Seems fair to first win the Stanley Cup in order to qualify for the German national team. 
German Players in North America
- Thread starter Maverick41
- Start date
Seems fair to first win the Stanley Cup in order to qualify for the German national team.
Pretty certain he was invited once or twice along the way, but couldn't join up with the national team for private reasons.
Marc Michaelis will no longer play in North America. He has signed with SCL Tigers in Switzerland for next season.
Who are we expecting to be picked in the import draft tomorrow? It’s so hard to tell because I don’t think there are many interesting players available, but at the same time teams might be desperate with Russians/Belarusians excluded in the draft. Going off of last year, that would mean 25-30 additional players from other countries this year.
My guess would be Hauf and Hübner for sure. Maybe Tropmann and Sumpf. Maybe Wolf. Oswald und Mayer could definitely go but unlikely because both have commitments for next season. Could just be to distract other teams though. Aside from those guys, there’s not much left. Maybe someone else from the U18 team like Krening or Rollinger.
…which isn’t much at all.
My guess would be Hauf and Hübner for sure. Maybe Tropmann and Sumpf. Maybe Wolf. Oswald und Mayer could definitely go but unlikely because both have commitments for next season. Could just be to distract other teams though. Aside from those guys, there’s not much left. Maybe someone else from the U18 team like Krening or Rollinger.
…which isn’t much at all.
There aren't really any players I would "expect" to get picked, but I have made a list including some guys the could maybe be surprise picks given the more limited pool of available players (no Russians or Belarussians).
Some of these guys are unlikely to be interested to go to the CHL, but some team may take a flyer on them anyway, and the others are mostly longshots
I would be very surprised if more than 4 or 5 of these guys are picked.
2003:
Sebastian Cimmerman
Marcel Mahkovec (not German, but I included him anyway)
Bennet RoĂźmy
Pascal Steck
Robin van Calster
Leon van der Linde
Julian Wäser
2004:
Daniel Assavolyuk
Luca Hauf
Niklas HĂĽbner
Roman Kechter
Philipp Krening
Nikita Krymskiy
Veit Oswald
Ralf Rollinger
Simon Wolf
2005:
Linus Brandl
Jonas Fischer
Paul Mayer
Lua Niehus
Timo Ruckdäschel
Noah Samanski
Vadim Schreiner
Julius Sumpf
Edwin Tropmann
Paul Vinzens
So in a year where Russians and Belarusians were ineligible, Luca Hauf is the only German selected in the CHL Import Draft.
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s
Perfect team for him to go to.
4, maybe 5 of Edmonton's top-6 forwards are looking to graduate this year so that give Hauf plenty of opportunity for playing time.
I hope he does well.
This is only in German and there are no subtitles, but for all German speakers here, I think this was a nice little piece on Moritz Seider by SWR.
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s
Lukas Kälble has signed a two-way AHL/ECHL deal with the Charlotte Checkers.
charlottecheckers.com
Lukas Kaelble Signs AHL Contract
Defenseman Lukas Kaelble is the latest player to join the Checkers on an AHL contract.
Thought it was worth mentioning that Roman Zap, Leonhard Korus, and Luca Ganz are headed to the NAHL next season.
Apparently Konstantin Melnikow is headed to the NCDC.
Something to keep an eye on next season.
Apparently Konstantin Melnikow is headed to the NCDC.
Something to keep an eye on next season.
Pretty sure all 4 have the same agent – who happens to represent Proske as well.
Apparently Tim Schütz is leaving Krefeld to go play in Canada. I believe he’s going to the Okanagan academy.
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s
Relly happy for him. It is so weird to think that in the last few decades our best skaters in the NHL were guys like Marco Sturm, Jochen Hecht, Christian Ehrhoff, Marcel Goc or Dennis Seidenberg and Uwe Krupp a little further back.
All fine players, but StĂĽtzle will likely eclipse all of them, and still be only the third best German in the league for most of his career, behind Draisaitl and Seider. For some seasons he might challenge Seider or Draisaitl (once he's past his prime), but overall I think Drai and Mo will be slightly ahead.
So much fun having these guys in the league at the same time, and if we are lucky Peterka, Reichel and maybe Lutz could at some point join the ranks a tier or two below.
The only downside is that I don't have enough time to watch all of the games. It was so much easier when I only had to watch the Oilers.
Really liked what I saw from Hänelt in the summer WJC. Sure hope he'll finally have an injury-free season. Would be real nice if he could make some music on the scoring front.
As for Hauf, I have no real expectations. Sure, I'd love to see him make an impact, but from what I viewed of him at the U18 worlds, I'm just not sure he's got the skating for this level. Of course, that's all up to him now.
On another front, call it a gut feeling, but I'm expecting good things from Bettahar this winter. I think the lessons learned last season will really pay off this year. He should be a lock for the WJC team.
If only Hänelt could get through a season without major injury. He was much better at the WJC than I expected. It is impressive how much he progressed the last couple of years given how much time he has missed.
I get that looking at his game there are a lot of questions marks, but so far Hauf has always found a way, mostly due to his hockey iq. If he can get his skating to just about average on this level, he could become a really solid player, with a decent pro career (most likely back in Germany).
Oddly enough Bettahar is the opposite of Hauf to me. With Hauf I have always been a little more optimistic than I probably should have been, with Bettahar I have always been more hesitant, but he actually did well in the WHL last season, while everyone else (Elias, Hafenrichter) couldn't get it done. He was given a real opportunity and took it. I wonder if he will play in tonight's game after not playing last night.
I would love to see some more offense from him on even strength and not just on the power play,
Didn't see if he played or not, but these test games are also an opportunity to test out guys the teams aren't certain that they're going with. Not uncommon to leave "sure things" out of the line-up here and there.
I think we will see more offense from him this season. I think he'll turn those 15 points into 30 or more.
Albeit, that's not his chief job. He's a physical player thru and thru. And the Dub is just the right league for that. When he does come back to Germany one day, I think he's going to be one of the real physical players in this league. But he's got a great attitude and is a very introspective player.
Dunno if anyone noticed this, but he was invited to Toronto's summer prospect camp this past July.
Dazed and Confused
Ludicrous speed, GO!
It'll be fun to watch the German national team if we ever get a proper best on best tournament again.
The depth isn't high end, but any team led by Draisaitl, StĂĽtzle, and Seider (plus Grubauer in net) will do some damage.
Another good thing is that the guys outside the NHL are miles better than they were a decade or two ago.
There are a bunch of guys that are good enough, or close to good enough, to play in the NHL.
Guys like Kahun, Tiffels, KĂĽhnhackl, Rieder, Michaelis or Noebels still have a few good years left. The depths is really pretty good compared to what we used to have.
We really could use a standout goalie again soon. Grubi isn't getting any younger and neither is Niederberger (who is pretty good for a non-NHL goaltender). There are some guys that look promising, but not really Grubauer level. Though, you never know with goalies.
Luca Hauf finally scored his second goal of the season.
Interestingly, in the highlight video the comentators said that even though he has not been scoring for a while he has been playing really well.
I have not seen any games, so I don't know if that is true, but maybe goals and points will be coming more regularly soon.
Interestingly, in the highlight video the comentators said that even though he has not been scoring for a while he has been playing really well.
I have not seen any games, so I don't know if that is true, but maybe goals and points will be coming more regularly soon.
Edmonton is the worst team in the league this year, so playing “well” is a fairly low bar to clear there.
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s
He’s been struggling to keep up with the speed of the game.
Doubt he makes it the entire year. It’s too bad.
I guess in his defence wven though he only has 3 points, he is still top 10 on the team in scoring. Edmonton is terrible. I knew they would be bad, but not this bad..
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s
He and his team had played much better since this post.
8 points in his past 6 games.
