German Prospects for the NHL Draft

[kalle wirsch]

Over years the DEL clubs saying the german youngsters are too bad for the DEL.
Corana shows that isn't true.All the youngstars are playing very well.Maybe there will be a significant change in the development of german hockey

 

[pgfan66]

Haakon Hänelt (2003): Still has some growing to do, but has shown some skill, good skating

I’ve seen people compliment Hanelt’s skating multiple times and really don’t get it. His skating is awful.

 

[Franz]

@Maverick41 when are you going to update the German prospects for the nhl draft?

 

[Maverick41]

@Maverick41 when are you going to update the German prospects for the nhl draft?

I will be updating some of the rankings today.
I did not get to watch a lot of hockey from these guys this season due to COVID so any changes in rankings are based on a very small sample size, but that's all I got.

For now I will only update the rankings for the 2021 and 2022 draft. Beyond that I really have almost no new information, so any updates to my watch lists for later drafts would be pretty pointless.

 

[canucklax]

Wanted to thank you @Maverick41 for all the work in this thread, its a tremendous resource for looking at the future for German hockey as a supporter in the states

 

[kalle wirsch]

2021 World Juniors: 5 draft-eligible standouts from preliminary round

 

[pgfan66]

I will be updating some of the rankings today.
I did not get to watch a lot of hockey from these guys this season due to COVID so any changes in rankings are based on a very small sample size, but that's all I got.

For now I will only update the rankings for the 2021 and 2022 draft. Beyond that I really have almost no new information, so any updates to my watch lists for later drafts would be pretty pointless.

Thanks for your work, this is really great!

I don’t know much about these players but have one question anyway: how come Kechter is A rated and ahead of the Lutz tier? Especially Lutz is a player I liked in the one game I saw and he seems to be really productive at the pro level now. He also outproduced Kechter in the national teams last season and Kechter has 0 points in the Swedish U20 in 5 games. I’ve never seen Kechter and only know his stats, so just asking out of curiosity and fully trust your opinion here.

 

[Maverick41]

Thanks for your work, this is really great!

I don’t know much about these players but have one question anyway: how come Kechter is A rated and ahead of the Lutz tier? Especially Lutz is a player I liked in the one game I saw and he seems to be really productive at the pro level now. He also outproduced Kechter in the national teams last season and Kechter has 0 points in the Swedish U20 in 5 games. I’ve never seen Kechter and only know his stats, so just asking out of curiosity and fully trust your opinion here.

This was very close and I sort of fell victim to my own definition of the different tiers. Let me elaborate a little on the circumstances:
I had Kechter ahead of everyone else for a while since I saw him just flat out dominating at the U15 and then U17 level in Germany. At that time I had not seen Lutz at all and knew nothing about him.

When I finally saw them both play for Germany in 2019 (U16 and U17), their production was similar (Lutz scored 2 more points at the U17 level I believe), but I thought Kechter was driving and impacting the play more. The difference was not great, but I still felt not comfortable to put Lutz in the same tier as Kechter, because I had seen so little of him, and had no infos on his play for Salzburg.

This season I have not seen Kechter and only a little of Lutz (where he played very well and impressed me a lot). Based on this I was actually ready to put them in the same tier, I just wasn't sure if I should move Lutz up to A or Kechter down to B.
And this is where my own definition for the tiers became problematic, because even though I consider Kechter and Lutz to be of very similar quality (as far as I can tell given the extremely limited viewings recently) I think Kechter has a better chance of being a higher draft pick (Tier A: Players I expect to get drafted in the first 3 rounds), simply because he plays in Sweden, whereas Lutz may get less exposure and thus fall to a later round.

Thank you for your comment which made me reconsider my approach. I think I will revise my definition a little, so that external circumstances like I described here won't factor in and I'll go just by skill, potential, etc., and make some changes accordingly, though Lutz might be the only player affected by this. I hoope this clarifies things, and if you ever have any input on players feel free to share, I am always interested in even the smallest scraps of information about these players that might inform my opinions.

It will probably be a few days, before I get around to rewriting the definitions. Everybody feel free to pester me about this if I haven't got it done by the middle of next week, because if that's the case I have likely forgotten, due to work something unimportant like that.

 

[pgfan66]

This was very close and I sort of fell victim to my own definition of the different tiers. Let me elaborate a little on the circumstances:
I had Kechter ahead of everyone else for a while since I saw him just flat out dominating at the U15 and then U17 level in Germany. At that time I had not seen Lutz at all and knew nothing about him.

When I finally saw them both play for Germany in 2019 (U16 and U17), their production was similar (Lutz scored 2 more points at the U17 level I believe), but I thought Kechter was driving and impacting the play more. The difference was not great, but I still felt not comfortable to put Lutz in the same tier as Kechter, because I had seen so little of him, and had no infos on his play for Salzburg.

This season I have not seen Kechter and only a little of Lutz (where he played very well and impressed me a lot). Based on this I was actually ready to put them in the same tier, I just wasn't sure if I should move Lutz up to A or Kechter down to B.
And this is where my own definition for the tiers became problematic, because even though I consider Kechter and Lutz to be of very similar quality (as far as I can tell given the extremely limited viewings recently) I think Kechter has a better chance of being a higher draft pick (Tier A: Players I expect to get drafted in the first 3 rounds), simply because he plays in Sweden, whereas Lutz may get less exposure and thus fall to a later round.

Thank you for your comment which made me reconsider my approach. I think I will revise my definition a little, so that external circumstances like I described here won't factor in and I'll go just by skill, potential, etc., and make some changes accordingly, though Lutz might be the only player affected by this. I hoope this clarifies things, and if you ever have any input on players feel free to share, I am always interested in even the smallest scraps of information about these players that might inform my opinions.

It will probably be a few days, before I get around to rewriting the definitions. Everybody feel free to pester me about this if I haven't got it done by the middle of next week, because if that's the case I have likely forgotten, due to work something unimportant like that.

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense. I’d actually argue that Lutz is in a very good position, though. Schütz was drafted straight out of RB Academy, Peterka developed there before playing in Munich and now Salzburg to start the year. The Red Bull program is quite well known at this point and I’m sure Lutz will be in the DEL for his draft year.

 

[Franz]

What is your opinion about Jesse Kauhanen
Cause he’s not in your ranking
But also a big thank you from me @Maverick41

 

[Theokritos]

I see seven German prospects listed by NHL Central Scouting as potential 4th to 6th round picks in the 2021 Entry Draft:

Florian Bugl
Florian Elias
Haakon Hänelt
Nikita Quapp
Bennet Rossmy
Robin van Calster
Connor Korte

Full list: https://cms.nhl.bamgrid.com/images/assets/binary/320582316/binary-file/file.pdf

 

[salamandra]

I see six German prospects listed by NHL Central Scouting as potential 4th to 6th round picks in the 2021 Entry Draft:

Florian Bügl
Florian Elias
Haakon Hänelt
Nikita Quapp
Bennet Rossmy
Robin van Calster

Full list: https://cms.nhl.bamgrid.com/images/assets/binary/320582316/binary-file/file.pdf

And Connor Korte

 

[JabbaJabba]

I see seven German prospects listed by NHL Central Scouting as potential 4th to 6th round picks in the 2021 Entry Draft:

Florian Bügl
Florian Elias
Haakon Hänelt
Nikita Quapp
Bennet Rossmy
Robin van Calster
Connor Korte

Full list: https://cms.nhl.bamgrid.com/images/assets/binary/320582316/binary-file/file.pdf

Is Robin van Calster going to represent Germany in the future?

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

Any 2005’s or 2006’s to note ?

 

[hockey webcomics]

Edit: Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Franz]

Is the u18 roster for the wc out yet?

 

[Oberyn Martell]

Is the u18 roster for the wc out yet?

no

 

[JotAlan]

2022 Draft

- January Ranking -​

Skaters:

Rk	Pos	Name	Team	League	Rating
1	F	Roman Kechter	Rögle BK J18	J18 Region	A
2	F	Julian Lutz	EC Salzburg	ICE HL	B
3	F	Moritz Elias	Nürnberg Ice Tigers	DEL	B
4	F	Luca Hauf	Krefelder EV U23	Oberliga Nord	B
5	D	Leo Hafenrichter	Kölner Junghaie	DNL U20 I	C
6	D	Rayan Bettahar	Jungadler Mannheim	DNL U20 I	C
7	F	Vasilii Panov	Jungadler Mannheim	DNL U20 I	C
8	F	Maksim Anton	Düsseldorfer EG U20	DNL U20 I	C
9	F	Matthias Pischoff	Kölner Junghaie	DEB U17 I Nord	C
10	D	Adrian Klein	Straubing Tigers	DEL	C
11	F	Benedikt Diebolder	ESV Kaufbeuren U17	DEB U17 I Süd	C
12	D	Philip Sinn	EC Salzburg U20	ICE YSL	D
13	F	Lukas Ullmann	ERC Ingolstadt U20	DNL U20 I	D
14	F	Eric Hördler	Eisbären Juniors Berlin	DNL U20 I	D
15	F	Philipp Krening	EC Salzburg U20	ICE YSL	D
16	F	Maximilian Heim	Jungadler Mannheim	DNL U20 I	D
17	LD	Vincent Grunewald	Kölner Junghaie	DEB U17 I Nord	D
18	F	Lennard Nieleck	EC Salzburg U20	ICE YSL	D
19	F	Dorian Kielbasa	Krefelder EV U20	DNL U20 I	D
20	F	Kevin Schinko	EV Landshut U17	DEB U17 I Süd	D
21	D	Hans Drunkenmölle	Eisbären Juniors Berlin	DEB U17 I Nord	D
22	F	Daniel Assavolyuk	EC Salzburg U20	ICE YSL	D
23	F	Nikita Krymskiy	Vityaz Podolsk U17	Russia U17	D
24	C	Luca Hartenfels	Kölner Junghaie	DNL U20 I	D
25	F	Valentino Weißgerber	Kölner Junghaie	DNL U20 I	D
26	D	Alessandro Falk	Eisbären Juniors Berlin	DNL U20 I	D
27	F	Luigi Calce	Jungadler Mannheim	DNL U20 I	D
28	F	Veit Oswald	EV Landshut U20	DNL U20 I	D

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Goalies:

Rk	Pos	Name	Team	League	Rating
1	G	Simon Wolf	EC Salzburg U20	ICE YSL	B
2	G	Lenny-Alexander Sturm	Düsseldorfer EG U17	DEB U17 I Nord	D

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

A-Players: Could turn into early round picks.
B-Players: Potential mid- to late-round picks
C-Players: Maybe a late round pick, but more likely won't be drafted
D-Players: Small chance they could develop into NHL level players, but not in time to be drafted.

Julian Lutz: A
Roman Kechter, Moritz Elias, Luca Hauf and Leo Hafenrichter: B

 

[JotAlan]

@Maverick41 In your opinion, what would be the top 10 German players with the most potential from the 2000/2005 harvest?

 

[Maverick41]

@Maverick41 In your opinion, what would be the top 10 German players with the most potential from the 2000/2005 harvest?

Do you mean a Top 10 of all the players born in the years from 2000 to 2005?
If so, my list would look a little like this (Some may think it's a little controversial at the top, but whatever):

1. D - Moritz Seider (2001)
2. F - Tim Stützle (2002)
3. F - Lukas Reichel (2002)
4. F - John Jason Peterka (2002)
5. F - Julian Lutz (2004)
6. F - Florian Elias (2002)
7. F - Justin Schütz (2000)
8. F - Roman Kechter (2004)
9. G - Tobias Ancicka (2001)
10. F - Taro Jentzsch (2000)

Just for context: I think a player like Dominik Bokk still has a lot of potential, enough to rank him here if I just went by pure potential, but by now I just don't see him reaching that potential, so I left him off. If I extended the list, he would be around 11 or 12.
And I left off players born in 2005 entirely because I just have no reference for their abilities and talent, because I could not watch them enough due to the pandemic and the cancellation of junior hockey in November. I guess, none of them would have made to top 10, but again, it's very difficult to rank them compared to players who are actually playing hockey right now.

Lutz is a bit of a guess, based on a small sample size of watching him and how he looked there compared to others I got to see a lot moe, like Kechter, Hänelt, M. Elias. Normally I would not rank a player under those circumstances, because sample size matters to me, but Lutz was just so damn good and impressive, and others who have seen him more are so high on him, that I put him fairly high on my list here.

Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcome, but I am insanely busy with work these days (today is an exception so far), so I may not respond to comments or questions right away.

 

[JotAlan]

Do you mean a Top 10 of all the players born in the years from 2000 to 2005?
If so, my list would look a little like this (Some may think it's a little controversial at the top, but whatever):

1. D - Moritz Seider (2001)
2. F - Tim Stützle (2002)
3. F - Lukas Reichel (2002)
4. F - John Jason Peterka (2002)
5. F - Julian Lutz (2004)
6. F - Florian Elias (2002)
7. F - Justin Schütz (2000)
8. F - Roman Kechter (2004)
9. G - Tobias Ancicka (2001)
10. F - Taro Jentzsch (2000)

Just for context: I think a player like Dominik Bokk still has a lot of potential, enough to rank him here if I just went by pure potential, but by now I just don't see him reaching that potential, so I left him off. If I extended the list, he would be around 11 or 12.
And I left off players born in 2005 entirely because I just have no reference for their abilities and talent, because I could not watch them enough due to the pandemic and the cancellation of junior hockey in November. I guess, none of them would have made to top 10, but again, it's very difficult to rank them compared to players who are actually playing hockey right now.

Lutz is a bit of a guess, based on a small sample size of watching him and how he looked there compared to others I got to see a lot moe, like Kechter, Hänelt, M. Elias. Normally I would not rank a player under those circumstances, because sample size matters to me, but Lutz was just so damn good and impressive, and others who have seen him more are so high on him, that I put him fairly high on my list here.

Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcome, but I am insanely busy with work these days (today is an exception so far), so I may not respond to comments or questions right away.

As for the time to answer me, no problem. I'm waiting.

I am a hockey lover and I am happy to see the evolution of hockey in countries like Germany. It is a very talented generation. Great list! It was exactly the way you listed that I wanted to know. Where would you put Moritz Elias and Haakon Hänelt?

 

[Maverick41]

As for the time to answer me, no problem. I'm waiting.

I am a hockey lover and I am happy to see the evolution of hockey in countries like Germany. It is a very talented generation. Great list! It was exactly the way you listed that I wanted to know. Where would you put Moritz Elias and Haakon Hänelt?

This is just a guess but I would expect them to be in the 15-25 range if I did an extended list.
I'll try to do a longer list, maybe top 30, by the end of the week.

It is so funny to think back to 2009 or 2010 when I really started to get into hockey (beyond the national team, NHL and DEL). It really started with Tom Kühnhackl and Tobias Rieder for me. Then I started to look for other young players with interesting stats and immediately found Leon Draisaitl and Dominik Kahun. It all snowballed from there. And it is funny to think back to some of the players I used to get excited about and with hindsight now knowing that they never really had a chance to make it big.
The years from 92 to 98 were really good, buoyed by the exceptional 95 birth year.
And at the top it will difficult for this group (2000 - 2005) to match them, but 2002 like 1995 ist just a really good year and there appears to be far more depth than with the players born in the mid 90s.
Some of the players that are just middle of the pack now, would have made me very excited a few years back.

However I am really worried that the pandemic will screw many of our prospects. We were, I think, the first nation to shut down junior hockey for the season, and there seems no path to get things back on track in the near future. This is a lot of kids just missing an entire year, and maybe more of development. The ones that were old enough and good enough to play pro hockey, should be fine, but everybody else...

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Do you mean a Top 10 of all the players born in the years from 2000 to 2005?
If so, my list would look a little like this (Some may think it's a little controversial at the top, but whatever):

1. D - Moritz Seider (2001)
2. F - Tim Stützle (2002)
3. F - Lukas Reichel (2002)
4. F - John Jason Peterka (2002)
5. F - Julian Lutz (2004)
6. F - Florian Elias (2002)
7. F - Justin Schütz (2000)
8. F - Roman Kechter (2004)
9. G - Tobias Ancicka (2001)
10. F - Taro Jentzsch (2000)

Just for context: I think a player like Dominik Bokk still has a lot of potential, enough to rank him here if I just went by pure potential, but by now I just don't see him reaching that potential, so I left him off. If I extended the list, he would be around 11 or 12.
And I left off players born in 2005 entirely because I just have no reference for their abilities and talent, because I could not watch them enough due to the pandemic and the cancellation of junior hockey in November. I guess, none of them would have made to top 10, but again, it's very difficult to rank them compared to players who are actually playing hockey right now.

Lutz is a bit of a guess, based on a small sample size of watching him and how he looked there compared to others I got to see a lot moe, like Kechter, Hänelt, M. Elias. Normally I would not rank a player under those circumstances, because sample size matters to me, but Lutz was just so damn good and impressive, and others who have seen him more are so high on him, that I put him fairly high on my list here.

Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcome, but I am insanely busy with work these days (today is an exception so far), so I may not respond to comments or questions right away.

It's a very good guess!

He's the real deal and has clearly been Germany's top 16-year-old player this season. He looks like he has all the tools to be just as desired as Reichel and Peterka were in the last draft.

I'm not sure if he can reach Stützle-style heights in prospect status (highly doubtful), but he's going to be a good one and at this juncture, I'd be shocked if he's not a top 60 draft pick in the 2022 draft, which is shaping up to be a doozy.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

However I am really worried that the pandemic will screw many of our prospects. We were, I think, the first nation to shut down junior hockey for the season, and there seems no path to get things back on track in the near future. This is a lot of kids just missing an entire year, and maybe more of development. The ones that were old enough and good enough to play pro hockey, should be fine, but everybody else...

This is a major issue. And both a sad and possibly very impactful side effect of the pandemic and Germany's decisions with respect to amateur and youth sports, with ice hockey having been hit heavily by default of it being a hall/arena-based sport.

In general, an entire wave of players has just missed most, if not all of, an entire season. What repercussions will this have?

On the flip side, an incredible amount of U21 players nationwide were ultimately playing pro hockey in one of the three pro levels and I'd gander that more U18 players were taking (semi) regular shifts at one of the three pro levels than perhaps ever before. This has led to a U18 team that will likely feature just about an entire line-up of players who played pro in Germany or in the AlpsHL this past season.

Alas, to think that all three DNL tiers saw their seasons end in November and never resume is a tragedy for that class of players. Many young men needed this vital year of experience and weren't ready for pro hockey.

 

[JotAlan]

This is just a guess but I would expect them to be in the 15-25 range if I did an extended list.
I'll try to do a longer list, maybe top 30, by the end of the week.

It is so funny to think back to 2009 or 2010 when I really started to get into hockey (beyond the national team, NHL and DEL). It really started with Tom Kühnhackl and Tobias Rieder for me. Then I started to look for other young players with interesting stats and immediately found Leon Draisaitl and Dominik Kahun. It all snowballed from there. And it is funny to think back to some of the players I used to get excited about and with hindsight now knowing that they never really had a chance to make it big.
The years from 92 to 98 were really good, buoyed by the exceptional 95 birth year.
And at the top it will difficult for this group (2000 - 2005) to match them, but 2002 like 1995 ist just a really good year and there appears to be far more depth than with the players born in the mid 90s.
Some of the players that are just middle of the pack now, would have made me very excited a few years back.

However I am really worried that the pandemic will screw many of our prospects. We were, I think, the first nation to shut down junior hockey for the season, and there seems no path to get things back on track in the near future. This is a lot of kids just missing an entire year, and maybe more of development. The ones that were old enough and good enough to play pro hockey, should be fine, but everybody else...

I'm waiting for the top 30 rsr! I'm charging because you must have forgotten because of your lack of time. About Julian Lutz, although you have seen little, do you enhance him at the Reichel / Peterka level or do you believe he is below / above?