Quote:
Originally Posted by leftofcenter
Say you were the architect of the German National team and were given free reign and good money - what would you do to build an elite program and powerhouse team? (Of course trying to be realistic, you have to do this within a fussball/football/soccer dominated Germany).
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Quite simple: make a program much like the USNDTP. That is, take the internat style programs like the ones in Mannheim, Cologne and Berlin and take it to a national level. Take the best 16-18 year olds in the nation, put them in an internat schooling atmosphere and have them working intensively 11 months a year, both on and off the ice.
Then have them playing games against 2e Bundesliga and Oberliga teams as well as junior teams in Switzerland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A tour of Scandinavia wouldn't be bad either.
Scouting, dedication and willing parents would have to participate, but it'd be a real good way to centralize the talent pool and bring things to a point where Germany not only completely and finally establishes itself as a top 8 hockey nation, but might also lead to German kids knocking more predominantly on NHL doors.
