Team Germany 2012
 

Since the new coach Kölliker is testing so many players, what do you think, who should be on the team for the upcoming world cup?

I think we've got several players who've got a chance to be on the final roster.

Players Kölliker has used this season: (I didn't include the players who played the two exhibition games against Russia)

Forwards:

Alexander Barta (Malmo)
Laurin Braun (Berlin)
Martin Buchwieser (Munich)
Simon Danner (Duesseldorf)
Jerome Flaake (Hamburg)
Garrett Festerling (Hamburg)
Philip Gogulla (Cologne)
Thomas Greilinger (Ingolstadt)
Patrick Hager (Krefeld)
Kai Hospelt (Wolfsburg)
Evan Kaufmann (Duesseldorf)
Marcus Kink (Mannheim)
Frank Mauer (Mannheim)
Alexander Oblinger (Nuremberg)
Daniel Pietta (Krefeld)
Matthias Plachta (Mannheim)
Andre Rankel (Berlin)
Patrick Reimer (Duesseldorf)
Sandro Schönberger (Straubing)
Felix Schütz (Cologne)
Kris Sparre (Ingolstadt)
John Tripp (Cologne)
Daniel Weiß (Berlin)
David Wolf (Hamburg)
Michael Wolf (Iserlohn)
Tobias Wörle (Iserlohn)


Defender:

Sinan Akdag (Krefeld)
Torsten Ankert (Cologne)
Constantin Braun (Berlin)
Benedikt Brückner (Straubing)
Christopher Fischer (Wolfsburg)
Nikolai Goc (Mannheim)
Frank Hördler (Berlin)
Florian Kettemer (Mannheim)
Benedikt Kohl (Wolfsburg)
Kevin Lavallée (Cologne)
Moritz Müller (Cologne)
Marco Nowak (Duesseldorf)
Florian Ondruschka (Straubing)
Felix Petermann (Munich)
Denis Reul (Mannheim)
Benedikt Schopper (Wolfsburg)
Christoph Schubert (Hamburg)
Tim Schüle (Nuremberg)


Goalies:

Danny aus den Birken (Cologne)
Patrick Ehelechner (Nuremberg)
Dennis Endras (HIFK)
Dimitri Kotschnew (Mytishchi)
Dimitri Pätzold (Hannover)
Jochen Reimer (Munich)
Niklas Treutle (Hamburg)


other notable players:

Jakub Ficenec (Ingolstadt)
Justin Krueger (Charlotte)
Korbinian Holzer (Toronto)
Marcel Müller (Toronto)
Darin Olver (Berlin)
Christoph Ullmann (Mannheim)

Do I miss someone? Does anyone think that one of our junior players (Rieder, Kühnhackl, Abeltshauser,...) has a chance of making the team?

This is my team at this point of the season:


Forwards:

Buchwieser, Flaake,, Gogulla, Greilinger, Hospelt, Kaufmann, Pietta, Rankel, Reimer, Schütz, Tripp, Ullmann, D. Wolf, M. Wolf

HM: Barta, Festerling, Mauer, Olver


Defender:

Braun, Fischer, Goc, Hördler, Kohl, Müller, Reul, Schubert

HM: Lavallée


Goalies:

Endras, Kotschnew, Pätzold

HM: Ehelechner, aus den Birken


Still, this team doesn't include any players from North America.

you guys miss Darin Olver. I don't understand why he wasn't nominated recently. He's already played two international DEB games last season. They could really need some good playmaking..

Yes, I forgot him. I think he's got a decent chance making the team.

Our own Lavalleé over our own Ankert? Pätzold over a huge bunch of goalies, almost including myself...? I can't follow. :P

I'm neither a Maple Leafs fan, nor an Oilers fan, therefore I don't use the term "I'm a homer". ;)

I think we have a pretty decent number of players performing at a similar level. Therefore, the key is to build a team with the best possible chemistry.

Now thats classy.... ;)

They'll likely have Ehrhoff, Hecht, Grubauer, Pielmeier, Holzer, Mueller and Krueger available from North America. Along with Goc and Sturm after the first round of the playoffs.

I doubt Greiss, Seidenberg and Sulzer will be available in this tournament. All 3 are on very strong teams this year and will likely have a good playoff run.

i doubt they will all be available. tired/injured/family/other will be the reason to decline the invitation for most. and in case of hecht i'd just be happy if he stays away from the team. :D
(but with the luck i usually have, not only hecht will be there, but m.wolf, greilinger and gogulla too. if that happens i hope they invite ficenec as well to make it a perfect nightmare. :help::laugh:)

grubauer and pielmeier don't have much of a chance IMO. i don't see a reason to invite a goalie who played on smaller ice all season when goaltending isn't a problem. greiss would have been the only reasonable goaltender from NA.

Hecht retired from national team service.

I am with you on Hecht, but as sturmthis pointed out he alrready retired from the national team, so no worries there. I would not mind M.Wolf and Gogulla on the team although I am not a big fan of either of them and believe that nowadays there are alternatives. I completely agree about Greilinger and Ficinec. I don't want either one on the team.

I would be thrilled to see Holzer, Ehrhoff, Mueller and Krueger on the team as well as Goc should he become available, any one of them would improve the team.

agreed. although i expected more of goc the last time he played for germany. but it's not like there are many good Cs in germany. somehow most forwards are Ws.

mueller i'm curious about because he always had a power-forwardish skillset, but tend to play soft in the DEL. but looking at his AHL success, i'd have to imagine that he learned how to use his strengths.

and on defense ehrhoff is a no-brainer and holzer/krueger would really improve the defensive zone play. and i have that feeling that germany will end up in their own zone a lot. ;)

I agree with that. I think Ehrhoff will be available (:( ) and he'd be the only star player on this team. I hope that he wants to play, he's our best player at the moment. I haven't read that Hecht retired from the national team, but he's having serious concussion problems, I don't expect him to play for Germany, anyway.

What's wrong with M. Wolf and Gogulla? Wolf and Gogulla are two of our best fowards, posting solid numbers in the last couple of years. I think both players are locks if they're healthy.

As for Greilinger, he's pretty talented and a good individual player, but I'm not the biggest fan of him, though. I don't like his work-ethic and I do see a chance that some of the younger players who work their ***** off could push him out of the roster.

It didn't get much attention when he did retire from Team Germany.

Hecht beendet DEB-Karriere

Okay thanks. :)

what do you think, could Kuhnhackl be invited for this year's IHWC ?

I would say Rieder has a better chance of getting invited because he is having a really solid season in the OHL this year and Kühnhackl missed a lot of games because of his suspension. They are both on goods teams that could go far into the playoffs and that wouldn't allow them to play. I don't think either player will get invited though because of age and the league they play in.

I agree. However, I'd love to see them both in a DEB uniform at least in some exhibition game just to see what they can do and how they have progressed. But as you pointed out, the chance of this happening are extremely slim.

Looks like Mueller and Holzer will be in the thick of the Calder Cup playoffs, and so will likely be unavailable for the Worlds this spring.

Any indication whether Flaake will be making the move to the Marlies next fall to join his countrymen?

Any of the AHL guys would be a lock for sure

Yeah that will be quite the blow. Holzer has become a very good defenseman and Mueller is a big body with skill. Both will likely be with the Leafs next season.

I suggested that the Leafs may sign Flaake in the offseason and the responses were negative. Many people think he'll continue his career in Germany rather than coming over, but I think with the transfer agreement that he'll come over to the AHL next season. His stats have improved big time since last season and apparently his puck protection is very good, which is something that is a must for a guy who isn't a great skater when playing in North America.

I guess we'll see for sure in the offseason.

Now that Sulzer has been traded he should be available. That means from North America Krueger, Sulzer, Ehrhoff and Hecht (I believe he doesn't play for the national team now?). If San Jose goes out early Greiss will be available and I expect that Goc and Sturm (whether or not he wants to) will also be available.

Doubt you'll see Seidenberg, Holzer or Mueller though. Maybe towards the end, but I doubt it.

Hecht retired from German national team.

He and Lewandowski are two most inproductive players in history of German NT:D

Some of the team has been named for the Euro Hockey Challenge vs Russia.

Bundestrainer Jakob Koelliker benennt Aufgebot für die Euro Hockey Challenge gegen Russland

Translation of the article


Pos. Nr. Name Firstname Date of Birth Stick Height Weight Team Int. Games

TH 1 Kotschnew Dimitrij 15.07.81 L 1,84 80 Atlant Mytishy/RUS 64
TH 32 Pätzold Dimitri 03.02.83 L 1,80 87 Hannover Scorpions 55

V 82 Akdag Sinan 05.11.89 L 1,90 95 Krefeld Pinguine 2
V 43 Petermann Felix 11.04.84 L 1,83 90 EHC München 42
V 3 Schüle Tim 09.09.90 L 1,80 85 Thomas Sabo 2
S 29 Barta Alexander 02.02.83 R 1,80 77 Malmö Redhawks/SWE 112

S 38 Buchwieser Martin 28.05.89 L 1,80 80 EHC München 9
S 50 Hager Patrick 08.09.88 L 1,77 83 Krefeld Pinguine 49
S 11 Lewandowski Eduard 03.05.80 L 1,87 94 Atlant Mytishy/RUS 105
S 98 Oblinger Alexander 17.01.89 R 1,91 98 Thomas Sabo 4
S 86 Pietta Daniel 09.12.86 L 1,84 90 Krefeld Pinguine 15
S 45 Wörle Tobias 01.08.84 L 1,77 80 Iserlohn Roosters 4

Final roster for the Euro Hockey Challenge named.

Tor: Danny Aus den Birken (Köln), Dimitrij Kotschnew (Mytishy/KHL), Dimitri Pätzold (Hannover);

Verteidigung: Sinan Akdag (Krefeld), Torsten Ankert, Kevin Lavallee, Moritz Müller (alle Köln), Christopher Fischer, Benedikt Schopper, Benedikt Kohl (alle Wolfsburg), Christoph Schubert (Hamburg), Tim Schüle (Nürnberg), Felix Petermann (München);

Sturm: Philip Gogulla, Felix Schütz, John Tripp, Alexander Weiß (alle Köln), Sebastian Furchner, Kai Hospelt (beide Wolfsburg), Alexander Barta (Malmö/SWE), Martin Buchwieser (München), Jerome Flaake (Hamburg), Patrick Hager, Daniel Pietta (beide Krefeld), Evan Kaufmann (Düsseldorf), Eduard Lewandowski (Mytishi/KHL), Tobias Wörle (Iserlohn), Alexander Oblinger (Nürnberg)

What happened to David Wolf? Is he injured or does Koelliker not deem him good enough? I figured he would be a lock alongside Flaake, given their chemistry, especially with so many players missing due to the playoffs.