I have been following the progress of several German players in Canadian Jr. Hockey and have been fairly impressed so far. I was very impressed with Rieder when I watched. By giving it a quick glance it appears they could be a very competitive team. Especially being in the far weaker of the two pools (USA, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Finland) I believe reaching the top 6 is a realistic goal. After watching the Swiss make a surprise run last year, I see no reason why they can not do the same. In fact on paper they would appear to be perhaps the better team, but will it come together?
Goalies:
Phillip Grubauer- Kingston OHL 91 u20
Mathias Niederberger- Metro Stars DEL and DNL 92 u18
Sebastian Kinader- Kolner DNL 92 u18
It seems they have a very strong number 1 in Grubauer who has obviously won a memorial cup(despite his dominant team) and plays against top notch opposition. it would appear that Niederberger who has spent some time in the DEL is the likely number two. Possibly giving them a solid second option. If there is anyone I am missing please let me know. Same goes with the F and D where my knowledge really starts to drift.
Very Young core potentially, but talented. I am completely ignorant of any solid 91 d man. I would love to hear of some.
Forwards-
Tobias Rieder- Kitchener OHL 93 u20 u18
Tom Kuhnhackl- Windsor OHL 92 u18 missed u20 injury
Mirko Hofflin- Quebec QMJHL 92 u20 u18
Norman Hauner-Kolner DEL/Penguins Ger2 91 u20
Thomas Brandl- Penguins Ger2 91 u20
Laurin Braun- Berlin DEL 91 u20
Matthias Plachta- Mannheim DEL 91 u 20
Bernhard Keil- Kamloops WHL 92 u18
Marcel Noebels- Seattle WHL 92 u18
Nicholas Latta- Sarnia OHL 93
I will stop there many more 92 forwards from the u 18 team. I am again interested in 91's who are unknown to me. Either way could be a talented and deep forward group.
I'd expect Niklas Treutle to be the backup. He played that role in the summer-tournaments and is getting DEL-games as well.
Marc El-Sayed and Predators' pick David Elsner should be other candidates on offense.
This team certainly has some of the best talent in a while. If there is one chance to make a run it certainly is this year. I'm not expecting it though. In the last few years, they either had the experienced team get back into the main group, only to have a young core next year and get relegated again, or surprise against favorites only to fail against those they should beat. Like getting 5 out of 6 points against USA and Slovakia, only to get relegated in the end.
I would assume that David Elsner will make the team in some bottom 6 role. He is a physical forward who was picked by Nashville in the 7th round of this years draft. He doesn't seem like the type of player who will score a ton of goals, but seems to be a hard working, checking, defensive, bottom 6 type of player. His style of game will be key if Germany wants to be competitive at the WJC.
Well, definitely there will be much tougher competition at WJC this year with Latvia and Austria replaced with Germany and Norway. And also relegation group will be very tough apart from who will be there.
Well, definitely there will be much tougher competition at WJC this year with Latvia and Austria replaced with Germany and Norway. And also relegation group will be very tough apart from who will be there.
Yup, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the Slovak's, Swiss or Finn's were relegated.
We (FINNS) have the best team in almost a decade, if everything goes really well we could win a medal.
I know you have Granlund, Pulkkinen, Rajala, Vatanen, etc. but the Finns have seemed to do quite poorly against the top teams in recent years. Although I don't believe they will actually be relegated two teams have to go and since they have a young team, they could go either way.
I really do not think the Finn's will be relegated, but I would not rule it out. I just really think it is going to be a great pool. Germany-Finland-Switzerland-Slovakia. Those games are going to be unpredictable really. Finland should be the team to mostly challenge the Americans, but you never know. The Germans have traditionally given the US trouble.
Will Eddy Rinke-Leitans be eligable to play for Germany in the WJC? If so he would be a big bottom 6 presence that Germany could definately use. I know he played for Latvia at some point though so I'm not sure if he'll be allowed.
Will Eddy Rinke-Leitans be eligable to play for Germany in the WJC? If so he would be a big bottom 6 presence that Germany could definately use. I know he played for Latvia at some point though so I'm not sure if he'll be allowed.
played for latvia in a IIHF tournament. so he is basically suspended 4 years from playing for germany. i think he doesn't have the latvian citizenship anymore, only the german.
I read an interview with Rinke some time ago, where he said he wanted to commit to the German national teams after having served the 4 year suspension for playing for Latvia in the 2009 U-18 WJC.
The final camp will be Dec 15-18 in Germany. The team will fly over on the 18th and then add the CHL players.
Here are the team stats from this year's "DEB Pokal" tournament where the U20 competes against 3rd and 2nd league competition and has made it to the semifinals (Dec 14). It's a safe bet that Treutle will back up Grubauer unless there'll be an injury.
Hey guys I've just looked at the roster for this years tournament on the IIHF website, and I've noticed Tom Kuhnhackl isn't on it, I was under the impression he was your best player? Does anyone know the reason for this?
Absolutely no idea. German press doesn't really mention those kind of events, and the official site of the DEB probably won't even mention this tournament until 2012 has begun, you simply can't get any up to date information on roster decisions here.
If I had to guess, it's either he's injured from the play that got him suspended or IIHF doesn't allow a player to play in one of their tournaments if he's suspended in a member-league. Both are based on absolutly nothing though.
