuide could potentially play at the upcoming 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group B in Eindhoven where Korea will battle for promotion back to the Division I Group A against Croatia, Lithuania, Great Britain, host Netherlands and Estonia.
Testwuide would be the fourth North American-born player on the team after Anyang Halla teammate Radunske and Canadian-born cousins Michael Swift and Bryan Young, who play for Asia League rival High1 Chuncheon.
After increasing ambitions in the host country of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea also hired a coaching staff with NHL playing experience last year with head coach Jim Paek and assistant coach Richard Park, who were both born in Seoul but grew up in North America.
Continue readingCaroline Park, a Canadian born in Brampton, Ontario of Korean heritage, also obtained Korean citizenship.
Besides playing hockey, the 26-year-old was also acting and has appeared in Canadian TV shows "Degrassi: The Next Generation" and "Naturally, Sadie". After playing her junior hockey with the Mississauga Junior Chiefs, Park joined Princeton University in the U.S. in 2007. In four seasons she played 102 NCAA games as a forward scoring three goals and notching ten assists, and was named to the ECAC All-Academic Team in 2010 and 2011.
After graduating, Park worked in clinical research in New York and recently had a stint as an assistant coach with the Korean women’s national team. She may potentially also be able to play for the national team in the future if she decides to move to Korea and pursue her hockey career in her adopted country.
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