DEL 2020-2021 (Eisbären Berlin win championship)

[OskarOskarius]

Djurgården have picked up Dominik Bokk on loan

 

[vorky]

My guess is September 2021. They are still hoping to manage a start in the second half of December, but I doubt that will work.
Corona cases are skyrocketing and teams need more than the currently allowed 20% crowd capacity.

I have always thought that Germany is a wealthy country with wealthy teams owners. It is just absurd that a league can not survive a few months with limited attendance.

 

[Theokritos]

I have always thought that Germany is a wealthy country with wealthy teams owners.

In hockey? Since when? The sport has hardly ever been a great priority, otherwise a big and wealthy country like Germany wouldn't play such a modest role on the European stage.

 

[vorky]

In hockey? Since when? The sport has hardly ever been a great priority, otherwise a big and wealthy country like Germany wouldn't play such a modest role on the European stage.

I know the reality of European club hockey. And I know German soccer =/= German hockey. And yes, German hockey should play a bigger role, much bigger, in European club hockey. So, I have been saying for a decade - a big business needs to get into European hockey.

Perhaps I am under a wrong impression. I just see Eisbären with connections to Anschutz Entertainment Group (I know about destiny of Freezers, it is very easy to close a team), Adler with SAP, Munchen with Red Bull. All those companies I consider as wealthy, much wealthier than clubs´ owners in Czech or Slovak hockey (both leagues are playing) and likely in Finland and Sweden as well. Yes, remaining DEL clubs do not have such a backing.

And I know that they need people in stands. I get it. I just expect from clubs´ owners to do everything to play, even if it is not profitable this season.

 

[Theokritos]

I just see Eisbären with connections to Anschutz Entertainment Group (I know about destiny of Freezers, it is very easy to close a team), Adler with SAP, Munchen with Red Bull. All those companies I consider as wealthy, much wealthier than clubs´ owners in Czech or Slovak hockey (both leagues are playing) and likely in Finland and Sweden as well. Yes, remaining DEL clubs do not have such a backing.

Well, you name it. Three very rich owners and the rest doesn't have a similar backing.

 

[vorky]

Well, you name it. Three very rich owners and the rest doesn't have a similar backing.

Yeah, so European (not only German) hockey should do everything possible to get more such owners. But it is another story & thread.

 

[mkev400]

Well, you name it. Three very rich owners and the rest doesn't have a similar backing.

I would also consider Frank Gotthardt, the owner of the Haie a wealthy owner. But yeah, thats about it...

Yeah, so European (not only German) hockey should do everything possible to get more such owners. But it is another story & thread.

Unfortunately, the examples of Hamburg and Nuremberg have shown how limited the interest is. Hamburg went under when Anschutz pulled out, because there was no one willing to save them (depsite Hamburg being a rather wealthy city) and Nuremberg had to find many smaller investors after Sabo decided he didnt want to bank role the team anymore and swallow all losses by himself.
The only "big fish" that was really interested in investing into the league was Mikhail Ponomarev in Krefeld, which was thankfully averted, due to his less than stellar reputation as a part owner in Dusseldorf and his ownership of the Krefeld Football club which is really suffering from his meddling...

 

[vorky]

I would also consider Frank Gotthardt, the owner of the Haie a wealthy owner. But yeah, thats about it...



Unfortunately, the examples of Hamburg and Nuremberg have shown how limited the interest is. Hamburg went under when Anschutz pulled out, because there was no one willing to save them (depsite Hamburg being a rather wealthy city) and Nuremberg had to find many smaller investors after Sabo decided he didnt want to bank role the team anymore and swallow all losses by himself.
The only "big fish" that was really interested in investing into the league was Mikhail Ponomarev in Krefeld, which was thankfully averted, due to his less than stellar reputation as a part owner in Dusseldorf and his ownership of the Krefeld Football club which is really suffering from his meddling...

Yeah, I understand you.

Regarding the Freezers, it is confirmed that they tried to talk to the KHL at the time. Unfortunately, it did not happen a reality.

European club hockey needs big companies to be involved. I am not sure if it is possible with the current model of national championships (too small & too regional). And the Champions Hockey League is dead now.

 

[KTl]

Rumours are that only 7 to 10 clubs might play 20-21 DEL season, of course including the big ones. There might be an even smaller „pre-season“ tournament in November, sponsored by Deutsche Telekom (DEL streaming partner).

Possible teams for „MagentaSports“ pre-season cup:

• Munich
  
• Berlin
• Mannheim
• Cologne
• Wolfsburg
• Krefeld
• maybe: Bremerhaven

 

[Zamboni Parade]

Rumours are that only 7 to 10 clubs might play 20-21 DEL season, of course including the big ones. There might be an even smaller „pre-season“ tournament in November, sponsored by Deutsche Telekom (DEL streaming partner).

More details starting to transpire. Starts on Nov 11, 8 teams in 2 groups, 24 match days followed by semis and finals. Not sure if the latter will be single games or best-of rounds.

Group A
Bremerhaven
Düsseldorf
Krefeld
Wolfsburg

Group B
Berlin
Mannheim
Munich
Schwenningen

EDIT: Correction, starts on Nov 11, not Nov 13. The "final" (whatever that is supposed to mean) is planned for Dec 12.

First games are,

Nov 11 Bremerhaven - Krefeld
Nov 12 Mannheim - Munich
Nov 13 Berlin - Schwenningen
Nov 14 Wolfsburg - Düsseldorf

Start times are 7:30 pm on weeknights, 5 pm on Saturdays, 2 pm on Sundays. Complete schedule will be out quite soon.

If my maths didn't fail me, that means every team will play the other teams in their group twice? That's the only way to have 2 x 4 teams play over 24 days, assuming one game per day. That'll mean the round robin concludes on Dec 4, which leaves one week for the knockout phase. Which leads me to believe that these might be played CHL style, with a home and an away game? Even two short best-of-threes would be kinda crazy to play in one week. Or maybe it's going to be a single game in the semis and a best-of-three final? I dunno. Waiting for the definite schedule.

 

[Theokritos]

Group A
Bremerhaven
Düsseldorf
Krefeld
Wolfsburg

Group B
Berlin
Mannheim
Munich
Schwenningen

So Cologne are not participating. They seem to be in bigger trouble than some other clubs:

 

[montreal]

The Habs just loaned RD prospect Josh Brook to Krefeld, is it possible for people in North America to watch DEL games online?

 

[Theokritos]

 

[KTl]

The Habs just loaned RD prospect Josh Brook to Krefeld, is it possible for people in North America to watch DEL games online?

Most of the loans of NHL Players seem to be for the MagentaSport Cup only. The cup is only available on MagentaSport (part of Deutsche Telekom/T-Online). The stream is not geoblocked, but I have no idea whether you can book it from North America:
www.magentasport.de/buchen (you would want the 16,53€/month package).

 

[1878rgw]

All 14 teams will take part of the season if there is a season, decission is tomorrow. Cologne confirmed today as the last team.

 

[Theokritos]

All 14 teams will take part of the season if there is a season, decission is tomorrow. Cologne confirmed today as the last team.

Decision made:

 

[Albatros]

More importantly Lukas Podolski will have to keep his promise and join the team as a player.

 

[Zamboni Parade]

So there's going to be a North Division,

Berlin
Bremerhaven
Cologne
Düsseldorf
Iserlohn
Krefeld
Wolfsburg

and a South Division,

Augsburg
Ingolstadt
Mannheim
Munich
Nuremberg
Straubing
Schwenningen

Regular season consists of 38 games, a double home/away series with the other six teams of the same division (4*6=24 games) plus a single home/away with each of the remaining seven teams from the other division (2*7=14). Personal note: As a fan of the North American conference system, I find this oddly enticing.

Post-season series are all best-of-threes. Top four teams of each group make it, they play each other in an intra-divisional series which is followed by the semis and the final series.

Worth noting is that, since arena attendance isn't a factor, the games will not be clustered around the weekends but instead be spread out across the entire week in Magenta Cup fashion so as to maximise exposure to streaming viewers, which means hockey almost every day.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Düsseldorf goalie situation

Looking at roster on EliteProspects they have two inexperienced goaltenders. Are there plans to add a veteran or are these guys ready to play at the men's level?

 

[Albatros]

Time will show how ready they are, but both are among the best German talents and definitely the plan is to let them play.

 

[Maverick41]

Düsseldorf goalie situation

Looking at roster on EliteProspects they have two inexperienced goaltenders. Are there plans to add a veteran or are these guys ready to play at the men's level?

As far as I know there is no plan to bring in a veteran goaltender. I wonder if that may change if the young guys struggle, but on the other hand those are two of the best young goalies we have in Germany so it could work. Hane did quite well as a backup last season and Pantkowski did not so bad in DEL2 considering he played behind a pretty bad/inconsistent team.

Berlin tried something similar a few years back, but quickly stopped the experiment (with Cüpper and Franzreb) both because of injury and because the young goalies were not as good as they needed to be and brought in veteran Kevn Poulin (I think).

But as for Düsseldorf, their roster overall is a bit thin and they are at this point relying on some very young players at every position to fill out that roster. It is looking to be an interesting season for Düsseldorf.

 

[mkev400]

It seems like Krefeld are back to being a chaos club. After being saved from financial collapse they went on a big spending spree, putting together a roster that had some potential and just days after the announcement that the DEL will start next month, the situation in Krefeld has deteriorated rapidly. Yesterday their coach, Glen Hanlon, quit (after only 26 days) stating family reasons and the ongoing pandemic. His Assistant will take over in the interim.
Meanwhile, it seems like the new owner and the team manager have asked the team to take another paycut for the team to be able to play in the DEL this year, with Seems some players were not happy with this announcement and did not take warm up last Thursday in protest of the request for a further paycut.
The Team manager supposedly said that players can either accept the pay cut or get out. Seems that this wasnt an empty threat as Eugen Alanov, who signed in the summer from Nuremberg, is leaving to join Dusseldorf. Top transfer Kris Foucault, who joined in August from Ingolstadt (who themselves had to cut back since one of their bigger sponsors withdrew) is also set to leave for a "league rival", which seems to be Berlin. Both Wade Bergamn (Signed from Wofsburg in September) and Colin Smith (Signed from Cologne in August) are apparently also no longer part of the team. Further players that are supposedly being shopped include Throsten Ankert (C) and Kai Hospelt, as well as Martin Schymainski. If I remember correctly, Schymainski was part of the group of players alongside Pietta, that the new owners desperately wanted to get rid off, despite both being home grown and absolute fan favorites.
While on the face of it, you could perhaps understand the owners request for a given the current situation paycut, it kind of becomes a bit of a ridiculous situation when you consider Krefeld was literally on the verge of financial collapse in the spring and then went on a big spending spree in the summer, despite the uncertainty regarding incoming gameday revenues. Especially since 4 of those leaving are players that joined this past summer.
Source listed by elite prospects (I can't speak to how good this source is) and the article from the Westdeutsche Zeitung on the situation.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

It seems like Krefeld are back to being a chaos club. After being saved from financial collapse they went on a big spending spree, putting together a roster that had some potential and just days after the announcement that the DEL will start next month, the situation in Krefeld has deteriorated rapidly. Yesterday their coach, Glen Hanlon, quit (after only 26 days) stating family reasons and the ongoing pandemic. His Assistant will take over in the interim.
Meanwhile, it seems like the new owner and the team manager have asked the team to take another paycut for the team to be able to play in the DEL this year, with Seems some players were not happy with this announcement and did not take warm up last Thursday in protest of the request for a further paycut.
The Team manager supposedly said that players can either accept the pay cut or get out. Seems that this wasnt an empty threat as Eugen Alanov, who signed in the summer from Nuremberg, is leaving to join Dusseldorf. Top transfer Kris Foucault, who joined in August from Ingolstadt (who themselves had to cut back since one of their bigger sponsors withdrew) is also set to leave for a "league rival", which seems to be Berlin. Both Wade Bergamn (Signed from Wofsburg in September) and Colin Smith (Signed from Cologne in August) are apparently also no longer part of the team. Further players that are supposedly being shopped include Throsten Ankert (C) and Kai Hospelt, as well as Martin Schymainski. If I remember correctly, Schymainski was part of the group of players alongside Pietta, that the new owners desperately wanted to get rid off, despite both being home grown and absolute fan favorites.
While on the face of it, you could perhaps understand the owners request for a given the current situation paycut, it kind of becomes a bit of a ridiculous situation when you consider Krefeld was literally on the verge of financial collapse in the spring and then went on a big spending spree in the summer, despite the uncertainty regarding incoming gameday revenues. Especially since 4 of those leaving are players that joined this past summer.
Source listed by elite prospects (I can't speak to how good this source is) and the article from the Westdeutsche Zeitung on the situation.

Has this had any effect on the loan agreement with Sabres/Rochester goalie Jonas Johansson?

I'm assuming he was only going to be there until NHL camp started but with the AHL start later I wasn't sure.

 

[mkev400]

It really shouldnt have any impact on him, since he is only a short term loanee, who in all likelihood will be paid by Buffalo and was only sent to Krefeld to get game time ahead of the NHL/AHL seasons (though I admittedly don't know who pays him). The situation with players leaving seems to be concerning players who are full time players in Krefeld and are among the higher earners on the squad.

Throsten Ankert is rumored to go to Ingolstadt as well.

 

[NJ Fan 12]

Just took another look and saw that former Shawinigan goalie Marvin Cupper is also with Krefeld. Hadn't heard much about him since he was in the Q and it looks like he played only a handful of games last year.

Has he been injured or were there other factors?