Ok these are my extremely subjective thoughts on the individual performances of the players:
Alexander Barta - Thought he was rather underwhelming for most of the tournament.
Leon Draisaitl - Good start and strong finish. A few struggles in the middle but always showing glimpses of the player he could turn into. And although it showed sometimes that, despite his size, he was just a kid playing amongst men, he did hold his own pretty well.
Yasin Ehliz - Would have loved to see him play more. He was so good in the exhibition games. Should be one of the pillars for the future.
Kai Hospelt - Sometimes invisible but in a good way. A little worse defensively than he used to be, but still a solid performance.
Marcus Kink - Not a big fan. He always works hard at both ends of the ice and is a good penalty killer, but for what he brings, I thought he got too much ice time.
Frank Mauer - He is the poster boy or blue print for German forwards. He's got some skill, some speed, creates chances and needs about a hundred of those to score one goal. I didn't think he played particularly well.
Marcel Noebels - One of the bright spots. After his disappointing AHL-season I wasn't sure why he should be on the team at all, but compared to his first WC apperance last year, he has improved drastically. Loved his energy and his great two-way-game, he could be more of a goal scorer though, like he used to be in juniors.
Thomas Oppenheimer - Another bright spot, although he seemed to struggle a little at the end, when other teams started to pay more attention to him. But still a very imprssive showing, that I wouldn't have expected. I was actually quite skeptical and would have preferred Flaake to be healthy and on the team instead of Oppenheimer. Although both would have been even better.
Daniel Pietta - Everytime I think he shouldn't really be there, and he wasn't really good this time, but he always hustles and works hard which is nice to see. However, I don't think he will ever be more than a fringe player on this team.
Matthias Plachta - Liked him a lot in the exhibition games playing with Draisaitl and Kahun/Rieder. Thought he was ok when he played, but he needs to improve, which he should be able to do at his age.
Tobias Rieder - Liked him a lot, although he made more mistakes once he got a bigger role on the team, but overall he was one of the better players.
Felix Schütz - Like Barta I was rather disappointed with Schütz. Maybe these guys were hurt or just too tired, but given past performances I was expecting them to lead the way, instead it were Hospelt, Oppenheimer and Noebels who played like the first line.
Yannic Seidenberg - Too bad he isn't closer to his brother in size and strength. Despite his best efforts he got outmuscled a little too often, and he is not a good enough skater and stickhandler to make up for it. Still his intensity and relentlessnes were good to see.
Alexander Weiß - He did not play a lot, and was not really noticeable to me until the last game vs. the US. He scored on a beautiful breakaway and showed a nice combination of grit and skill. However, when some of the injured/suspended/busy players return, he might not make the team.
Sinan Akdag- I was impressed with him in the exhibition games and even more so after this tournament. Mostly solid defensively and some really nice plays in the offensive zone as well. For me he is one of the winners of these Championships.
Thorsten Ankert - I don’t think he stood out in any way, neither good nor bad. He did have a couple nice passes and was not a liability on defense, but I have seen him play better.
Constantin Braun - A really rough tournament for Braun. I think he often tried to do too much, and ended up hurting the team in the process. He is still a long way from being his old self again. He looked slower than he used to, and made to many mistakes in the defensive zone. But once he returns to form, he will be a valuable player for this team again.
Frank Hördler - Minus a couple of stupid plays/penalties he played almost as well as he usually does in the DEL. He did his job defensively and showed his often underrated offensive potential. Overall I thought he wasn’t great but good.
Benedikt Kohl – I didn’t think he should have been on the team and at times he showed me why. But he had his good moments as well. Overall I though he was mediocre at best, though I might not be the most objective when it comes to him.
Justin Krueger - I thought he started pretty well, doing what he does best: Shutting people down. However, it looked to me that he got worse as the tournament went on and I ended up being a little disappointed.
Moritz Müller - He didn’t play in all the games. When he played he did not stand out. He tried to be physical, but he often struggled to keep up with some of the shiftier forwards. Although he had that in common with pretty much every other defender.
Denis Reul – Looking back a few years, I was pleasantly surprised how much his skating and agility has improved. He is still not a player I would like to rely on too heavily, but I think he had a very decent tournament and maybe it is time to consider him as an alternative even when we’re not missing 5 or 6 of our best defenders.
Danny aus den Birken - He only played one game, and while he wasn’t bad, despite allowing 5 goals, he didn’t make too many great saves either.
Philipp Grubauer - He should have been the starter in most games. He was clearly the better goaltender compared to Zepp, and I actually think Germany may have made the quarterfinal or at least finished 5th in their group if he had played 4 or 5 games instead of 2.
Rob Zepp - I like Zepp, I really do, and I am not going to say that he shouldn’t be on the roster, but he is not our best goalie and should only have been the backup.
Again these are just my opinions, and I am far from an expert.
So feel free to disagree.
