Hometown: Sherwood Park, Alberta
Major: Business Administration
DOB: May 20, 1990
Ht: 6'0”
Wt: 200
Parents: Gerald & Lorna Kunyk
Grandparents: Vern & Margret Kimber
Siblings: Kellen and Kelsey
Last Team: Sherwood Park Crusaders, Alberta Junior Hockey League
Favorite Coach: Ross Kenny – Sherwood Park Crusaders, AJHL
Most memorable hockey moment: Winning CJHL player of the year. (The CJHL consists of all Junior hockey leagues in Canada)
Type of player: Offensive minded playmaker
Hobbies: Golf, roller-hockey, wakeboarding
On ice awards: CJHL player of the year 2010; AJHL MVP 2010, World Jr. A Challenge
All-Star team 2009
Favorites…
Food: Mozzarella sticks
TV Show: Entourage
Movie: Back to the Future I, II, III
Type of Music: Rock
Most people don't know: I'm addicted to lip chap (lip balm)
Pre-game ritual/superstitions: Treat it as a normal day
NHL Player you emulate: Ales Hemsky, Vancouver Canucks because he's fun to watch
What's on your iPod? Swedish House Mafia, Billy Talent, Metallica, AC/DC
Favorite Quote: “You got to risk it, to get the biscuit”
Celebrity you'd like to meet: Ellen Degeneres
Cody Kunyk joins the Alaska Nanooks hockey team after finishing an impressive junior hockey career with the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. In three years with the Crusaders, Kunyk posted 183 total points: 15 goals, 14 assists for 29 points in 2007; 28 goals, 38 assists for 66 points in 2008; and a completely balanced attack of 44 goals and 44 assists for 88 points in 2009. Kunyk's impressive season resulted in him being named as the Canadian Junior Hockey League player of the year. The CJHL consists of every junior A league in all of Canada.
Kunyk also boasts success on the international stage. During the 2009 World Jr. A Challenge he led all scorers with 5 goals and 5 assists. His offensive production was enough to get him named to the tournament All-Star team. The World Junior A Challenge is a week long tournament consisting of the best players from Canada West, Canada East, the United States, Russia, Sweden, and Belarus. Past leading scorers of the Jr. A Challenge include Mike Cichy in 2008 (North Dakota), Mike Connolly in 2007 (Minnesota-Duluth), and Kyle Turris in 2006 (Phoenix Coyotes).
Although Fairbanks may be new to Kunyk, he will be playing with a familiar face in sophomore forward
Nik Yaremchuk. The two were teammates in Sherwood Park during the 07-08 and 08-09 seasons. During those two seasons alone Yaremchuk put up some impressive numbers of his own: 29 goals and 40 assists for 69 points in 2007, and then 36 goals and 43 assists for 79 points in 2008.
Kunyk's collegiate debut at the Patty Ice Arena saw him put up 2 goals and an assist in a 9-0 exhibition win against the University of Windsor Ontario. His regular season debut was at the Kendall Classic in Anchorage where he netted a goal against Air Force. A day later he posted the Nanooks lone goal in a 3-1 loss against #2 ranked North Dakota.
The Nanooks open their CCHA conference play this weekend by traveling to East Lansing, MI to take on perennial powerhouse Michigan State – a Spartan team who tied and beat one of Hockey East's best, Maine, last weekend. If Alaska hopes to contend for a CCHA title this season, they will be hoping for some of the puck luck and offensive production Kunyk has been known for in the past.
