Dustin Willhoft - Rögle BK, J18 Region (2025 Draft)

[GermanSpitfire]

Dustin Willhöft - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Dustin Willhöft, 2007-01-09 Kohtla-Järve, EST Germany. Most recently in the undefined with Jungadler Mannheim U20. Complete player biography and stats.

www.eliteprospects.com

Apart of the strong 2007 born class from Germany, Willhöft is a forward that is playing in the Swedish hockey system. Small, but He is a fantastic skater and has good puck skills, he likes to drive wide and attack from the wing with speed. He has a dangerous shot just above the has marks. Along with his skating, he has an excellent motor. This combination of strenghts makes him an intriguing player going forward. Willhöft is still a real raw player and is a guy I am excited for going forward.

He is #7 in the clips below.

Click to read more...

 

[Maverick41]

This thread is overdue for a little bump.

Willhöft continues to develop pretty well. He is so quick, agile and elusive. If only he was a tad bigger. However, he does not shy away from contact and is willing to take a hit to make a play. His vision, playmaking ability as well as puck- and stickhandling are top notch.

His defensive game needs a little work, but some weird brain farts aside he is at least trying and willing to put in a defensive effort, and one thing he is pretty good at, are takeaways. He uses his quickness and agility to steal pucks and then transition quickly from defense to offense.

It's really a joy to watch this kid play.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

For those that aren’t aware, he looks like a smaller Tim Stützle out there, and many of us German‘s have noticed this the past couple years.

Now, not saying that’s what he’ll become, that’s unfair to Willhöft, just a stylistic comparison - but if he can come close to becoming even a poor man’s Stützle - we would be ecstatic .

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Could he be a first round pick or is that too high?

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Could he be a first round pick or is that too high?

At the same age, many of us didn’t think Stützle could be a first rounder. He very well could be, but don’t get your hopes up too much - at this point we’d be happy if he even gets drafted.

He plays for Rögle and they seem to hold him in high regards given they gave him a couple J20 games last season, something they seldom do for kids that young, let alone imports. He passes the eye test, but the numbers aren’t as fantastic as you’d want for a kid that could be as talented as Willhöft could become.

It’s a wait as see game now, he has the talent but German prospects have been flaming out during their draft years as of late.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

At the same age, many of us didn’t think Stützle could be a first rounder. He very well could be, but don’t get your hopes up too much - at this point we’d be happy if he even gets drafted.

He plays for Rögle and they seem to hold him in high regards given they gave him a couple J20 games last season, something they seldom do for kids that young, let alone imports. He passes the eye test, but the numbers aren’t as fantastic as you’d want for a kid that could be as talented as Willhöft could become.

It’s a wait as see game now, he has the talent but German prospects have been flaming out during their draft years as of late.

Yeah, that’s a little sad. I’ve definitely noticed that. After the 2019 and 2020 prospects, I was expecting Germany to start becoming better and it just hasn’t happened yet. Admittedly a small sample of like 3 drafts, but Slovakia has been the country that’s stepped up as opposed to Germany. I thought Germany with their sporting history and the financial resources the country has would start turning them into the best of the non top 5-6 countries within about 10-15 years, but we’re still talking about a short span of time since and that can still happen.

 

[Antiillafire]

Just saw this thread and I really liked him against Slovakia (only u17 game for Germany I saw). With Slovakia missing most of their top players I was focused a little more on the other teams than I would usually be and Willhoft stood out for sure.

He’s a little small, I’m not sure he’s even 5 foot 9 (EP listing), the Slovak team had a lot of sub 5 foot 9-10 forwards and he looked smaller than them. Still electric with the puck, and generates many chances for himself and his teammates. He seems to zip around the ice, really good feet. His line got caught a few times in the defensive zone but when the puck was recovered were really good in transition.

If he grows a little more we could be looking at a serious top prospect here. It’s still a long while until 2025 draft but I’ll be keeping an eye on what he does this year. Would be fun to see this German 07 group to be at the U18 Worlds, they have to be favorites for promotion? The 06 group looks better than any of the others in Div.1

 

[pgfan66]

At the same age, many of us didn’t think Stützle could be a first rounder. He very well could be, but don’t get your hopes up too much - at this point we’d be happy if he even gets drafted.

He plays for Rögle and they seem to hold him in high regards given they gave him a couple J20 games last season, something they seldom do for kids that young, let alone imports. He passes the eye test, but the numbers aren’t as fantastic as you’d want for a kid that could be as talented as Willhöft could become.

It’s a wait as see game now, he has the talent but German prospects have been flaming out during their draft years as of late.

Stützle was definitely talked about as a top 10-15 player at Willhöft’s age.

 

[Maverick41]

Just saw this thread and I really liked him against Slovakia (only u17 game for Germany I saw). With Slovakia missing most of their top players I was focused a little more on the other teams than I would usually be and Willhoft stood out for sure.

He’s a little small, I’m not sure he’s even 5 foot 9 (EP listing), the Slovak team had a lot of sub 5 foot 9-10 forwards and he looked smaller than them. Still electric with the puck, and generates many chances for himself and his teammates. He seems to zip around the ice, really good feet. His line got caught a few times in the defensive zone but when the puck was recovered were really good in transition.

If he grows a little more we could be looking at a serious top prospect here. It’s still a long while until 2025 draft but I’ll be keeping an eye on what he does this year. Would be fun to see this German 07 group to be at the U18 Worlds, they have to be favorites for promotion? The 06 group looks better than any of the others in Div.1

I don't know how strong the other teams at the U18 WJC Div 1a will be this year, but I would expect our 06s with some help from the top 07s to win promotion, if I had a little more faith in our coaching.
Will be interesting to see who the coach will be, but in the past our coaching wasn't exactly helping our efforts to get decent results at these tournaments.

As for Willhöft, I hope he will make the WJC team unlike the Hlinka. His lack of size is obviously a concern, but he is not afraid of taking a hit, to make plays.
Of course that could turn from a strength into a problem, if he gets hurt once the opponents get older and bigger and hitting becomes a bigger part of the game.
I think he has the skill and talent to be a mid-to-late first rounder, if he keeps developing the way he has been so far, but there is obviously no guarantee for this. I am glad he is playing in Sweden because he will be facing tougher competition and get used to a higher level of play than he would if he played in Germany, like some of the others.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Stützle was definitely talked about as a top 10-15 player at Willhöft’s age.

I remember being very reserved in Stützle‘s U16 season, it wasn’t until he destroyed the DNL U20 when he was playing at tournaments for the U20 team - the season that Willhöft is currently going into that I started to think that he was going to be a first rounder.

Perhaps it was only me but that’s how I remember recalling Stützle from the time.

 

[Maverick41]

I remember being very reserved in Stützle‘s U16 season, it wasn’t until he destroyed the DNL U20 when he was playing at tournaments for the U20 team - the season that Willhöft is currently going into that I started to think that he was going to be a first rounder.

Perhaps it was only me but that’s how I remember recalling Stützle from the time.

I am not entirely sure about this, but I think I recall Stützle getting more traction at this point and being considered by a number of people as a likely first rounder, and by a few even as a potential top 10 pick, but I don't know if that was the prevalent opinion yet.

I think I was still a little higher on Lukas Reichel at this point or I had only recently switched from Reichel to Stützle as my top prospect from Germany.

Anyway, Willhöft still has a lot of time, to either climb the rankings or go the other way, and Stützle seems like an unfair comparison. Even if it makes some sense stylistically. If Willhöft can ever become as strong as Stützle, so he can keep playing a similar style going forward, I would be very happy.

 

[Martinez89]

This player.

I remember him very well he was one of the first prospects whose name I wanted to remember for a longer time. It was 3 years ago (summer 2020) when I saw him in one U14 tournament in Slovakia.

He stood out mostly there, obviously, cause I still remember his name up to this day. Was very very smallish but incredibly fast, skilled and nifty. Nice to see him play again in U17 tournament against Slovaks and it was the same story - he impressed me a lot again.

I know size could be a bit of an issue here, but he's definitely still a very promising prospect. And I'm a big fan.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

 

[LeProspector]

Won top forward at the D1A U18’s as an underage talent.

Would love to see him in the CHL next year, he looks fun.