The German juniors celebrate promotion to the top division in 2019.
photo: Fabien Baldino
The 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship will soon be upon us.
It hasn’t been played since 2019 and as other IIHF tournaments has been sorely missed by the international ice hockey community. The German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) probably missed it even more than others for good reason. Germany last participated in this tournament at its highest level in Switzerland in 2015. There, the nation was relegated by Latvia and then proceeded to spend four springs in the Division I tournament, first able to gain promotion in 2019. That set them up for a big 2020 tournament in which one of the nation’s best waves of players in recent years was going to be able to strut its stuff, including players such as current Ottawa Senator Tim Stutzle.
The cancellation of that tournament put a wrench in Germany’s recent junior level ascension (as Germany’s U20 team had also returned to Division I play in 2019) and proved a huge disappointment for a wave of young men who were looking to make their presence known on the international stage and for scouts across the planet.
“For our players born in 2002, the cancellation of the tournament definitely had an impact. They missed a World Championship and thus, a shot testing their metal against the best nations in their age group and present their talents against those of the world’s best players,” says head coach Steffen Ziesche, who is running the bench for the third time in the past five years. “It’s a lost chance to have gained incredibly important experience for both their hockey and personal development, and they’ll never get that back.”
The cancellation of the 2020 tournament wouldn’t prove to have an impact on this year’s group, but the lingering effects of the global pandemic certainly have. This and many other age levels. The country’s top junior circuits, the DNL, DNL2, and DL3, all kicked off their seasons in the fall, but were paused by mid-November. They never resumed play. Things were even worse for just about every amateur and youth league below that. Ultimately, waves of young players have missed an entire winter of being on the ice.
For the most talented players aged 16 through 18, there were some pro opportunities. For those who are located in areas where the sport is most competitive, some of the nation’s top young players were able to at least practice several times a week, always under strict guidelines. In other regions where the sport is but a novelty, many of the ice rinks were shut down completely, often seeing the ice be thawed out completely for the winter. All of this combined to make the establishment of this year’s U18 team quite a challenge.
“Putting this team together was something we had to do taking primarily sporting qualifications into consideration, even if we’ve had candidates who are out of game shape or have seen their development hit a roadblock,” explains DEB sporting director Christian Kunast.
There are those wondering what this winter will mean to the sport and its future. What does missing a whole season mean to a player’s development with respect to pro ambitions? Will that impact be felt most with kids aged, say, 9-13? How many kids may have lost interest and will simply quit playing hockey whatsoever, especially if things aren’t “back to normal” by the time the fall rolls around?
“The hit that long-term development has taken in light of the measures taken for Covid-related reasons is something we can’t possibly predict. At the moment, we’ve simply got to keep doing our homework and reinforce our efforts in continuing to produce new, talented players while also further developing the young players that we currently have with whatever tools are available,” adds Kunast.
Now, the German association certainly isn’t the only one out there that has been facing this issue, but each of the participants in this tournament seemed to have either had their top junior league carry out more or less a full season this past winter or found a spot for their top players in this age group in a pro circuit. This even applies for some of the smaller countries such as Belarus, Latvia, and Switzerland, to name a few. The most common answer in Germany ended up being one that saw what was likely a record number of players aged 16-18 playing pro hockey in one of the nation's three pro circuits known as DEL, DEL2 and Oberliga. And if these top talents weren’t in one of those three leagues, then they were with the Red Bull Academy program in Salzburg playing for the U23 Juniors team that competed in the Alps Hockey League with the second-tier teams from Austria and clubs from neighbouring Italy and Slovenia.
That means that many of these young men have been playing against established pro athletes in leagues that are much more physically demanding and fast-paced than anything they could have experienced at Germany’s junior level. It also means that many of them were playing a minimal number of minutes and seldom on special teams or late in the game when the game was on the line.
“We’re going to see just how much all the pro experience these players gathered is going to be of advantage throughout this tournament,” states coach Ziesche. “It can surely be an advantage for the player’s development, because alone the constant practising with a pro team is always demanding and beneficial. But practice is one thing and in-game action is another, especially if a player just isn’t getting the ice time he’s used to at the junior level. These guys will surely profit from this year of pro play over the long run.”
Indeed, but will it help Germany profit in this tournament?
At the end of the day, the decision-making process has clearly been considerably impacted by the coronavirus, nationwide lockdowns, the cancelled junior season, and now even the cancellation of several pre-tournament match-ups against Switzerland. Coach Ziesche has had his hands full in putting the team together that has arrived in Texas.
“It really isn’t easy putting this team together, because a large portion of the players coming into question have missed just about the entire season, much less any significant in-game action with competitive character. Team practices weren’t permitted or possible in many corners of Germany while athletes listed in pro team’s line-ups may have at least had some form of practice, but otherwise everything came to a standstill. In comparison to the other nations in this tournament, this is going to serve as a competitive disadvantage, even if the odd player here or there got to play in the DEL. The ice time and roles the players had are no comparison to what they’d have had in juniors, even if the level of competition were considerably higher.”
And much like in the weeks approaching the U20 this past winter, all these circumstances have robbed the team of some of its most important candidates, having led to a scenario where the team will be without forwards Haakon Hanelt, Roman Kechter, and Moritz Elias as well as defenseman Leo Hafenrichter. To put that in perspective, each of the three forwards, aged 18, 17, and 17 respectively, have spent just about the entire season in the DEL. Hanelt entered this season widely considered Germany’s top first-year eligible NHL draft prospect while Kechter arrived on the scene coming from Sweden’s cancelled junior league in a manner making many think he’ll be a big topic for the 2022 NHL draft. Elias shocked the German hockey landscape by showing up in the DEL for the Nuremberg Ice Tigers at the ripe young age of 16, even if his ice time was extremely limited and became more and more sparse as the season progressed.
Defenceman Hafenrichter saw several games of DEL action with Cologne as well as three contests with Bad Nauheim of the DEL2. He’s just 16 years old and is widely considered Germany’s top defensive prospect for the 2022 NHL draft. Hanelt injured himself in camp while the other three are believed to be out for Covid-related reasons. That’s four missing pieces to the puzzle that would likely have been lining up on the team’s top two lines.
The team
Despite all the difficulties, Germany will likely feature a young man in goal who saw 11 games of action with the Krefeld Penguins of the DEL. Nikita Quapp showed himself to be quite a talent, especially seeing as how the amount of shots he faced was considerable, thanks to playing behind the DEL’s statistically worst defense. Focused, poised, quick to rebound, and capable of the spectacular save here or there, Quapp has become a true candidate for the upcoming NHL draft and this tournament is one he’s surely hoping to use to show himself worthy of draft consideration. Simon Wolf got into a minimal amount of action for the Red Bull Academy junior squad while Luca Ganz, considered quite the talent in Germany’s junior circuit, saw next to no action this winter.
The defensive corps can actually sport five players who spent the season in the pro ranks to one degree or another, including Adrian Klein. The 17-year-old spent almost the entire season with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL after having been quite the sensation in the Oberliga the season before as a 16-year-old. He’ll surely be counted on to carry a good bit of the blueline responsibility in Texas. Michael Gottwald (Oberliga), Sandro Mayr (DEL2), Maxim Rausch (DEL2), and Sten Fischer (AlpsHL) also saw pro play this winter, even if none of them necessarily cracked their team’s top four. Rayan Bettahar, Marius Winkelmann, and Malte Krenzlin are among the players who saw precious little action this winter for their various junior programs.
Up front, the team has a number of players who could very well provide the necessary offence to get Germany into the tournament playoffs, none more than super prospect Julian Lutz. The 17-year-old spent this winter in the AlpsHL and was one of his team’s top scorers while also having seen time in the ICEHL and DEL. He’s the nation’s hottest current NHL prospect even though he won’t be draft eligible until 2022. Fast, powerful, intelligent, and ready to battle, the entire scouting community is looking forward to seeing how this young man presents himself in Texas.
He won’t be alone though as the very large Bennet Rossmy (DEL2), slick playmaker Sebastian Cimmermann (AlpsHL), defensively-adept Yannick Proske (DEL), and offensively gifted Luca Hauf (Oberliga) all held important roles for their respective pro teams this past winter and come in in top shape, each with plenty to prove. Winger Connor Korte is also looking to be a key contributor after a full season with Swiss club Davos’ U20 team, for which he pumped in 20 goals in 38 games. Kevin Niedenz (DEL/DEL2), Pascal Steck (DEL2), and both Thomas and Nikolaus Heigl (AlpsHL) also got in some minutes along the way, having been scorers in prior junior play. We’d be remiss not to mention that Robin Van Calster was held in very high esteem after a more than solid 2019/20 season, but like teammates Roman Zap and Yuma Grimm, saw action in little more than a handful of DNL games before the junior season was cancelled. Philip Feist of Red Bull Academy rounds things off and had himself a very strong, but short, season for the program’s U20 team.
Outlook
For hockey insiders, it’s clear that Group B will be a virtually impossible group for Germany to get out of, seeing as how the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, and host USA all have medal aspirations, with the latter three considered gold medal candidates. The experts will tell you that the Czech Republic is the team Germany has the best shot at beating, but the two face off in the very first game of the tournament.
Coach Ziesche will have some fairly prominent help on the bench as he is joined by Tobias Abstreiter, the U20 coach who headed the program’s most successful ever outing at a World Junior Championship this past winter. The DEB generally looks to have its coaching staffs at the U20 and U18 levels being homogenous, so as to establish a certain level of synergy and familiarity the players can be better fostered under. For Abstreiter, this tournament will go a long way in helping him plan for the next World Juniors.
“For me, it’s very interesting to be a part of this and to see how these young men will show themselves against this level of competition. Especially those who are in consideration for next year’s U20 squad,” denotes Abstreiter. “I’m looking forward to observing how the players deal with pressure and, in general, seeing the overall level of play we’ll be exposed to in this age group. We feel we’re going to be able to learn a lot about what works, what can work, and what we’re going to have to improve and work on moving forward.”
In essence, this tournament is one of preparation and learning for a German team that will not face relegation and which can hope to have a larger crop of players to choose from next spring, when the impactful circumstances of the global pandemic are hopefully a thing of the past. Only four players on this team will be eligible to play on next year’s squad, but this entire team can look forward to an experience that the last wave of players missed out on.
Ziesche and his staff will be doing everything in their power to give the team that feeling of being an underdog, able to build on the recent experience of the U20 team as a guiding light. But if this team is going to make the playoffs, it will need a good handful of players to step up to the plate and show the international community just what they’re made of.
It hasn’t been played since 2019 and as other IIHF tournaments has been sorely missed by the international ice hockey community. The German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) probably missed it even more than others for good reason. Germany last participated in this tournament at its highest level in Switzerland in 2015. There, the nation was relegated by Latvia and then proceeded to spend four springs in the Division I tournament, first able to gain promotion in 2019. That set them up for a big 2020 tournament in which one of the nation’s best waves of players in recent years was going to be able to strut its stuff, including players such as current Ottawa Senator Tim Stutzle.
The cancellation of that tournament put a wrench in Germany’s recent junior level ascension (as Germany’s U20 team had also returned to Division I play in 2019) and proved a huge disappointment for a wave of young men who were looking to make their presence known on the international stage and for scouts across the planet.
“For our players born in 2002, the cancellation of the tournament definitely had an impact. They missed a World Championship and thus, a shot testing their metal against the best nations in their age group and present their talents against those of the world’s best players,” says head coach Steffen Ziesche, who is running the bench for the third time in the past five years. “It’s a lost chance to have gained incredibly important experience for both their hockey and personal development, and they’ll never get that back.”
The cancellation of the 2020 tournament wouldn’t prove to have an impact on this year’s group, but the lingering effects of the global pandemic certainly have. This and many other age levels. The country’s top junior circuits, the DNL, DNL2, and DL3, all kicked off their seasons in the fall, but were paused by mid-November. They never resumed play. Things were even worse for just about every amateur and youth league below that. Ultimately, waves of young players have missed an entire winter of being on the ice.
For the most talented players aged 16 through 18, there were some pro opportunities. For those who are located in areas where the sport is most competitive, some of the nation’s top young players were able to at least practice several times a week, always under strict guidelines. In other regions where the sport is but a novelty, many of the ice rinks were shut down completely, often seeing the ice be thawed out completely for the winter. All of this combined to make the establishment of this year’s U18 team quite a challenge.
“Putting this team together was something we had to do taking primarily sporting qualifications into consideration, even if we’ve had candidates who are out of game shape or have seen their development hit a roadblock,” explains DEB sporting director Christian Kunast.
There are those wondering what this winter will mean to the sport and its future. What does missing a whole season mean to a player’s development with respect to pro ambitions? Will that impact be felt most with kids aged, say, 9-13? How many kids may have lost interest and will simply quit playing hockey whatsoever, especially if things aren’t “back to normal” by the time the fall rolls around?
“The hit that long-term development has taken in light of the measures taken for Covid-related reasons is something we can’t possibly predict. At the moment, we’ve simply got to keep doing our homework and reinforce our efforts in continuing to produce new, talented players while also further developing the young players that we currently have with whatever tools are available,” adds Kunast.
Now, the German association certainly isn’t the only one out there that has been facing this issue, but each of the participants in this tournament seemed to have either had their top junior league carry out more or less a full season this past winter or found a spot for their top players in this age group in a pro circuit. This even applies for some of the smaller countries such as Belarus, Latvia, and Switzerland, to name a few. The most common answer in Germany ended up being one that saw what was likely a record number of players aged 16-18 playing pro hockey in one of the nation's three pro circuits known as DEL, DEL2 and Oberliga. And if these top talents weren’t in one of those three leagues, then they were with the Red Bull Academy program in Salzburg playing for the U23 Juniors team that competed in the Alps Hockey League with the second-tier teams from Austria and clubs from neighbouring Italy and Slovenia.
That means that many of these young men have been playing against established pro athletes in leagues that are much more physically demanding and fast-paced than anything they could have experienced at Germany’s junior level. It also means that many of them were playing a minimal number of minutes and seldom on special teams or late in the game when the game was on the line.
“We’re going to see just how much all the pro experience these players gathered is going to be of advantage throughout this tournament,” states coach Ziesche. “It can surely be an advantage for the player’s development, because alone the constant practising with a pro team is always demanding and beneficial. But practice is one thing and in-game action is another, especially if a player just isn’t getting the ice time he’s used to at the junior level. These guys will surely profit from this year of pro play over the long run.”
Indeed, but will it help Germany profit in this tournament?
At the end of the day, the decision-making process has clearly been considerably impacted by the coronavirus, nationwide lockdowns, the cancelled junior season, and now even the cancellation of several pre-tournament match-ups against Switzerland. Coach Ziesche has had his hands full in putting the team together that has arrived in Texas.
“It really isn’t easy putting this team together, because a large portion of the players coming into question have missed just about the entire season, much less any significant in-game action with competitive character. Team practices weren’t permitted or possible in many corners of Germany while athletes listed in pro team’s line-ups may have at least had some form of practice, but otherwise everything came to a standstill. In comparison to the other nations in this tournament, this is going to serve as a competitive disadvantage, even if the odd player here or there got to play in the DEL. The ice time and roles the players had are no comparison to what they’d have had in juniors, even if the level of competition were considerably higher.”
And much like in the weeks approaching the U20 this past winter, all these circumstances have robbed the team of some of its most important candidates, having led to a scenario where the team will be without forwards Haakon Hanelt, Roman Kechter, and Moritz Elias as well as defenseman Leo Hafenrichter. To put that in perspective, each of the three forwards, aged 18, 17, and 17 respectively, have spent just about the entire season in the DEL. Hanelt entered this season widely considered Germany’s top first-year eligible NHL draft prospect while Kechter arrived on the scene coming from Sweden’s cancelled junior league in a manner making many think he’ll be a big topic for the 2022 NHL draft. Elias shocked the German hockey landscape by showing up in the DEL for the Nuremberg Ice Tigers at the ripe young age of 16, even if his ice time was extremely limited and became more and more sparse as the season progressed.
Defenceman Hafenrichter saw several games of DEL action with Cologne as well as three contests with Bad Nauheim of the DEL2. He’s just 16 years old and is widely considered Germany’s top defensive prospect for the 2022 NHL draft. Hanelt injured himself in camp while the other three are believed to be out for Covid-related reasons. That’s four missing pieces to the puzzle that would likely have been lining up on the team’s top two lines.
The team
Despite all the difficulties, Germany will likely feature a young man in goal who saw 11 games of action with the Krefeld Penguins of the DEL. Nikita Quapp showed himself to be quite a talent, especially seeing as how the amount of shots he faced was considerable, thanks to playing behind the DEL’s statistically worst defense. Focused, poised, quick to rebound, and capable of the spectacular save here or there, Quapp has become a true candidate for the upcoming NHL draft and this tournament is one he’s surely hoping to use to show himself worthy of draft consideration. Simon Wolf got into a minimal amount of action for the Red Bull Academy junior squad while Luca Ganz, considered quite the talent in Germany’s junior circuit, saw next to no action this winter.
The defensive corps can actually sport five players who spent the season in the pro ranks to one degree or another, including Adrian Klein. The 17-year-old spent almost the entire season with the Straubing Tigers of the DEL after having been quite the sensation in the Oberliga the season before as a 16-year-old. He’ll surely be counted on to carry a good bit of the blueline responsibility in Texas. Michael Gottwald (Oberliga), Sandro Mayr (DEL2), Maxim Rausch (DEL2), and Sten Fischer (AlpsHL) also saw pro play this winter, even if none of them necessarily cracked their team’s top four. Rayan Bettahar, Marius Winkelmann, and Malte Krenzlin are among the players who saw precious little action this winter for their various junior programs.
Up front, the team has a number of players who could very well provide the necessary offence to get Germany into the tournament playoffs, none more than super prospect Julian Lutz. The 17-year-old spent this winter in the AlpsHL and was one of his team’s top scorers while also having seen time in the ICEHL and DEL. He’s the nation’s hottest current NHL prospect even though he won’t be draft eligible until 2022. Fast, powerful, intelligent, and ready to battle, the entire scouting community is looking forward to seeing how this young man presents himself in Texas.
He won’t be alone though as the very large Bennet Rossmy (DEL2), slick playmaker Sebastian Cimmermann (AlpsHL), defensively-adept Yannick Proske (DEL), and offensively gifted Luca Hauf (Oberliga) all held important roles for their respective pro teams this past winter and come in in top shape, each with plenty to prove. Winger Connor Korte is also looking to be a key contributor after a full season with Swiss club Davos’ U20 team, for which he pumped in 20 goals in 38 games. Kevin Niedenz (DEL/DEL2), Pascal Steck (DEL2), and both Thomas and Nikolaus Heigl (AlpsHL) also got in some minutes along the way, having been scorers in prior junior play. We’d be remiss not to mention that Robin Van Calster was held in very high esteem after a more than solid 2019/20 season, but like teammates Roman Zap and Yuma Grimm, saw action in little more than a handful of DNL games before the junior season was cancelled. Philip Feist of Red Bull Academy rounds things off and had himself a very strong, but short, season for the program’s U20 team.
Outlook
For hockey insiders, it’s clear that Group B will be a virtually impossible group for Germany to get out of, seeing as how the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, and host USA all have medal aspirations, with the latter three considered gold medal candidates. The experts will tell you that the Czech Republic is the team Germany has the best shot at beating, but the two face off in the very first game of the tournament.
Coach Ziesche will have some fairly prominent help on the bench as he is joined by Tobias Abstreiter, the U20 coach who headed the program’s most successful ever outing at a World Junior Championship this past winter. The DEB generally looks to have its coaching staffs at the U20 and U18 levels being homogenous, so as to establish a certain level of synergy and familiarity the players can be better fostered under. For Abstreiter, this tournament will go a long way in helping him plan for the next World Juniors.
“For me, it’s very interesting to be a part of this and to see how these young men will show themselves against this level of competition. Especially those who are in consideration for next year’s U20 squad,” denotes Abstreiter. “I’m looking forward to observing how the players deal with pressure and, in general, seeing the overall level of play we’ll be exposed to in this age group. We feel we’re going to be able to learn a lot about what works, what can work, and what we’re going to have to improve and work on moving forward.”
In essence, this tournament is one of preparation and learning for a German team that will not face relegation and which can hope to have a larger crop of players to choose from next spring, when the impactful circumstances of the global pandemic are hopefully a thing of the past. Only four players on this team will be eligible to play on next year’s squad, but this entire team can look forward to an experience that the last wave of players missed out on.
Ziesche and his staff will be doing everything in their power to give the team that feeling of being an underdog, able to build on the recent experience of the U20 team as a guiding light. But if this team is going to make the playoffs, it will need a good handful of players to step up to the plate and show the international community just what they’re made of.