International: German Junior National Teams

[Fabianski]

If I've understood properly, it's not final yet. They'll be cutting another forward and Dman before the tourney starts.

Here's a recent release from the DEB:
<<<
Nach intensiven Trainingseinheiten während der Vorbereitung in Füssen sowie zwei Testspielniederlagen gegen die Schweiz, begibt sich die DEB-Auswahl am Montagmorgen Richtung Skandinavien. Am Abend des 19. Dezember sowie 22. Dezember 2023 stehen der deutschen Mannschaft in zwei weiteren Vorbereitungsspielen die Teams aus Norwegen und der Slowakei gegenüber. Anschließend wird das Trainerteam um U20-Bundestrainer Tobias Abstreiter seinen finalen Kader für das Turnier in Göteborg bekanntgeben. In der Vorrundengruppe A der Junioren-Weltmeisterschaft trifft die deutsche U20-Nationalmannschaft ab dem 27. Dezember 2023 auf Finnland (14:30 Uhr), Schweden (28.12. / 19:30), Lettland (30.12. / 19:30) und Kanada (31.12. / 19:30 Uhr).

U20-Bundestrainer Tobias Abstreiter: „Wir haben in beiden Testspielen gegen die Schweiz gesehen, wie wir spielen müssen, um international Akzente zu setzen, aber auch, was wir besser machen müssen, um konstant auf diesem Level erfolgreich zu spielen. Nach den beiden Testspielen in Schweden gegen Norwegen und die Slowakei werden wir den finalen Kader nominieren. Gleichzeitig möchten wir den Spielern, die jetzt nicht mehr dabei sind, für ihren Einsatz danken.“

***
The team lost to Norway last night 5-4 in OT. It was a winnable game. A decent result in light of coming back from a 3-1 deficit and then tieing it 4-4 relatively late in the 3rd period.

Yes, you're right I missed the quote of Abstreiter...

 

[Maverick41]

These are the rosters for the upcoming tournaments:

U19 5-Nationen-Turnier in Kloten, SUI (07.02.24 - 10.02.24)

Pos.	Nr.	Name	Vorname	Geb.Dat.	Verein 2023/24
GK	31	Hümer	Leon	18.03.2005	Düsseldorfer EG/ESC Moskitos Essen
GK	1	Pertuch	Nico	29.07.2005	ERC Ingolstadt/Ravensburg Tower Stars
GK	30	Salmik	Keanu	28.07.2005	ESV Kaufbeuren/EV Lindau
DF	6	Burghard	Jonas	02.12.2005	ERC Ingolstadt
DF	8	Homann	Henry	12.12.2005	EV Landshut/Passau Black Hawks
DF	4	Kukuk	Moritz	27.04.2005	Düsseldorfer EG
DF	15	Kühnhauser	Kilian	29.02.2005	Starbulls Rosenheim/EC Peiting
DF	5	Mayer	Paul	25.09.2005	Adler Mannheim/JA Mannheim/Bietigheim Steelers
DF	22	Peukert	Jakob	27.11.2005	ESV Kaufbeuren/EV Füssen
DF	9	Seidel	Philipp	06.01.2005	Düsseldorfer EG/ESC Moskitos Essen
DF	7	Vladelchtchikov	Alexander	08.01.2005	Kölner EC/EV Duisburg
FW	23	Brandl	Linus	01.04.2005	Straubing Tigers/EV Landshut
FW	17	Focks	Niclas	01.09.2005	Krefeld Pinguine/Krefelder EV81/ESC Moskitos Essen
FW	11	Jakovlev	Raphael	21.12.2005	Kölner EC
FW	29	Kopietz	Lukas Benedikt	18.06.2005	Kölner EC
FW	19	Münzenberger	Marco	02.09.2005	Kölner EC
FW	3	Münzenberger	Noah	02.09.2005	Kölner EC
FW	28	Rieke	Robin	03.05.2005	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	10	Ruckdäschel	Timo	01.04.2005	Grizzlys Wolfsburg/Hannover Indians
FW	24	Salhi	Björn	23.02.2005	EV Landshut/Passau Black Hawks
FW	25	Scheibengraber	Luis	20.02.2005	EV Landshut/Passau Black Hawks
FW	27	Schilling	Christian	18.04.2005	ERC Ingolstadt/Bayreuth Tigers
FW	26	Thal	Georg	01.10.2005	ESV Kaufbeuren/EV Füssen
FW	13	Tripcke	Hannu	16.09.2005	Eisbären Juniors Berlin

U18 4-Nationen-Turnier in Poprad, SVK (07.02.24 - 11.02.24)

Position	Nr.	Name	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2023/24
GK	29	Eder	Erik	18.01.2006	ERC Ingolstadt
GK	30	Stuhrmann	Lukas	04.04.2007	Kölner EC
GK	1	Vieillard	Linus	15.02.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
DF	4	Bleicher	Max	14.02.2007	EV Füssen
DF	28	Elwing	Lenny	22.11.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
DF	24	Ficenec	Jacob	20.02.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	7	Händel	Carlos	31.03.2007	Malmö Redhawks/SWE
DF	17	Kaiser	Rio	07.10.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin/Eisbären Berlin
DF	2	Kretzschmar	Moritz	19.07.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
DF	19	Merkl	Maximilian	27.06.2006	Höchstadter EC/Nürnberg Ice Tigers
DF	10	Pape	Matthias	15.05.2006	Kölner Junghaie
FW	23	Boos	Lenny	21.11.2006	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	26	Farkas	Bence	29.01.2006	ESV Kaufbeuren
FW	13	Kerbel	Felix	08.05.2006	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	11	Lewandowski	David	20.02.2007	Düsseldorfer EG
FW	14	Maul	Nick	09.04.2006	RB Hockey Juniors/ AUT
FW	9	Pul	Elias	06.05.2006	RB Hockey Juniors/AUT
FW	21	Sager	Clemens	10.02.2006	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	25	Schwarz	Tobias	05.04.2006	EV Landshut
FW	15	Schneider	Elias	08.07.2007	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	12	Schütz	Tim	19.04.2006	Okanagan Hockey Academy/CAN
FW	27	Seidl	Simon	04.07.2006	EV Landshut
FW	16	Späth	Mateu	20.02.2007	Tölzer Löwen/EC Bad Tölz
FW	5	Willhöft	Dustin	09.01.2007	Jungadler Mannheim

U17 2-Nationen-Turnier in Füssen, GER (08.02.24 - 10.02.24)

Position	Nr.	Name	Vorname	Geb.-Dat.	Verein 2023/24
GK	1	Kaiser	Aaron	22.08.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
GK	30	Pfab	Noah	14.06.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	2	Bittner	Maximilian	23.12.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
DF	16	Hempel	Niclas	20.08.2007	EHC Freiburg/Wölfe Freiburg/Stuttgart Rebels
DF	14	Kose	Fabio	03.01.2007	EV Regensburg
DF	22	Krüger	Felix	21.08.2007	ESC Dresden
DF	4	Schloder	Leopold	27.05.2007	EV Landshut
DF	12	Stocker	Gregor	31.05.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim
DF	13	Wijacki	Cedrik	02.02.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
DF	6	Wischnenko	Erik	26.02.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	24	Brandt	Tobin	28.02.2007	Kölner EC
FW	11	Grin	Andreas	08.06.2007	EHC 80 Nürnberg/Höchstadter EC
FW	28	Griva	Gustavs	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	27	Griva	Rihards	08.06.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	21	Kaufmann	Justus	20.04.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	3	Kessler	Nikita	13.01.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	19	Kose	Timo	03.01.2007	EV Regensburg
FW	18	Kronhardt	Stanislav	19.08.2007	Iserlohner EC
FW	26	Langmeier	Pepino	02.12.2007	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	9	Naumann	Lasse	12.03.2007	Schwenninger ERC
FW	25	Root	Denis	03.09.2007	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	10	Schäfer	Maxim	17.05.2007	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
FW	20	Ziergiebel	Max	03.05.2007	Kölner EC
FW	8	Zwickl	Sebastian	27.03.2007	Starbulls Rosenheim/EC Peiting

U16 4-Nationen-Turnier in Klagenfurt, AUT (08.02.24 - 10.02.24)

Pos.	Nummer	Name	Vorname	Verein 2023/24
GK	1	Bolle	Max	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
GK	30	Lutz	Ruven	Krefelder EV 81
GK	31	Pitaev	Sascha	Los Angeles Jr. Kings/USA
DF	2	Augst	Jan-Luca	ESV Kaufbeuren
DF	8	Göthe	Oskar	ESC Dresden
DF	23	Kettler	Daniel	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	18	Komirist	Ivan	Jungadler Mannheim
DF	9	Mayer	Martin	Starbulls Rosenheim
DF	10	Pizka	Aurelius	IFK Täby HC/SWE
DF	6	Riegel	Robert	EHC 80 Nürnberg
DF	16	Rolsing	Darian	Tappara Tampere/FIN
FW	21	Fürst	Toni	Kölner EC
FW	13	Geppert	Mats	ERC Ingolstadt
FW	14	Greil	Lukas	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	4	Kottner	Jakub	Kölner Junghaie
FW	17	Krestan	Tobias	HV71/SWE
FW	25	Lell	Leon	EHC 80 Nürnberg
FW	12	Penkin	Max	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	19	Permitin	Vyacheslav	Jungadler Mannheim
FW	11	Peterka	Jack	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	20	Schatz	Linus	ESC Dresden
FW	24	Schloßnikel	Florian	Red Bull Hockey Akademie
FW	22	Strauß	Maximilian	EC Bad Tölz

 

[Maverick41]

For me the most notable thing about the rosters posted above is the inclusion of Max Penkin in the U16 roster.
There may still be changes before the tournament, but usually we never see an underager on an U16 roster, it's almost never you have one on the U17.
U18 there are sometimes underagers and on the U20 you see them regularly, but U16 is super rare.

I like the U18 and U16 teams, not so high on the other two, but we will see how they do.

The Schedules for the tournaments:

U19:
07.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Tschechien 1:3 | Goal: Ruckdäschel
08.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Finnland 0:11
09.02.2024 | 14:00 Uhr | Schweden– Deutschland 11:0
10.02.2024 | 16:30 Uhr | Schweiz – Deutschland 4:0

U18:
07.02.2004 | 13:30 Uhr | Japan – Deutschland 2:3 | Scorers: Maul (Schwarz, Kretzschmar); Schwarz (Händel, Kaiser); Farkas (Ficenec, Kerbel)
09.02.2004 | 13:30 Uhr | Ukraine – Deutschland 6:5 | Scorers: Schwarz (Ficenec); Pul (Händel, Lewandowski); Willhöft (Schneider); Sager (Lewandowski); Boos (Lewandowski, Willhöft)
10.02.2004 | 17:00 Uhr | Slowakei U18 – Deutschland 4:5 | Scorers: Pul (Elwing, Kaiser); Sager (Schütz, Pul); Pul (Schütz, Ficenec); Schwarz (Kretzschmar, Späth)
11.02.2004 | 11:00 Uhr | Slowakei U19 – Deutschland 6:5 | Scorers: Kerbel (Ficenec, Farkas); Boos (Lewandowski, Willhöft); Schwarz (Willhöft); Boos (Willhöft); Schwarz (Späth)

U17:
08.02.2024 | 17:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei 2:0 | Scorers: Kronhardt (Brandt, Langmeier); G.Griva (Brandt) | Shutout for Kaiser
09.02.2024 | 17:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei 1:3 | Scorers: Kronhardt (T.Kose, F.Kose) - Fabio Kose is not listed in the boxscore, but he clearly had the other assist on the goal.
10.02.2024 | 11:30 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei 3:5 | Scorers: Brandt (R.Griva); Zwickl (Hempel, Kessler); Zwickl (Grin, Stocker)

U16:
08.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Frankreich – Deutschland 0:6 | Goals: Penkin; Greil; Greil; Greil; Permitin; Strauß
09.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Norwegen 6:2 | Goals: Krestan; Krestan; Greil; Fürst; Fürst; Kottner (not sure about the exact order of the goal scorers)
10.02.2024 | 10:00 Uhr | Österreich – Deutschland 3:2 | Scorers: Geppert (Greil, Komirist); Greil (Rolsing, ?) - I believe Komirist got the second assist on the second goal, but I am not totally sure.

 

[pgfan66]

For me the most notable thing about the rosters posted above is the inclusion of Max Penkin in the U16 roster.
There may still be changes before the tournament, but usually we never see an underager on an U16 roster, it's almost never you have one on the U17.
U18 there are sometimes underagers and on the U20 you see them regularly, but U16 is super rare.

I like the U18 and U16 teams, not so high on the other two, but we will see how they do.

The Schedules for the tournaments:

U19:
07.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Tschechien 1:3 (Goal: Ruckdäschel)
08.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Finnland
09.02.2024 | 14:00 Uhr | Schweden– Deutschland
10.02.2024 | 16:30 Uhr | Schweiz – Deutschland

U18:
07.02.2004 | 13:30 Uhr | Japan – Deutschland 2:3 - Scorers: Maul (Schwarz, Kretzschmar), Schwarz (Händel, Kaiser), Farkas (Ficenec, Kerbel)
09.02.2004 | 13:30 Uhr | Ukraine – Deutschland
10.02.2004 | 17:00 Uhr | Slowakei U18 – Deutschland
11.02.2004 | 11:00 Uhr | Slowakei U19 – Deutschland

U17:
08.02.2024 | 17:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei
09.02.2024 | 17:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei
10.02.2024 | 11:30 Uhr | Deutschland – Slowakei

U16:
08.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Frankreich – Deutschland
09.02.2024 | 15:00 Uhr | Deutschland – Norwegen
10.02.2024 | 10:00 Uhr | Österreich – Deutschland

I agree. I'm excited to see how Schneider does with the U18s. Also the other 07s, of course. Not too excited about the U17 team anymore, with the best ones playing U18.

 

[Maverick41]

I agree. I'm excited to see how Schneider does with the U18s. Also the other 07s, of course. Not too excited about the U17 team anymore, with the best ones playing U18.

That's pretty much exactly how I feel.

Sure, there are still some interesting players on that U17 roster. On defense I like Kose and Hempel and I am curious, especially when it comes to Kose, how they will do with bigger roles since Händel and Bleicher won't be there.
On offense there are still the Griva twins, yes their season is underwhelming, but they are still talented, and Sebastian Zwickl and Maik Ziergiebel are solid players, same goes for Kessler.

I hope to watch some of the games at least, and take a look at some guys I have not seen that much like Grin, Naumann, Schloder and the Red Bull goalie Kaiser.

Today I will definitely watch the U16 game against France.

 

[pgfan66]

That's pretty much exactly how I feel.

Sure, there are still some interesting players on that U17 roster. On defense I like Kose and Hempel and I am curious, especially when it comes to Kose, how they will do with bigger roles since Händel and Bleicher won't be there.
On offense there are still the Griva twins, yes their season is underwhelming, but they are still talented, and Sebastian Zwickl and Maik Ziergiebel are solid players, same goes for Kessler.

I hope to watch some of the games at least, and take a look at some guys I have not seen that much like Grin, Naumann, Schloder and the Red Bull goalie Kaiser.

Today I will definitely watch the U16 game against France.

I haven't seen anything even remotely exciting from the Grivas, both with the national team and with Mannheim. At this point, I like Ziergiebel and even Zwickl a lot more. Agreed on Kose – his toolkit is super exciting but no idea how good he'll actually end up being at the next level.

 

[Maverick41]

Unfortunately, there was no stream for the U16 game vs. France. They let me pay for one though. I have to see if I can get my money back.
I watched a little of the U19 against Finland. What a beating. Can we just sit out the World Juniors next year?
Can't watch the U17 right now, but I hope to check it out later.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Unfortunately, there was no stream for the U16 game vs. France. They let me pay for one though. I have to see if I can get my money back.
I watched a little of the U19 against Finland. What a beating. Can we just sit out the World Juniors next year?
Can't watch the U17 right now, but I hope to check it out later.

It was already 3-0 in no time flat.

What a shellacking.

I look at this roster and see the 3 returnees from the WJC, all of whom played VERY minimal roles (ok, Mayer got 13+ minutes in the big game against Norway) and then I look at the rest of the roster and basically only had Peukert, Kühnhauser, Jakovlev, Ruckdäschel, and maybe Focks as players I'd foresee being *in the running* for a WJC spot next winter. And with Jakovlev, his involvement is primarily due to his sometimes heavy physical game while otherwise staying within his limitations.

Hopefully, I'm still on track with that assessment because it'd mean putting the team together with a whole bunch of other players, a good handful of which are busy with the U18 squad just now.

 

[Maverick41]

It was already 3-0 in no time flat.

What a shellacking.

I look at this roster and see the 3 returnees from the WJC, all of whom played VERY minimal roles (ok, Mayer got 13+ minutes in the big game against Norway) and then I look at the rest of the roster and basically only had Peukert, Kühnhauser, Jakovlev, Ruckdäschel, and maybe Focks as players I'd foresee being *in the running* for a WJC spot next winter. And with Jakovlev, his involvement is primarily due to his sometimes heavy physical game while otherwise staying within his limitations.

Hopefully, I'm still on track with that assessment because it'd mean putting the team together with a whole bunch of other players, a good handful of which are busy with the U18 squad just now.

Yeah, I started watching 4 minutes into the game and it was already 0-3.
I did not really watch the whole game. I had it open in a small window while working. But the only players I noticed in a positive way were Focks (multiple times actually), Rieke and Ruckdäschel.
I could absolutely see Focks making the WJC roster next season. His speed and tenacity could be useful.

I agree on your evaluation of Jakovlev, he is not amazing, but he does bring a couple of things to the table we are often lacking. We have had physical players before, but too often they are hurting the team more than they are helping. Jakovlev is rarely hurting the team while still bringing that physical element. Against weaker competition he can actually play the role of power forward with some offense. At the WJC level however, I would not expect much offense from him.

If only the 06s were better than they are. Putting together a decent U20 squad for the WJC will be a difficult task. Of course Panocha, Niehus and a healthy Tropmann will help on defense along with probably some 06s like Merkl and Kaiser maybe.
Among forwards Bicker and Sumpf should give the team a boost, maybe Vinzens who has some nice tools, but his consistency is terrible, at least when I watch him with the national teams. Vadim Schreiner will also be in the mix, but while I think he is better than most of the forwards playing in this tournament, I don't see him making a huge difference.

Like I said before/during the World Juniors, my biggest hope is that a bunch of these guys take a big step forward during next season, just like several of the 04s did this season.
Ruckdäschel is one example that makes me somewhat hopeful. 2-3 years back I was quite high on him, then he seemed to fizzle out a bit, but I like his development recently. If he can keep that up and build on it he could be a very useful player for this group.

It's quite funny, how I know that development is rarely if ever linear, but it still stumps me when players slow down in their development, and I give up on them or sour on them, only for them to then suddenly take another step or two "to get back on track".
The weirdest case for me in recent years has been Rio Kaiser. I went from high hopes, to not wanting to give up on him, to then sort of giving up him, to then completely giving up on him, then tentatively thinking maybe there is still something there, to maybe he won't be as good as I once thought he could be, to now thinking he might turn out even better than I had hoped.

 

[pgfan66]

It really is not looking good. A combined 0-22 against Finland and Sweden? Oof. The U18s just barely beat Japan and can’t beat Ukraine? Oof. The U17s are doing well against Slovakia, but I don’t believe that’s close to their best roster (then again, Germany is missing a large number of top players too).

 

[Maverick41]

It really is not looking good. A combined 0-22 against Finland and Sweden? Oof. The U18s just barely beat Japan and can’t beat Ukraine? Oof. The U17s are doing well against Slovakia, but I don’t believe that’s close to their best roster (then again, Germany is missing a large number of top players too).

Well, we already knew that U19 team was bad, maybe not this bad, but overall it's not that surprising.
And to be fair to the U18, Japan also kept it really close against the Slovak U18 (then got blown out by the Slovak U19), and Ukraine took the Slovak U19 to the shootout.

I have watched several of these games and will watch some more. Once all the games have been played I will share my thoughts on each of these teams.
All of them (except the U19) had some good and some bad (or at least concerning) stuff so far.

 

[Pazucha]

Slovakia has a very weak 2006 class (the few decent players are playing overseas and don't play in the friendly games or exhibition games) but they are not really that good anyway.

Because the 2007 class is good they fill the U18 team with them.

So the U18 team is in reality half U17/U18 that means that the U17 team that played in Fussen is more like a B team.

Slovak best defenseman Luka Radivojevic (2007) stayed in Sweden and their second best defenseman V. Dravecky (2007) is not allowed to play for the National Team yet.

 

[Pazucha]

Germany wins in the shootouts congrats.

5-4

 

[Maverick41]

Ok with all the tournaments done these are my thoughts based on whatever games I saw:

U19 - I did not watch a single full game but parts of the games against Finland, Sweden and Switzerland:

Positives: Um... ok . . . . . ??? Well, I did notice Niclas Focks as a positive a few times through these games.
Negatives: I really don't want to get into details here, because basically everything I saw sucked. They were so outclassed across the board, it felt like watching a random assortment of people who just learned how hockey is played stepping on the ice against actual hockey teams. It's not like they did not try, but they just could not keep up.

U18 - I watched about half the game (2nd half) against Ukraine, I watched the whole game against Slovakia's U18 and everything after the first period of the game against Slovakia's U19

Forwards 2006: Elias Pul is our best 2006 forward and I'll fight anyone who claims otherwise. Thankfully some of the other 06s also showed some promise against what was admittedly not the strongest competition. Tobias Schwarz and Lenny Boos were both good (Schwarz in particular), Nick Maul, Tim Schütz and Clemens Sager also showed that they might be useful.
Defense 2006: On defense Kaiser was ok, but not as good as I had hoped, Ficenec had his ups and downs and Merkl was not kind of mediocre the whole way through. Kretzschmar was a nice surprise. He had his issues, but based on my expectations he did good. Definitely an alternative going forward.
Forwards 2007: Elias Schneider did not play that much and mostly failed to make an impression positive or negative. Lewandowski was very quiet but sort of effective. He did not try to do too much and focused on facilitating for his linemates Boos and Willhöft. Speaking of Willhöft, if he ever develops a close to elite shot, everybody watch out. He played like a smaller, more skilled version of Pul. Just relentless, always moving, always attacking. He would try to stickhandle through 2 or 3 guys, lose the puck, but before the opponent had even figured out that he had the puck Willhöft had already stolen it back. Kind of impressed by Späth. Played a strong, team first game including blocking some painful shots on the penalty kill. But when he had the chance to create some offense you could still see the skill he has always had.
Defense 2007: Bleicher was solid, but nothing more, Händel on the other hand did some really good stuff (not as much as I was hoping for), but also showed his other side, giving up the puck in his own zone because he tried to stickhandle behind or in front of his own net. He will make these horrible mistakes, because he will keep trying to do things that others wouldn't dare. The payoff when it works can be great, but if it goes wrong it looks bad. At least he managed to repair a couple of his mistakes himself, and all but one time he got bailed out by his goalie.
Goalies: Don't really have much to say about them. I struggle with assessing goalies anyway, and I was not able to really focus on their performances. Stuhrmann did well against the U19 of Slovakia for a long time, but then the team ran out of gas and took too many stupid penalties. I liked Vieillard the best, but nobody really stood out to me.

Overall: While many individual players showed some good stuff, the team play overall was disappointing considering the competition. Against the Slovakian teams they played quite well on ES, but they took too many stupid penalties. There was a tiny bit of hometown reffing involved but no outright phantom calls, so the blame rests with the players. I suspect that they simply had nothing left in the tank against the U19, playing again after less than a day's rest.
Against Ukraine they were the better team and they should have put the game away long before OT. In OT they were controlling the play almost the entire time, but did nothing with it, then they didn't pay attention once and gave up the goal. I did not like some of the coaching decisions about who they would out there in certain situations, especially on the power play and in OT. Ficenec got played way too much in those situations compared to Händel. Yes, as mentioned above Händel can be risky, but he is the best skating defensemen and the best puck distributor and should be the first option in my opinion.
One thing I noticed across the board in every tournament, the pk was mostly ok and at times even good, the pp was utterly useless even 5-on-3, and it seems none of our boys can play 3-on-3. Except for trying to maintain posession for as long as possible there was not system or structure I could find. It was like, ok now we have the puck but what do we do with it? Whenever an opposing team had the puck they tried to score.

Ok, this got away from me a little (much longer than intended), so I will stop this right here and make a separate post for the U17 and U16 later tonight.

 

[Maverick41]

Now for part two.

U17 - I watched a little bit (about a period worth spread across the 1st and 2nd period) of the first game, watched the whole 2nd game and nothing of the third.

With most of the top U17 players with the U18, this was actually quite intriguing to watch because I got to see a bunch of players I had not watched a lot, or at all, or at least never with particular focus on them. On defense Fabio Kose was the one who stood out a bit, while the others did a better job than I was expecting, especially defensively. No one except Kose really created much offensively. Stocker and Hempel had a couple of moments, but that's about it.
Among the forwards the were no real surprises for me. Both Grivas played better than I have seen them this season so far, but still quite far from where I saw them 1 year or 2 ago. Sebastian Zwickl and Max Ziergiebel did what I expected. Other forwards I liked (considering expectations) were Kronhardt, who was not standing out in any flashy way, but he was solid and effective, Kessler who played with more physicality than I had seen from him previously and he looked like the most skilled player out there at times. Then there was Tobin Brandt who showed a lot more than I had seen from him previously when he played for the national team. Playing a bigger role with so many forwards playing for the U18 really seemed to suit him.
And finally there was Timo Kose. The past 1-2 years I had him quite clearly behind his twin brother and I still think Fabio is the stronger prospect, but Timo looked much better out there, and also in the leagues games this season it looks like he has caught up quite a bit. I hope he can build on that.

Take all that with an even larger grain of salt, because even during the parts I watched I payed less attention to this team than any of the others.


U16 - Contrary to the initial announcement there were no streams for the first to games, so I only watched the OT loss to Austria

So, this is just based on one single game against an opponent they should have beaten. Despite of that this will be a long one with a lot of positives (I'll try to put it in perspective at the end).

Defense: I have to say I like that d-group, even with a couple of them (Kettler and Augst) not playing as well as I expected. But I have seen enough of them to not be too worried, and it's not like they sucked, they just fell slightly short of my expectations. Rolsing on the other hand, who I was disappointed with the last time I saw him, played much better this time around and while there are certainly flaws in his game, I really like his upside. Oskar Göthe was not really someone I had high on my list, but he had his moments that peaked my interest. Defnitely someone I need to give a closer look. Pizka continues to rise in my estimation and looks like a fixture for this going forward. Another kid I have probably underrated so far is Ivan Komirist. I had seen him several times before, but he always was more of an afterthought and never the focus of my viewings, but here he did very well showing a nice balance of offense and defense.
Martin Mayer confounds me a little. I don't really see that much upside in him, and would not expect him to play as big of a role as he does, but he is so damn consistent for this age. I guess he is the sort of player coaches like because you know what you get. Almost every game I have seen of him so far looked like a copy of the previous one. And while I am still not sure about his upside, I think I whould give him more props for what he does game in and game out.

Forwards: Every single one of the forwards had at least one or two moments where they showed their potential, but handful stood out above the rest. Tobias Krestan showed at least at times his superior blend of skating, puckhandling and playmaking that makes him the top forward among the 08s in my eyes. What really stood out for me this time compared to previous viewings was his work along the boards. That would be a nice addition to his skillset if he could improve this further. To my surprise Lukas Greil did not play on the same line as Krestan, but he had no problem standing out with his speed and work ethic, and also a decent shot, if somewhat lacking in accuracy this time. Both Greil and Krestan were no surprises and performed as expected. Not really a surprise, but more of a nice confirmation of their abilities were the performances of Mats Geppert and Jakub Kottner, both were key players who helped control the pace of the game for the most part and created a lot of offense and puck possession. Before I get to guy I have been itching to talk about since I watched that game, I'll give an honourable mention to Vyacheslav Permitin, who also did a very good job overall.
Finally may favourite player to watch in the game was the lone 09 born Max Penkin. I feel like at this age an additional year of development makes an even bigger difference than it does at the U20 level for example. This makes it even more impressive, that I am not sure if Penkin, Krestan or Greil was our best forward. Penkin could become a complete package if he develops the right way. He has pretty good shot, his vision and playmaking ability are both good, he has a great motor which helps with his forecheck and for the most part he also worked diligently on the defensive side. His skating is a little weird to me. He does not have the speed, acceleration or elusiveness we see from say someone like Willhöft. Speed and quickness are things I usually like to see from players that arent overly tall and/or big like Penkin, but while he looks sort of average in those areas, I still very much like another aspect of his skating. He is solid on his skates. For such a young player his core strength appears to be impressive. I will have to see him against much better competition, but in that game it jumped out at me how many times he was bumped into or he bumped into someone and I don't recall a single time where he went down. Most of the time he wouldn't even break stride or stumble or anything. Defninitely want to see more of him against teams like Switzerland or Slovakia, or even against the top nations. I am trying to keep myself from getting overly excited, but this was such a pleasant little bright spot, I am pretty sure I already lost that fight.

So, now for the much needed perspective: They lost to Austria. That should not have happened, but the whole came they kept trying to be too cute and too fancy instead of just going for the jugular. They controlled most of the possession and had the majority of the chances, but when it came to really great chances, it was pretty even, Austria may have even had a slight edge. I don't have the roster for Austria, so I don't know who he is but shoutout to their #9 who I liked a lot in this game.

There was a comical situation when Austria was on the power play and the puck was basically resting on the goal line and our goalie had slid way out of position to make a save previously. And three Austrians were not able to push the puck over the goal line. I have no idea how that happened, did one of our defenders stop them or did the Austrians interfere with each other? It was wild.

Unfortunately, there were no streams for the first two games, but I liked the statements of the coach who was pointing out some of the problems they had in those games despite the scores of 6:0 and 6:2. He said after both games that they were very efficient with their chances. Too bad they wasted all their efficiency in those games and were the opposite of efficient in this one.
Once the game went to OT, I was sure they would lose. Because as I stated in my previous post, not a single 3-on-3 I saw by any of our teams looked like they knew what they were doing. I know 3-on-3 is kind of gimmicky and there are lot of things our prospects need to be working on that will be more important to their potential careers in hockey, but I do hope at some point they'll get better at this, because it is painful to watch.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

After the recent U19/U18 showings, where are we now with next winter's U20 at this point?

We know that Sumpf, Bicker, Niehus, and Panocha are keys to next year's team.

Brandl, Mayer, Pertuch, and Schreiner are probable returnees.

I thoroughly assume that the Red Bull 05ers Bosecker and Vinzenz are all but locks while Ankirchner, Lemke, and Samanski will be given a look. Their current 06ers Pul and Vinzenz are aboslute locks in my eyes.

Looking at other 05ers from this U19 group that scored 1 goal in 4 games, I can only really see Focks, Jakovlev, Peukert, and Rückdäschel being in serious contention right now. That can change, but boy were these results pretty sobering.

There*s Tropmann of course.

Gotta think this year's U18 squad will have its share of WJC candidates. And in general, of the 06ers, I'm looking at particularly Boos, Ficenec, Kaiser, Kerbel, Maul, Merkl, Neisse, Sager, Schams, Schwarz, Seidl, and Vieillard as the top candidates next fall. Some have aged out for the U18 D1A Worlds.

There are definitely some 07-borns that whet our fancy, but if I were willing to bet that Abstreiter is ready to bring just one of them, then Händel looks like the one to me.

So, who have I missed?

 

[Maverick41]

After the recent U19/U18 showings, where are we now with next winter's U20 at this point?

We know that Sumpf, Bicker, Niehus, and Panocha are keys to next year's team.

Brandl, Mayer, Pertuch, and Schreiner are probable returnees.

I thoroughly assume that the Red Bull 05ers Bosecker and Vinzenz are all but locks while Ankirchner, Lemke, and Samanski will be given a look. Their current 06ers Pul and Vinzenz are aboslute locks in my eyes.

Looking at other 05ers from this U19 group that scored 1 goal in 4 games, I can only really see Focks, Jakovlev, Peukert, and Rückdäschel being in serious contention right now. That can change, but boy were these results pretty sobering.

Gotta think this year's U18 squad will have its share of WJC candidates. And in general, of the 06ers, I'm looking at particularly Boos, Ficenec, Kaiser, Kerbel, Maul, Merkl, Neisse, Sager, Schams, Schwarz, Seidl, and Vieillard as the top candidates next fall. Some have aged out for the U18 D1A Worlds.

There are definitely some 07-borns that whet our fancy, but if I were willing to bet that Abstreiter is ready to bring just one of them, then Händel looks like the one to me.

So, who have I missed?

I don't think you have necessarily missed anyone, but I recently made a list of my candidates for the next World Juniors grouped by position and birth year. The list is a little more extensive and includes several players with minimal chances.
In bold are the ones I believe to be locks to make the team if healthy. I still have Panocha as a lock, but I am a little worried, because his play appears to have dropped off after a decent start.
Within the groups I have ranked them roughly by likelihood of making the team (in my opinion). But the ranking don't necessarily reflect how I view them, and who I would nominate if I were the coach.

A couple of notables:
Leon Hümer is a goalie I have recently come to like a lot. But me and goalies has rarely worked, so I don't know how much that will mean.
I was very close to pick Tobias Schwarz as a lock, and not just because that 05 group is really weak in depth, but because he really won me over.
Anyone after Kopietz on the 2005 forwards list is really a longshot for me, and there are 3-4 others who are at a similar level. 1 or 2 of these guys will probably make it (personally I would like to see Greil on the team), but I don't think they will much of an impact.

Goalies:

2005​	2006​	2007​
Nico Pertuch	Lennart Neiße
Leon Willerscheid	Linus Vieillard
Leon Hümer	Erik Eder
Valentin Ankirchner
Keanu Salmik

Defense:

2005​	2006​	2007​
Paul Mayer	Rio Kaiser	Carlos Händel
Edwin Tropmann	Maximilian Merkl	Max Bleicher
Lua Niehus	Jacob Ficenec
Norwin Panocha	Moritz Kretzschmar
Lars Bosecker	Manuel Schams
Jakob Peukert	Matthias Pape
Moritz Kukuk	Max Hense
Henry Homann
Paul Lemke
Kilian Kühnhauser
Alexander Vladelchtchikov

Forwards:

2005​	2006​	2007​
Julius Sumpf	Elias Pul	David Lewandowski
Kevin Bicker	Tobias Schwarz	Dustin Willhöft
Linus Brandl	Lenny Boos	Mateu Späth
Vadim Schreiner	Nick Maul
Timo Ruckdäschel	Clemens Sager
Paul Vinzens	Felix Kerbel
Raphael Jakovlev	Simon Seidl
Marco Münzenberger	Tim Schütz
Niclas Focks	Clemens Seeger
Robin Rieke
Lukas Kopietz
Niklas Greil
Georg Thal
Noah Samanski
Björn Salhi
Artjom Khaidarov
Hannu Tripcke
Christian Schilling
Noah Münzenberger
Luis Scheibengraber

Whatever roster they end up with, at this point (there is still plenty of time to improve) the team will go as far as the goalies, Sumpf and Bicker can carry them.
I would not be shocked if 8-10 players on the final roster end up being underagers.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

D1A U18 Worlds in Denmark:
Some news today from the DEB

U18-Nationalmannschaft startet in WM-Vorbereitung | Deutscher Eishockey-Bund e.V.

Zum Auftakt der Vorbereitung auf die 2024 IIHF-U18-Weltmeisterschaft Division I, Gruppe A in Frederikshavn (DEN), kommt die deutsche U18-Nationalmannschaft am Montag, den 1. April 2024 in Füssen zusammen. Am Bundesstützpunkt im Ostallgäu stehen für das Team von U18-Honorar-Bundestrainer André...

www.deb-online.de

This camp roster already looks quite interesting even before the boys from Berlin vs Landshut show up after the DNL final.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

It hasn't been discussed here, but the U18 team gaining promotion back into the top group is really quite important for the program.

There were already seven 2007s representing up in Frederikshavn and next year's team could also feature that many 2008-borns in the top group. Going to be very exciting to see what kind of years Lewandowski, Willhöft, Händel, and Bleicher will have in what will be their draft season.

Sure am hoping Penkin and Greil will be ready to strut their stuff next spring.

PS) Looks like Neisse is becoming a serious option in the eyes of the DEB. Really thought Vieillard would be the man, but he only got into the easiest game. Could bode well for the WJC next winter too.

 

[Maverick41]

It hasn't been discussed here, but the U18 team gaining promotion back into the top group is really quite important for the program.

There were already seven 2007s representing up in Frederikshavn and next year's team could also feature that many 2008-borns in the top group. Going to be very exciting to see what kind of years Lewandowski, Willhöft, Händel, and Bleicher will have in what will be their draft season.

Sure am hoping Penkin and Greil will be ready to strut their stuff next spring.

PS) Looks like Neisse is becoming a serious option in the eyes of the DEB. Really thought Vieillard would be the man, but he only got into the easiest game. Could bode well for the WJC next winter too.

Since I couldn't watch any of the games and can only go by stats I don't want to read too much into it, but it seems that most of the 07s did pretty well.
I am not sure I see the same number of 08s making next years' team. Krestan and Greil seem like options and there are a few dmen that might get some consideration, but at forward I really don't see many open spots for underagers since the 07s are much deeper than the 06s were.
I would love to see Penkin make the team, but he's a 09 and would be a double-underager, which makes it unlikely. But at his point, he is the only forward prospect we have coming up, who might pull something like that off, in my opinion.
I still haven't seen him enough to fully start the hype train, but whenever I have seen him play he has left me with a smile on my face. Similar to Willhöft a couple of years ago. Not saying they are similar players, but I have enjoyed watching them in the same way.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Since I couldn't watch any of the games and can only go by stats I don't want to read too much into it, but it seems that most of the 07s did pretty well.
I am not sure I see the same number of 08s making next years' team. Krestan and Greil seem like options and there are a few dmen that might get some consideration, but at forward I really don't see many open spots for underagers since the 07s are much deeper than the 06s were.
I would love to see Penkin make the team, but he's a 09 and would be a double-underager, which makes it unlikely. But at his point, he is the only forward prospect we have coming up, who might pull something like that off, in my opinion.
I still haven't seen him enough to fully start the hype train, but whenever I have seen him play he has left me with a smile on my face. Similar to Willhöft a couple of years ago. Not saying they are similar players, but I have enjoyed watching them in the same way.

You can check out all of the highlights here if you'd like: Highlights

 

[Maverick41]

You can check out all of the highlights here if you'd like: Highlights

I am on a business trip right now, until the end of the month. I think on Wednesday I might get a chance to watch those highlights, so I very much appreciate the link.
Now I am off to bed, it's been a long day and I have to get up at 6am tomorrow.

 

[Maverick41]

The schedules for next season as they stand right now:

U20:
25.07. - 02.08.2024 - Tournament in Piestany (Slovakia)
06.11. - 11.11.2024 - Friendlies in Vierumäki (Finland)
09.12. - 25.12.2024 - WJC training camp and exhibition games in Füssen and Ottawa (Canada)
26.12. - 05.01.2025 - WJC in Ottawa (Canada)

U19:
03.02. - 09.02.2025 - 5-Nations-Tournament in Czechia

U18:
01.08. - 11.08.2024 - Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton (Canada)
05.11. - 10.11.2024 - 4-Nations-Tournament in Denmark
25.12. - 30.12.2024 - 5-Nations-Tournament in Switzerland
04.02. - 09.02.2025 - 4-Nations-Tournament in Slovakia
07.04. - 23.04.2025 - WJC-U18 training camp and exhibition games
23.04. - 03.05.2025 - WJC-U18 in the US

U17:
19.08. - 25.08.2024 - 5-Nations-Tournament in Slovakia
05.11. - 10.11.2024 - 4-Nations-Tournament in Füssen
04.02. - 09.02.2025 - Friendlies in Füssen

U16:
18.08. - 25.08.2024 - 4-Nations-Tournament in Füssen
04.11. - 10.11.2024 - Friendlies in Vierumäki (Finland)
25.12. - 30.12.2024 - 5-Nations-Tournament in Czechia
04.02. - 09.02.2025 - 4-Nations-Tournament in Germany

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

I don't think you have necessarily missed anyone, but I recently made a list of my candidates for the next World Juniors grouped by position and birth year. The list is a little more extensive and includes several players with minimal chances.
In bold are the ones I believe to be locks to make the team if healthy. I still have Panocha as a lock, but I am a little worried, because his play appears to have dropped off after a decent start.
Within the groups I have ranked them roughly by likelihood of making the team (in my opinion). But the ranking don't necessarily reflect how I view them, and who I would nominate if I were the coach.

A very comprehensive list.

Upon first, second, and third glances, I can't see anyone we're missing here at this point.

A couple of notables:
Leon Hümer is a goalie I have recently come to like a lot. But me and goalies has rarely worked, so I don't know how much that will mean.
I was very close to pick Tobias Schwarz as a lock, and not just because that 05 group is really weak in depth, but because he really won me over.
Anyone after Kopietz on the 2005 forwards list is really a longshot for me, and there are 3-4 others who are at a similar level. 1 or 2 of these guys will probably make it (personally I would like to see Greil on the team), but I don't think they will much of an impact.

No need to lock guys in now, even if players like Schwarz and Seidl would seem to be very likely candidates if they don't get totally lost in the numbers game at the pro level. I'm thinking right now that both will be suiting up in the DEL2 this fall.

Should be mighty interesting.

Size be damned, I see Niklas Greil having excellent chances of being on this team come Christmas.

Whatever roster they end up with, at this point (there is still plenty of time to improve) the team will go as far as the goalies, Sumpf and Bicker can carry them.
I would not be shocked if 8-10 players on the final roster end up being underagers.

I think we've reached that point where this staff has to take its 3 best 2005/06 goalies, its 5 best 05/06 Dmen + Händel & Bleicher, and its 11 best 05/06 forwards + Lewandowski & Willhöft.

And let's get Penkin in the mix if he spends the fall statistically destroying whatever league he's playing in.

I sure hope we see him at the Hlinka.

 

[Maverick41]

The roster for the first U20 training camp of the season has been released:

Pos	#	Name	Jahrgang	Verein
GK	30​	Leon Hümer	2005​	Düsseldorfer EG
GK	1​	Nico Pertuch	2005​	Ravensburg Tower Stars
GK	29​	Paul Stocker	2005​	Starbulls Rosenheim
D	12​	Max Bleicher	2007​	Owen Sound Attack
D	7​	Carlos Händel	2007​	Halifax Mooseheads
D	2​	Max Hense	2006​	Kölner Junghaie
D	3​	Rio Kaiser	2006​	Eisbären Juniors Berlin
D	16​	Kilian Kühnhauser	2005​	Starbulls Rosenheim
D	10​	Timo Ruckdäschel	2005​	Grizzlys Wolfsburg
D	4​	Moritz Kukuk	2005​	Cowichan Capitals
D	5​	Paul Mayer	2005​	Bietigheim Steelers
D	8​	Noah Samanski	2005​	Wenatchee Wild
D	6​	Norwin Panocha	2005​	Prince Albert Raiders
F	23​	Linus Brandl	2005​	EV Landshut
F	19​	Niclas Focks	2005​	Krefelder EV
F	22​	David Lewandowski	2007​	Düsseldorfer EG
F	28​	Nick Maul	2006​	Red Bull Hockey Juniors
F	9​	Elias Pul	2006​	Red Bull Hockey Juniors
F	18​	Clemens Sager	2006​	Kassel Huskies
F	13​	Vadim Schreiner	2005​	Red Bull Hockey Juniors
F	25​	Tobias Schwarz	2006​	EV Landshut
F	27​	Simon Seidl	2006​	EV Landshut
F	20​	Mateu Späth	2007​	Kölner Junghaie
F	26​	Julius Sumpf	2005​	Moncton Wildcats
F	19​	Dustin Willhöft	2007​	Jungadler Mannheim

Some notable absentees:
Goalies: Leon Willerscheid, Lennart Neiße
Defense: Lua Niehus, Edwin Tropmann, Maximilian Merkl
Forwards: Kevin Bicker, Lenny Boos, Clemens Seeger

Maybe some of them are injured, so I am not sure they were actually just omitted.
Definitely a rather young roster. Also surprised to see both Ruckdäschel and Samanski listed as defensemen. With Ruckdäschel I am somewhat less surprised, but I have never seen Samanski play D before.