Justin Kloos (born November 30, 1993) is an American professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

Forward. He is currently playing with

Leksands IF Leksands Idrottsförening is a Swedish ice hockey team from the town of Leksand in the region of Dalarna. The team plays in the top-tier league, SHL, after succeeding through the 2019 SHL qualifiers and thus earning promotion to the SHL. The c ...

in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He has previously played in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

with the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

and Anaheim Ducks.

Playing career

Junior

Kloos played for

Lakeville South High School Lakeville South High School (LSHS) is a high school located Lakeville, Minnesota, United States. To meet the needs of a growing population, in the early 2000s the district began construction of LSHS. LSHS enrolled students for the first time in ...

from 2007 to 2012. In 2011–12, his senior season, he helped his team make a Minnesota State Hockey Tournament appearance. He also scored 103 points (41G, 62A) in 31 games in his final season with the Lakeville South Cougars. In 2012 he was also named Minnesota Mr. Hockey. Kloos also played Junior hockey in the

USHL The United States Hockey League (USHL) is the top junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. The league consists of 16 active teams located in the midwestern United States, for players between the ages of 16 and 21. The USHL is strictly ...

(United States Hockey League) for the Waterloo Blackhawks in the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season. He finished second in the USHL with 87. Of those 87 points, 58 of them were assists, which is the second most in Waterloo history.

College

In 2013, Kloos played his first season with the

Minnesota Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

. In his freshman season he played in 39 games and scored 16 goals. With these 16 goals he became the first freshman to lead the team in goals since 2006–07 season. Along with the 16 goals, Kloos also tallied 16 assists. In the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

tournament Kloos scored the game-winning goal to send the Gophers to the NCAA Frozen Four. In the 2014-15 season, he also played in 39 games. He scored 13 goals and recorded 19 assists. He scored the game-winning goal in victory over

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

to secure the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

Championship. In his junior season (2015–16) he was named the team captain. On February 16, 2016 he was named the Big Ten's First star of the week after he netted two goal and two assists against Ohio State. In his senior and final season with the Gophers in 2016–17, Kloos matched his previous seasons totals in points with 43 in 38 games.

Professional

At the conclusion of the Gophers season and his collegiate career, Kloos as an unsigned free agent agreed to terms with home state club, the Minnesota Wild on a two-year entry-level contract on March 29, 2017. He immediately joined AHL affiliate, the

Iowa Wild The Iowa Wild are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, that began play for the 2013–14 season. The team plays at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, as the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. The team was f ...

to play out the remainder of the 2016–17 season on an amateur try-out basis. Kloos was called up to the NHL on October 23, 2017, and made his NHL debut on October 24, 2017. He played 8:38 minutes in his NHL debut against the

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

but was reassigned to the AHL the following day. In the 2018–19 season, Kloos continued in the AHL, leading the Iowa Wild in scoring with 12 goals and 30 points in 34 games. On January 16, 2019, Kloos was traded by the Minnesota Wild to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for

Pontus Åberg Pontus Åberg ( ; born 23 September 1993) is a Swedish professional ice hockey forward currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for Timrå IK in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He was drafted in the second round of the 201 ...

. With the conclusion of his contract with the Ducks approaching after the cancellation of the

2019–20 AHL season The 2019–20 AHL season was the 84th season of the American Hockey League. The regular season began October 4, 2019, and was officially cancelled on May 11, 2020. The 2020 Calder Cup playoffs, which was also cancelled, would have followed the con ...

due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. Kloos ended his tenure with affiliate, the

San Diego Gulls The San Diego Gulls are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL) that began play in the 2015–16 season. Based in San Diego, California, and affiliated with the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks, the Gulls play th ...

posting 30 points in 53 games. Kloos opted to embark on a career away from North America, agreeing to a one-year contract with Russian outfit,

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (russian: Торпедо Нижний Новгород) is a professional ice hockey club in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. It is a member of the Bobrov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League. The team's home arena is Trad ...

of the

Kontinental Hockey League The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs ba ...

(KHL), on June 8, 2020. In the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Kloos quickly transitioned to the larger ice, producing 11 goals and 20 points through 48 regular season games. As a free agent, Kloos moved to Sweden agreeing to a two-year contract with SHL club, Leksands IF, on June 4, 2021.

Career statistics

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kloos, Justing 1993 births American men's ice hockey centers Anaheim Ducks players Ice hockey players from Minnesota Iowa Wild players Living people Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Minnesota Wild players People from Lakeville, Minnesota San Diego Gulls (AHL) players Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod players Undrafted National Hockey League players Waterloo Black Hawks players