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:
[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TH]
2005
[/TH]
[TH]
2006
[/TH]
[TH]
2007
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Nico Pertuch[/TD]
[TD]Lennart Neiße[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Leon Willerscheid[/TD]
[TD]Linus Vieillard[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Leon Hümer[/TD]
[TD]Erik Eder[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Valentin Ankirchner[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Keanu Salmik[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Defense:
[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TH]
2005
[/TH]
[TH]
2006
[/TH]
[TH]
2007
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Paul Mayer[/TD]
[TD]Rio Kaiser[/TD]
[TD]Carlos Händel[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Edwin Tropmann[/TD]
[TD]Maximilian Merkl[/TD]
[TD]Max Bleicher[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Lua Niehus[/TD]
[TD]Jacob Ficenec[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Norwin Panocha[/TD]
[TD]Moritz Kretzschmar[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lars Bosecker[/TD]
[TD]Manuel Schams[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Jakob Peukert[/TD]
[TD]Matthias Pape[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Moritz Kukuk[/TD]
[TD]Max Hense[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Henry Homann[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Paul Lemke[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Kilian Kühnhauser[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Alexander Vladelchtchikov[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Forwards:
[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TH]
2005
[/TH]
[TH]
2006
[/TH]
[TH]
2007
[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Julius Sumpf[/TD]
[TD]
Elias Pul[/TD]
[TD]David Lewandowski[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Kevin Bicker[/TD]
[TD]Tobias Schwarz[/TD]
[TD]Dustin Willhöft[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Linus Brandl[/TD]
[TD]Lenny Boos[/TD]
[TD]Mateu Späth[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Vadim Schreiner[/TD]
[TD]Nick Maul[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]
Timo Ruckdäschel[/TD]
[TD]Clemens Sager[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Paul Vinzens[/TD]
[TD]Felix Kerbel[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Raphael Jakovlev[/TD]
[TD]Simon Seidl[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Marco Münzenberger[/TD]
[TD]Tim Schütz[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Niclas Focks[/TD]
[TD]Clemens Seeger[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Robin Rieke[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lukas Kopietz[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Niklas Greil[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Georg Thal[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Noah Samanski[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Björn Salhi[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Artjom Khaidarov[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Hannu Tripcke[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Christian Schilling[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Noah Münzenberger[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Luis Scheibengraber[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
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.