International: German Junior National Teams

[Chapin Landvogt]

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

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Pos[/TD]
[TD]#[/TD]
[TD]Name[/TD]
[TD]Jahrgang[/TD]
[TD]Verein[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]GK[/TD]

[TD]

30​

[/TD]

[TD]Leon Hümer[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Düsseldorfer EG[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]GK[/TD]

[TD]

1​

[/TD]

[TD]Nico Pertuch[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Ravensburg Tower Stars[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]GK[/TD]

[TD]

29​

[/TD]

[TD]Paul Stocker[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Starbulls Rosenheim[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

12​

[/TD]

[TD]Max Bleicher[/TD]

[TD]

2007​

[/TD]

[TD]Owen Sound Attack[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

7​

[/TD]

[TD]Carlos Händel[/TD]

[TD]

2007​

[/TD]

[TD]Halifax Mooseheads[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

2​

[/TD]

[TD]Max Hense[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]Kölner Junghaie[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

3​

[/TD]

[TD]Rio Kaiser[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]Eisbären Juniors Berlin[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

16​

[/TD]

[TD]Kilian Kühnhauser[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Starbulls Rosenheim[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

10​

[/TD]

[TD]Timo Ruckdäschel[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Grizzlys Wolfsburg[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

4​

[/TD]

[TD]Moritz Kukuk[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Cowichan Capitals[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

5​

[/TD]

[TD]Paul Mayer[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Bietigheim Steelers[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

8​

[/TD]

[TD]Noah Samanski[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Wenatchee Wild[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

6​

[/TD]

[TD]Norwin Panocha[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Prince Albert Raiders[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

23​

[/TD]

[TD]Linus Brandl[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]EV Landshut[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

19​

[/TD]

[TD]Niclas Focks[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Krefelder EV[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

22​

[/TD]

[TD]David Lewandowski[/TD]

[TD]

2007​

[/TD]

[TD]Düsseldorfer EG[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

28​

[/TD]

[TD]Nick Maul[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]Red Bull Hockey Juniors[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

9​

[/TD]

[TD]Elias Pul[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]Red Bull Hockey Juniors[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

18​

[/TD]

[TD]Clemens Sager[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]Kassel Huskies[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

13​

[/TD]

[TD]Vadim Schreiner[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Red Bull Hockey Juniors[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

25​

[/TD]

[TD]Tobias Schwarz[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]EV Landshut[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

27​

[/TD]

[TD]Simon Seidl[/TD]

[TD]

2006​

[/TD]

[TD]EV Landshut[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

20​

[/TD]

[TD]Mateu Späth[/TD]

[TD]

2007​

[/TD]

[TD]Kölner Junghaie[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

26​

[/TD]

[TD]Julius Sumpf[/TD]

[TD]

2005​

[/TD]

[TD]Moncton Wildcats[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

19​

[/TD]

[TD]Dustin Willhöft[/TD]

[TD]

2007​

[/TD]

[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

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.

This was the roster in the official press release:

Here, Tropmann is included. Ruckdäschel and Samanski are listed as forwards.

But you are right about the other absences.

Gotta think that Niehus, Merkl, and especially Bicker simply can't be there for some other reason. One way or another, I can only imagine an injury or an absolutely rotten terrible start to the season could keep them off the WJC roster.

Stocker and Hümer are definitely the surprise names here as Willerscheid, Neiße, and Veiellard have all got to be ahead of them on the goaltending totem pole.

HLINKA GRETZKY CUP:
It's lovely seeing Lewandowski, Händel, Bleicher, Willhöft, and Späth here but they're all eligible for the HG Cup. I believe Kaiser is too. If so, why wouldn't they be with the U18 team that is surely heading over to Edmonton any day now?

 

[Maverick41]

This was the roster in the official press release:
View attachment 896608
View attachment 896609

Here, Tropmann is included. Ruckdäschel and Samanski are listed as forwards.

But you are right about the other absences.

Gotta think that Niehus, Merkl, and especially Bicker simply can't be there for some other reason. One way or another, I can only imagine an injury or an absolutely rotten terrible start to the season could keep them off the WJC roster.

Stocker and Hümer are definitely the surprise names here as Willerscheid, Neiße, and Veiellard have all got to be ahead of them on the goaltending totem pole.

HLINKA GRETZKY CUP:
It's lovely seeing Lewandowski, Händel, Bleicher, Willhöft, and Späth here but they're all eligible for the HG Cup. I believe Kaiser is too. If so, why wouldn't they be with the U18 team that is surely heading over to Edmonton any day now?

Interesting, I took the roster from the DEB homepage, which is not always reliable.

I am not that surprised about Hümer, because he has really been rising in my estimation towards the end of the past season. But Stocker came a bit out of left field for me.

As for the Hlinka situation. This camp runs through August 2nd and I believe the U18 team flies to Canada on August 1st (I am not 100% sure about this). So, my guess would be the 07s will be in camp for the first few days and then join the Hlinka team on their flight to Canada.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

I am not that surprised about Hümer, because he has really been rising in my estimation towards the end of the past season. But Stocker came a bit out of left field for me.

Interesting to hear about Hümer.

As for the Hlinka situation. This camp runs through August 2nd and I believe the U18 team flies to Canada on August 1st (I am not 100% sure about this). So, my guess would be the 07s will be in camp for the first few days and then join the Hlinka team on their flight to Canada.

If this is the HG Cup team, it'll be one worth watching: Germany U18 - Roster, News, Stats & more

Their group is naturally a killer though. No SUI or SVK to duke things out with.

 

[Maverick41]

Interesting to hear about Hümer.



If this is the HG Cup team, it'll be one worth watching: Germany U18 - Roster, News, Stats & more

Their group is naturally a killer though. No SUI or SVK to duke things out with.

Due to my bad track record with goalies, I will never again get too excited about a goalie no matter how he plays in games I watch, but I have seen Hümer a few times towards the end of the season (although one of the games was from earlier, but I I only got around to watching it at that time), and he looked pretty good in all of them. He is not a big goalie, but he moved well side to side and seemed to track the puck well.
However, a lot of goalies look good in competitions where their team is evenly matched with the opponent or even superior to them, but that will rarely be the case when they play for the national teams, so we will see how any of our goalies perform against elite competition. For the U20 Nico Pertuch appears to be the #1 guy for now.

Definitely an interesting roster. Most of the guys were expected, but 3 guys interest me in particular, because two of them I did not have them on my radar at all and the other one I have just never had a chance to watch.
The last one is Aaron Kaiser. The downside for me when our prospects join Red Bull is that I cannot watch them with some rare exceptions when I manage to catch a live stream and when they play for the national team. So, I hope he gets at least a game that I can watch.
Then there is another goalie Nikita Kluev. I had noticed that he played in the US, but I did not really pay him much mind. So, I am very curious to get a look at his game.
And finally Noah Smith, who I was not aware of at all. Absolutely no clue about this kid, so I wonder where he will slot in on a blue line with the likes of Bleicher, Händel and Kose.

I don't expect great results, because even if this is our strongest team since the 02s, the gap in talent is still just too big. But I hope some individual players will rise to the occasion and show that they can hold their own at this level.
But overall this will mostly be a learning experience for the kids, that will hopefully help in the long run.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Since it hasn't been posted here, the Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster:

 

[Maverick41]

The U20 team (minus the 07s) lost two friendlies to Slovakia 3-4 and 0-2 this week.
I only watched parts of each game, so anything that follows should not be taken too seriously.

While the parts I saw were neither horrible nor good, I still feel that at the World Juniors this team will go as far as the 07s can carry it.
Sumpf had a couple nice moments, as you would expect and Panocha looked better than the last time I saw him on this team.
I saw a couple questionable defensive plays (or attempted defensive plays) from Kaiser, but he also had a couple of surprisingly good offensive moments, when he joined the rush. One of those lead to a goal.

Pertuch played the first game in goal which they lost 3-4 on two late goals against. From what I saw Pertuch looked mostly calm and collected and made a couple of nice saves. The two late goals may or may not have been deflected. Could not tell without replay. If they weren't deflected he should have had them.
Leon Hümer started the second game (0-2) and played well in the beginning. He later gave up 2 goals that I did not see, so I can't say if he should have stopped either one.
After the second period he was replaced by Steve Majher, who did not give up another goal, but I only saw a little of the 3rd period, and he did not have to make any difficult saves during those few minutes I saw, so I don't really have an opinion on him yet.

I hope there will be streams available for the Hlinka, so I can check out the U18 next.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

Leon Hümer started the second game (0-2) and played well in the beginning. He later gave up 2 goals that I did not see, so I can't say if he should have stopped either one.

After the second period he was replaced by Steve Majher, who did not give up another goal, but I only saw a little of the 3rd period, and he did not have to make any difficult saves during those few minutes I saw, so I don't really have an opinion on him yet.

I saw the game. The stats at the site are absolutely incorrect.

Hümer pitched a shutout over 32 minutes.

Majher was switched in in the 33rd minute. He looked good off the bat, but then there were two breakdowns coming in a short period of time and the Slovaks scored the two goals against him.

The stats claim he first started playing in the 3rd period. I have no idea why.

Him being switched in was one of the more eye-opening aspects of the game (the feed by the SVK Sport channel was pretty high-quality) because I immediately thought, "Hmmm, ok, they want to get a look at all of the goalies. Understandable. Could backfire because Hümer was doing really well."

As such, the stats at the Slovakian portal - and I noticed this after the game - are definitely incorrect and that's unfortunate for Hümer because he didn't let those goals in.

PS) One of my biggest takes was that Tropmann was in the top pairing together with Panocha and played very confidently. He did have a major blooper in the second game that led to one of the goals against. But on the whole, he was positively noticeable. Which would be good for him after the draft year season he just had.

 

[Maverick41]

I saw the game. The stats at the site are absolutely incorrect.

Hümer pitched a shutout over 32 minutes.

Majher was switched in in the 33rd minute. He looked good off the bat, but then there were two breakdowns coming in a short period of time and the Slovaks scored the two goals against him.

The stats claim he first started playing in the 3rd period. I have no idea why.

Him being switched in was one of the more eye-opening aspects of the game (the feed by the SVK Sport channel was pretty high-quality) because I immediately thought, "Hmmm, ok, they want to get a look at all of the goalies. Understandable. Could backfire because Hümer was doing really well."

As such, the stats at the Slovakian portal - and I noticed this after the game - are definitely incorrect and that's unfortunate for Hümer because he didn't let those goals in.

PS) One of my biggest takes was that Tropmann was in the top pairing together with Panocha and played very confidently. He did have a major blooper in the second game that led to one of the goals against. But on the whole, he was positively noticeable. Which would be good for him after the draft year season he just had.

Thanks for that input. I saw most of the 1st period of that game, a few minutes of the beginning of the second, and then I had the third period on, but only really watched maybe 3-5 minutes of it and that's with stoppages. So I missed the goalie change.

I should not be surprised that the boxscore is inaccurate, considering I have been watching many streams of U17, U15 and U13 games this past season and when I compared what I watched to the boxscores I have seen goals assisited on and even scored by players that weren't even on the ice at the time, while the actual players involved in the goal did not get a point at all.
I also noticed with these national team games that they often just ignore the secondary assists. It's a shame they cannot get these things right.

It's probably wishful thinking, but I see a little bit of Mathias Niederberger in Hümer, though I don't expect him to reach the same level.

 

[KerbanHockey]

Hello guys, this is my first post in years. I only read your posts, which I'm always really excited about, so thanks for always keeping me (and others as well) updated about the German national teams and prospects. Obviously, a special thanks to Maverick, whom I'm really grateful for all the work he has put into these threads over the last couple of years.

I want to give you guys my opinion on the Hlinka game yesterday vs. Czechia. I started watching the game about halfway through the first period. Unfortunately, I always had to fight with lags due to a bad stream quality. There were rarely any periods of the game where I was able to watch more consecutive minutes of the game without the stream suddenly stopping for a few seconds (sometimes even minutes). So take the following notes with a grain of salt. I also have to admit that my "scouting abilities" are way worse than yours; you guys are far better at judging the skill (vision, stickhandling, skating, etc.) and the upside of a talent than I am. So this is just my opinion:

Overall: There were some shifts from the team in general that were really good. Good offensive plays, good zone entries, etc. But in a larger picture, Germany was just outskilled (sometimes by a huge margin) by the Czechs. I was always really excited about this '07 group (and I still am), but yesterday was a perfect example to see the difference in overall skill between the top nations (where I would consider this year's Czech team) and ours. There's especially one point where I could see a HUGE difference: the skating. I'm going to go to the individual players later on, but except for Willhöft and Händel (maybe Kessler), all good German players, like the Griva twins, Lewandowski, and Bleicher, are so much worse in their skating abilities than the Czech players. It just caught my eye right away.

About the individual players (in my opinion, there wasn't a single German player who was really dominating in that game, so keep that in mind):

Dustin Willhöft: I swear to god, if that kid was just 4-5 cm taller, he would make such a huge impact (off course it's not only about the size, he needs to get stronger as well). Good skating, good passing plays, overall one of Germany's best players yesterday. Good pass on Lewandowski's goal. And the goal he scored was a beauty. But there's one thing that's really concerning me: Sometimes due to his good skating, he had a bit of room, overskated opponents but was then just "checked" by the Czech defender and separated from the puck in a fairly easy way - and that's due to his lack of size. It was so disappointing to see a player who has huge potential in so many areas, but because he is just 5'7", defenders were sometimes just giving him a little push and he was struggling to even stay on his feet. Disappointing because in all other areas there's a possibility to improve, but you obviously can't "improve" your size. Still, one of my favorite German prospects.

David Lewandowski: He was nearly invisible in the first 35-40 minutes. Also because the Germans took a lot of penalties and he wasn't (at least as far as I can remember, I'm not 100% sure though) on a penalty kill unit. In the third period, he had two really good situations where he unfortunately got one off the post on a nifty move against the goaltender. He also had a good chance where he beat two or three opponents, creating a good scoring opportunity. You could really see his potential; there were flashes of great skill displayed, but not at a consistent level.

Carlos Händel: Not really that noticeable in the offensive zone, he had some good defensive plays where he created more room for himself from an attacking Czech player, sometimes a bit too risky (I think you guys know what I mean, as Händel likes to dangle in his own zone a bit too much sometimes). But I like the confidence and the IQ at this moment, trying to slow the play down rather than forcefully trying a pass to, for example, the neutral zone, just to "create something." These situations sometimes remind me of Seider and Stützle. I also like his skating a lot - very smooth.

Griva twins: I just simply don't like their skating... they seemed so slow compared to the Czech players. Which is unfortunate because they have great vision. Most of the good offensive plays on the team came from the Griva twins and Zwickl line (Zwickl, who I liked too, had good pressure in the offense, uses his size very well, and has good vision too). I think they do have some upside but really need to improve their skating. One thing that also caught my eye was their defensive awareness. They made bad decisions which sometimes also led to a goal for the Czechs. They definitely need to work on their defense.

Max Bleicher: Honestly the most disappointing German player - also because I have high hopes for him. He tried to get some offensive plays going, but most of them were in vain. Bad shots, overhandling the puck on the blue line at a power play, etc. He also made a lot of mistakes in the defensive zone as well. Maybe he just had a bad day - at least I hope so. I saw a couple of games from EV Füssen in the Oberliga last season, and I always thought his best ability is his defense... I couldn't see that yesterday.

I don't want to go through all of the other players; it would just be too much. Schneider and Späth were on the player list for the game, but I can't remember seeing them on the ice. Maybe it was exactly at the moment the stream was lagging, but as far as I can remember, they weren't getting any ice time - I don't know why.

So like I said before, take all of that written with a grain of salt as I'm not that skilled in scouting young players. And this is also all based on this one game.
I'm trying to post more in the future.

 

[pgfan66]

Hello guys, this is my first post in years. I only read your posts, which I'm always really excited about, so thanks for always keeping me (and others as well) updated about the German national teams and prospects. Obviously, a special thanks to Maverick, whom I'm really grateful for all the work he has put into these threads over the last couple of years.

I want to give you guys my opinion on the Hlinka game yesterday vs. Czechia. I started watching the game about halfway through the first period. Unfortunately, I always had to fight with lags due to a bad stream quality. There were rarely any periods of the game where I was able to watch more consecutive minutes of the game without the stream suddenly stopping for a few seconds (sometimes even minutes). So take the following notes with a grain of salt. I also have to admit that my "scouting abilities" are way worse than yours; you guys are far better at judging the skill (vision, stickhandling, skating, etc.) and the upside of a talent than I am. So this is just my opinion:

Overall: There were some shifts from the team in general that were really good. Good offensive plays, good zone entries, etc. But in a larger picture, Germany was just outskilled (sometimes by a huge margin) by the Czechs. I was always really excited about this '07 group (and I still am), but yesterday was a perfect example to see the difference in overall skill between the top nations (where I would consider this year's Czech team) and ours. There's especially one point where I could see a HUGE difference: the skating. I'm going to go to the individual players later on, but except for Willhöft and Händel (maybe Kessler), all good German players, like the Griva twins, Lewandowski, and Bleicher, are so much worse in their skating abilities than the Czech players. It just caught my eye right away.

About the individual players (in my opinion, there wasn't a single German player who was really dominating in that game, so keep that in mind):

Dustin Willhöft: I swear to god, if that kid was just 4-5 cm taller, he would make such a huge impact (off course it's not only about the size, he needs to get stronger as well). Good skating, good passing plays, overall one of Germany's best players yesterday. Good pass on Lewandowski's goal. And the goal he scored was a beauty. But there's one thing that's really concerning me: Sometimes due to his good skating, he had a bit of room, overskated opponents but was then just "checked" by the Czech defender and separated from the puck in a fairly easy way - and that's due to his lack of size. It was so disappointing to see a player who has huge potential in so many areas, but because he is just 5'7", defenders were sometimes just giving him a little push and he was struggling to even stay on his feet. Disappointing because in all other areas there's a possibility to improve, but you obviously can't "improve" your size. Still, one of my favorite German prospects.

David Lewandowski: He was nearly invisible in the first 35-40 minutes. Also because the Germans took a lot of penalties and he wasn't (at least as far as I can remember, I'm not 100% sure though) on a penalty kill unit. In the third period, he had two really good situations where he unfortunately got one off the post on a nifty move against the goaltender. He also had a good chance where he beat two or three opponents, creating a good scoring opportunity. You could really see his potential; there were flashes of great skill displayed, but not at a consistent level.

Carlos Händel: Not really that noticeable in the offensive zone, he had some good defensive plays where he created more room for himself from an attacking Czech player, sometimes a bit too risky (I think you guys know what I mean, as Händel likes to dangle in his own zone a bit too much sometimes). But I like the confidence and the IQ at this moment, trying to slow the play down rather than forcefully trying a pass to, for example, the neutral zone, just to "create something." These situations sometimes remind me of Seider and Stützle. I also like his skating a lot - very smooth.

Griva twins: I just simply don't like their skating... they seemed so slow compared to the Czech players. Which is unfortunate because they have great vision. Most of the good offensive plays on the team came from the Griva twins and Zwickl line (Zwickl, who I liked too, had good pressure in the offense, uses his size very well, and has good vision too). I think they do have some upside but really need to improve their skating. One thing that also caught my eye was their defensive awareness. They made bad decisions which sometimes also led to a goal for the Czechs. They definitely need to work on their defense.

Max Bleicher: Honestly the most disappointing German player - also because I have high hopes for him. He tried to get some offensive plays going, but most of them were in vain. Bad shots, overhandling the puck on the blue line at a power play, etc. He also made a lot of mistakes in the defensive zone as well. Maybe he just had a bad day - at least I hope so. I saw a couple of games from EV Füssen in the Oberliga last season, and I always thought his best ability is his defense... I couldn't see that yesterday.

I don't want to go through all of the other players; it would just be too much. Schneider and Späth were on the player list for the game, but I can't remember seeing them on the ice. Maybe it was exactly at the moment the stream was lagging, but as far as I can remember, they weren't getting any ice time - I don't know why.

So like I said before, take all of that written with a grain of salt as I'm not that skilled in scouting young players. And this is also all based on this one game.
I'm trying to post more in the future.

I didn't get a chance to watch the game but your takes sound spot-on.

The Grivas were one of, if not the, disappointment of this past DNL season for me. They're small, slow, and their skill level isn't high-end even for German junior standards. So they're not even a little bit relevant for the draft at this point. I was surprised to see they've scored multiple points in the first two games.

Bleicher being talked about as a potential top-3-round prospect for the draft is ridiculous to me too. He wouldn't even be on my watchlist for the draft going into the season. He's small and his skating on a 1-10 scale is maybe a 2.5. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how he'll do in the OHL – I personally have my doubts.

Lewandowski does have a tendency to disappear for long stretches of games, so that doesn't surprise me either. He's still the top forward prospect and has decent draft chances, but only if he has a good year. In my opinion, he should make the jump to the WHL because I don't think he'll see the ice much in the DEL and isn't ready for it either.

Händel is probably the most promising prospect right now. He has size, is smart at both ends of the rink, can skate and has good puck skills. Sure, he could be more explosive, have quicker hands and whatnot, but every young player has areas of improvement. Händel was in an excellent development program in Sweden and is now headed to a top-tier development organization in Canada, which should be the perfect fit for him. I definitely have high hopes.

 

[Maverick41]

The U20 and the U18 teams had their first games of the season. The U17 is next this coming week and the U16 team follows the week after that.

The U17 team faces hosts Slovakia, the US, Czechia and Switzerland.

This is the roster according to the DEB website. So, this may not be entirely correct.

Pos	#	Name	Team	DOB
G		Max Bolle	RB Hockey Academy	24.01.2008​
G		Mika Hennig	Jungadler Mannheim	24.02.2008​
G		Niclas Wolter	ESC Dresden	02.02.2008​
D	2​	Jan-Luca Augst	ESV Kaufbeuren	09.02.2008​
D	27​	Luis Gerhofer	Starbulls Rosenheim	09.05.2008​
D	19​	Jonas Hördler	VER Selb	21.05.2008​
D	7​	Daniel Kettler	Jungadler Mannheim	11.06.2008​
D	3​	Martin Mayer	Starbulls Rosenheim	02.04.2008​
D	4​	Aurelius Pizka	Västerås IK	12.01.2008​
D	5​	Robert Riegel	EHC 80 Nürnberg	26.03.2008​
D	21​	Darian Rolsing	Tappara	14.02.2008​
F	12​	Luis Becker	EV Landshut	26.01.2008​
F	11​	Toni Fürst	Kölner Junghaie	27.02.2008​
F	14​	Mats Geppert	ERC Ingolstadt	18.06.2008​
F	15​	Jakub Kottner	Kölner Junghaie	22.03.2008​
F	17​	Tobias Krestan	HV71	04.01.2008​
F	28​	Andreas Kuhn	EHC 80 Nürnberg	28.06.2008​
F	18​	Leon Lell	EHC 80 Nürnberg	11.03.2008​
F	26​	Erik Michel	Jungadler Mannheim	02.01.2008​
F	10​	Vyacheslav Permitin	Jungadler Mannheim	19.01.2008​
F	16​	Florian Schloßnikel	RB Hockey Academy	21.05.2008​
F	22​	Maximilian Strauß	EC Bad Tölz	30.07.2008​
F	8​	Jason Struck	Jungadler Mannheim	18.03.2008​

Most notable abesences in my opinion are forwards Lukas Greil, Quirin Schlager, Arel Albert and defenseman Moussa Hackert.

 

[kudla]

Any word on how the 07 team stood out on Hlinka ?

 

[Fabianski]

The U20 and the U18 teams had their first games of the season. The U17 is next this coming week and the U16 team follows the week after that.

The U17 team faces hosts Slovakia, the US, Czechia and Switzerland.

This is the roster according to the DEB website. So, this may not be entirely correct.

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Pos[/TD]
[TD]#[/TD]
[TD]Name[/TD]
[TD]Team[/TD]
[TD]DOB[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]G[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Max Bolle[/TD]
[TD]RB Hockey Academy[/TD]

[TD]

24.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]G[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Mika Hennig[/TD]
[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]

[TD]

24.02.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]G[/TD]
[TD][/TD]

[TD]Niclas Wolter[/TD]
[TD]ESC Dresden[/TD]

[TD]

02.02.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

2​

[/TD]

[TD]Jan-Luca Augst[/TD]
[TD]ESV Kaufbeuren[/TD]

[TD]

09.02.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

27​

[/TD]

[TD]Luis Gerhofer[/TD]
[TD]Starbulls Rosenheim[/TD]

[TD]

09.05.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

19​

[/TD]

[TD]Jonas Hördler[/TD]
[TD]VER Selb[/TD]

[TD]

21.05.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

7​

[/TD]

[TD]Daniel Kettler[/TD]
[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]

[TD]

11.06.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

3​

[/TD]

[TD]Martin Mayer[/TD]
[TD]Starbulls Rosenheim[/TD]

[TD]

02.04.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

4​

[/TD]

[TD]Aurelius Pizka[/TD]
[TD]Västerås IK[/TD]

[TD]

12.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

5​

[/TD]

[TD]Robert Riegel[/TD]
[TD]EHC 80 Nürnberg[/TD]

[TD]

26.03.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]D[/TD]

[TD]

21​

[/TD]

[TD]Darian Rolsing[/TD]
[TD]Tappara[/TD]

[TD]

14.02.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

12​

[/TD]

[TD]Luis Becker[/TD]
[TD]EV Landshut[/TD]

[TD]

26.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

11​

[/TD]

[TD]Toni Fürst[/TD]
[TD]Kölner Junghaie[/TD]

[TD]

27.02.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

14​

[/TD]

[TD]Mats Geppert[/TD]
[TD]ERC Ingolstadt[/TD]

[TD]

18.06.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

15​

[/TD]

[TD]Jakub Kottner[/TD]
[TD]Kölner Junghaie[/TD]

[TD]

22.03.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

17​

[/TD]

[TD]Tobias Krestan[/TD]
[TD]HV71[/TD]

[TD]

04.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

28​

[/TD]

[TD]Andreas Kuhn[/TD]
[TD]EHC 80 Nürnberg[/TD]

[TD]

28.06.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

18​

[/TD]

[TD]Leon Lell[/TD]
[TD]EHC 80 Nürnberg[/TD]

[TD]

11.03.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

26​

[/TD]

[TD]Erik Michel[/TD]
[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]

[TD]

02.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

10​

[/TD]

[TD]Vyacheslav Permitin[/TD]
[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]

[TD]

19.01.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

16​

[/TD]

[TD]Florian Schloßnikel[/TD]
[TD]RB Hockey Academy[/TD]

[TD]

21.05.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

22​

[/TD]

[TD]Maximilian Strauß[/TD]
[TD]EC Bad Tölz[/TD]

[TD]

30.07.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]F[/TD]

[TD]

8​

[/TD]

[TD]Jason Struck[/TD]
[TD]Jungadler Mannheim[/TD]

[TD]

18.03.2008​

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Most notable abesences in my opinion are forwards Lukas Greil, Quirin Schlager, Arel Albert and defenseman Moussa Hackert.

Do you know, why Max Penkin isn't nominated?

 

[Maverick41]

Do you know, why Max Penkin isn't nominated?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: No, if Penkin is not on the U16 roster for next week, I will assume he is injured or otherwise unavailable, but my guess would be that they wanted to keep things to the one birth year for the first camp of the season, so they would have just 08s in this group and just 09s in the U16 group next week.

I have no data on this, so this is just from memory, but I don't really recall any underagers on the U17 or U16 rosters for the first training camp/tournament of the season, since I started following our prospects. I'm not sure if even Draisaitl, Seider or Stützle were exceptions to this.

Again, this is from memory and I have not checked previous rosters to confirm this, but I think that they only invite underagers to the U17 and U16 teams as the season progresses, if at all. In general it seems that underagers on the U20 teams are common and on the U18 team they have them too, but far less frequently. On the U17 teams it's already a notable exception and on the U16 teams, Penkin from last season, is really the only case I can recall.

I am very excited about that U16 roster, because this is probably the first time I have actually seen a decent number of U15 players during the previous season and I am very curious how many of the kids that get nominated are the ones I also have on my radar, and how many will be complete surprises.

 

[Maverick41]

Any word on how the 07 team stood out on Hlinka ?

Unfortunately not from me, because I saw next to nothing from the tournament. I tried to watch the game against Czechia, but my internet connection was out for the entire first period, and when it finally started working again a couple of minutes into the second period, the streams I found were not so much streams, but more like slide shows. I gave up pretty quickly and the next day my dad suffered some complications after shoulder surgery and it got a little scary for a few days, so I completely missed the rest of the tournament.

I only got to read some comments in the Hlinka thread and on this board from posters who were able to watch a bit and shared their thoughts.
Most of what I read was rather negative. Only Carlos Händel appears to have had a solid tournament, or at least some good games.

 

[Maverick41]

Do you know, why Max Penkin isn't nominated?

I just checked the roster on the tournament website and there Penkin is included in the roster.
So, it might be once again a case of the roster on the DEB website being inaccurate.

Statistics | 2024 U17 5 Nations Tournament, Piešťany (SVK) | Germany U17 | HockeySlovakia.sk - Official web of slovak hockey

Hokej na prvom mieste. Program a výsledky, live zápasy, Å¡tatistiky, reprezentácia, hokejové správy, KHL, NHL, európske ligy, tréningové cviÄenia.

www.hockeyslovakia.sk

 

[Fabianski]

Here are some scouting reports of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup: 2025 NHL Draft: Scouting reports on over 100 players from the Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Looks like that the Griva Twins have done something to improve their chance to get picked on the upcoming draft

 

[Maverick41]

Here are some scouting reports of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup: 2025 NHL Draft: Scouting reports on over 100 players from the Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Looks like that the Griva Twins have done something to improve their chance to get picked on the upcoming draft

Thanks for sharing.

Although, I am a bit appalled by the horrible writing in the article. I assume with a name like Steven Ellis that English is in fact the author's native language. Considering that I can only assume nobody proof read any of that.
There are so many basic mistakes, just in the part about the German players alone, that it boggles the mind how anybody would publish something like this.

 

[pgfan66]

Preseason hot takes:

Marcel Tabert will be a regular for this year’s German U19 / next year’s U20 by season’s end.

Jannik Dornberger will play for Germany at the 2025 U18 worlds.

 

[Maverick41]

Preseason hot takes:

Marcel Tabert will be a regular for this year’s German U19 / next year’s U20 by season’s end.

Jannik Dornberger will play for Germany at the 2025 U18 worlds.

I'm definitely intrigued by the first one. I noticed that Tabert has joined Köln and I am looking forward to seeing him play more often. So far my opinion of him is almost exclusively based on stat watching with very little context.

Dornberger has not really been on my radar at all and I cannot recall to have ever seen him play. If he was in a game I saw, I did not notice him, which doesn't have to be a bad thing for a defenseman. I will keep an eye out for him this season.

 

[pgfan66]

I'm definitely intrigued by the first one. I noticed that Tabert has joined Köln and I am looking forward to seeing him play more often. So far my opinion of him is almost exclusively based on stat watching with very little context.

Dornberger has not really been on my radar at all and I cannot recall to have ever seen him play. If he was in a game I saw, I did not notice him, which doesn't have to be a bad thing for a defenseman. I will keep an eye out for him this season.

Dornberger is Mannheim’s big (literally) addition this year.

 

[Maverick41]

Dornberger is Mannheim’s big (literally) addition this year.

Well, they had success with a big defenseman playing in Erfurt (in this case also Dresden) before.
Though, even without having seen him, I doubt he is anywhere near Seider's level.

 

[Maverick41]

Tldr: We suck?

1st Period (0-5)

A shaky goalie combined with bad team defence is not a recipe for success. Who knew?

The team was completely outmatched in this period. There was one moment of somewhat sustained pressure in the offensive zone, when the supposed top line of Permitin – Penkin – Krestan was on the ice with the top d-pair or Kettler and Rolsing. Other than that, there was almost no possession in the attacking zoner for the German team. If they made it to the zone they usually shot immediately, with really no hope of beating the goalie and no one in place for a potential rebound.

Trying to find positives, there were a couple of moments from Mats Geppert and Florian Schloßnickel where they looked like they might be able to create something individually.
While the defensive game was horrible overall, I thought we had 2 somewhat competent pairings out there. Martin Meyer and Jan-Luca Augst had some moments offensively (after o-zone starts) and were not that bad defensively. And the top pair of Kettler and Rolsing, actually had some decent plays in transition and showed good mobility for 2 big guys. They had their defensive miscues, but they also had the most successful plays on both defense and offense of any pairing.

All the forwards were pretty underwhelming. The “top line” showed minimal flashes of potential and I already mentioned Geppert and Schloßnickel with their “moments”. That was pretty much it. And they were almost all of them terrible defensively.

The poor goalie Niclas Wolter was shaky to begin with and then basically left out to dry by his teammates and was pulled after 3 minutes and 2 goals against and replaced by Mika Hennig, who did fare a little bit better. He made one really nice save on the penalty kill. A bit of luck was also involved, but he earned that. But like Wolter he had some trouble tracking the puck and seemed at times completely lost.


2nd Period (1-6)

After a quick goal to start the period the US boys apparently decided it was too easy to just keep scoring goals and tried to score fancy goals instead. They definitely turned it down a couple of notches.

The refs also took pity on us with a couple of soft-ish calls this period. This brings me to our power play, which looked surprisingly competent, especially with the first unit on the ice which operated in an interesting setup. They had Penkin and Krestan on the half walls and Rolsing as QB on the blue line while Permitin and Kettler, the second d-man were working around the crease looking for deflections or rebounds and to retrieve loose pucks. They were quite dangerous like that. On the first powerplay a point shot from Rolsing was deflected (I think by Permitin) and hit the post. On the second power play another wrist shot by Rolsing from the point lead to a rebound that Kettler put into the empty net. The same play almost worked again on the third power play. I still have no idea how that backhand attempt by Kettler did not go in.

Overall, it was a much better period by the entire team. Several forwards were able to show at least flashes of potential. Aside from the top line it were once again Geppert and Schloßnickel and also Kottner and Becker who I noticed in a good way sometimes. Although Geppert made one of the dumbest plays I have seen in a while. As the third penalty against the US expired, he basically waited for the player that just came out of the penalty box to be in the perfect position, before he tried a low percentage shot from the other side that went wide and around the boards springing the US player for a breakaway. Other than that, I really liked Geppert’s game once again.
The top line also played much better. They were much more involved and especially Penkin came out with much more energy and showed bursts of speed I had not seen from him before.
Also, a quick shout out to Toni Fürst who tried hard, but was really unlucky with his efforts.

Because the US team took the foot of the gas a bit, the Germans were able to finally offer some support to their goalie and that helped Hennig to settle down and give a much better performance. He got stronger and stronger as the period went on and made several decent saves.


3rd Period (1-8)

Unfortunately, the stream died for me just as the third period was about to start. So, I missed the first 2-3 minutes of the last period.

Just as I got the stream back Germany went on another power play, but this time, they could not really build much pressure. The Americans once more dominated the play, but for the most part they seemed content to keep the play in the attacking zone.
They ended up scoring two more goals. One was a beautiful individual effort by Shaeffer Gordon Carroll, the other one was their second power play goal of the game. Credit also to Mika Hennig, who continued his solid play from the second period.

On offense Toni Fürst finally was rewarded for his work by getting a couple of shots on goal.
One of our forwards, I think it was Florian Schloßnickel (it was sometimes hard to tell with the stream) missed a golden opportunity to score a second goal for Team Germany, but unfortunately put it wide with quite a bit of net to shoot at.

On a side note, it’s a good thing I am used to poor stream quality. Because of that this one didn’t even seem so bad. But I am glad I don’t suffer from motion sickness because this stream might have triggered it. However, even without triggering motion sickness the camera movement made it difficult at times to follow the play, and I may have gotten players mixed up at times.

As usual I tried to focus more on the positive things, but make no mistake this (the 08s) does not look like a strong group.
The only ones who really improved my opinion of them were Darian Rolsing, Florian Schloßnickel, Jakub Kottner and Mika Hennig and the latter 3 were able to do so, mostly because I had not been that high on them in the first place. The rest either performed as I would have expected or failed to meet my expectations.

EDIT: I think I got the goalies mixed up. It now looks like it was Hennig who started and was pulled quickly and Wolter who came on in relief.

 

[Maverick41]

The streak is over. In their third game they did not lose 1-8 like the first two. This time they lost 1-10 against Czechia.
While I watched the game, I did not focus on it fully, like I did yesterday. Therefore, I won't write some huge essay about the game.

But here are a few thoughts based on what I saw.

Goalies:
Mika Hennig got the start and was pulled halfway through the game after giving up 6 goals. But I thought he actually did a pretty decent job and for long stretches he was the best player on the team. Yes, there were a couple of goals that looked like he should have stopped them, but he made quite a few really good saves, too. He was replaced by Max Bolle who was alright, but not necessarily an improvement over Hennig. Anyway, the goalies weren't really the problem here.

Skaters:
I don't like to write overly negative stuff about specific players, so I will keep this more general. Pretty much the entire team is not ready to play at this level. In the two games I watched so far I see 3 groups of players. The first and smallest group of 3 players are the ones that are almost ready to compete with teams like the US and Czechia and should be the core for next year's U18 team. Then there are in my opinion 7 maybe 8 guys that should at least be able to provide some depths going forward, but will likely not become big contributors. And the rest of the skaters I have very little hope for. If a significant number of them stay on the roster going forward we are in big trouble, unless they make great strides in their development.
Of course, given the small sample size, I may just have caught some of them on a bad stretch, but some of them were really bad.


Based on the two games I have been able to watch, my top 3 so far are:

1) Max Penkin:
His performance has not necessarily been better than the other two, but he is my number 1 so far, because he is doing that while being a year younger.
Today was another relatively good performance and not just because he scored the only goal for us. I think it was in the second period when he went coast to coast and almost scored.
He still has a lot to work on, and much room for development, but he already has few, if any, real weaknesses. His ceiling is pretty insane, and in my opinion the highest since Stützle. Will he get anywhere near his ceiling is another question.

2) Tobias Krestan:
For some reason I have always had bad luck when I watched him in the past. His stats always suggested that he has some talent, but when I watched him, he either got hurt and missed most of the game or he gave a rather disappointing performance.
I only caught glimpses of what looked like decent skills. But this time I feel like I get to watch the real Tobias. There are of course several areas he needs to improve by a lot. First and foremost he needs to get stronger and much better at protecting the puck. Related to this, his puck control, while not bad per se, has to be better as well, otherwise he will rarely be able to use his best skills effectively against high level competition. His vision and passing are elite in my opinion, but too often he gets outmuscled or loses control of the puck for just a second at the worst possible moment, which prevents him from making the big plays in the offensive zone.

3) Darian Rolsing:
Had a much rougher game against Czechia than he did against the US, but his potential is still obvious. His combination of size and mobility alone could get him noticed by scouts. The biggest problem for him might be that he gets overconfident with the puck, and starts dekeing and dangling in his own zone and ends up turning the puck over in high dange areas. When it works, it looks spectacular and he is skilled enough to pull it off some of the time, but he needs to get better at picking his spots. The same moves coming from behind the net cutting in front of his own net with the puck on his stick maneuvering past 1 or 2 forecheckers, that worked most of the time against the US, didn't work at all against Czechia.
He is still very raw, but I think his ceiling is very high.

After the game against Switzerland (assuming there is a stream) I will revisit this and add a few thoughts on couple of other players, though I doubt anybody will be able to crack this top 3.

 

[HockeyfanIN]

Hello guys, i‘m new here. I‘m also watching as many u-nationalteam games as possible. I‘m probably not that deep into scouting as other user here.
Regarding the U17 games, I am „shocked“. I always thought the 08s would be a bit more talented again, also in terms of depth. But there's no sign of that at all (despite a few absences) in these games.
I agree on @Maverick41 Top 3 players, but personally i would add Geppert. I couldn‘t see todays game but in the first two games he was (in my opinion) clearly on a higher level than most of his teammates. Yes, he also made some bad mistakes, but i still like his way of creating plays with his skill.

Looking forward to see the 09s next week.