Connecticut Chiefs Center Alejandro Apud De La Fuente is looking to become the first Mexican-born NHL player.
Alejandro was born in Mexico City, Mexico on September 12th, 2001, he and his family later moved to Monterrey when he was seven years old before eventually immigrating to the United States when he was 12.
His love of hockey began when an ice rink opened near his school and his father taught him and his sister how to skate, so one day when he was at the rink while his sister was figure skating, he stayed behind and watched the hockey team practice. He then asked his father to let him play and instantly fell in love with the game.
Before moving to the United States he traveled back and forth from Mexico to Texas to play for the McAllen Jr. Killer Bees and the Corpus Christi Jr. Ice Rays, then after moving to the U.S. at the age of 12 he played for the Arizona Bobcats U-13 and U-14 teams and the Junior Sun Devils U-15 and U-16 teams.
Some of the honors he received during his time playing midget and high school hockey were that he was named to the varsity D2 All-State first team by the Arizona High School Hockey Association (AHSHA) in the 2016-2017 season, then in the following season, he won a midget U-16 AA State Championship with the Jr. Sun Devils.
In 2018 his junior year of high school he moved away from home to continue his junior hockey career with the Louisiana Drillers of the North American Tier 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) where he played two seasons and registered 14 goals and 17 assists in 69 games played before advancing to his current team, the Connecticut Chiefs of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL).
At the end of this season, he was named to the EHL All-Academic team after graduating early from the Arizona State University (ASU) Prep Academy Digital Program with a WGPA of 4.33 Summa Cum Laude, a Latin phrase that translates to “with the highest distinction” meaning that he is very skilled both on and off the ice.
He hopes to continue his education at a D1 college such as Notre Dame or Cornell because of their Architecture and Civil Engineering programs, as he has said that those would be his dream careers if he wasn’t a hockey player, in fact, he took some college classes in Civil and Environmental Engineering through ASU’s digital program to get a preview of what his future majors would look like.
Some of his memorable on-ice achievements were playing in the 2018 IIHF U-18 Division 3 A World Championship where he won a silver medal and the 2019 IIHF U-20 World Junior Championship Division 2 Group B tournament representing team Mexico.
During his career, he has earned some high praise from his power skating coach Michael Hensdell and Rick Kozuback from international coliseums, Hensdell said “He is high energy and is one of the hardest working players that I have had an opportunity to coach” and Kozuback said, “He is physically very strong and hard to knock off the puck, he has excellent reach and a heavy shot “.
It will be fun to follow his career as he strives to become the first Mexican-born player to reach the NHL.
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