German Prospects for the NHL Draft

[Maverick41]

Finally finished updating the posts at the beginning of this thread.
Some data for some players is still missing, so this is as good as I can make it right now.

 

[Rakl]

May I ask, where do you get the information about players? I mean 2009 and younger

 

[Maverick41]

May I ask, where do you get the information about players? I mean 2009 and younger

Those are mostly based on stats I find on the internet (if you want links to the various sites let me know, I can send them to you).
Sometimes I will also get random messages or emails pointing out specific players (sometimes it's parents or other relatives), so I take that with a grain of salt, unless I find additional information to back their argument.
I also get to watch some of them via stream on the DEB live site (also great for stats, but the streams are not cheap), on sporttotal.tv (only games involving Cologne) or on sportdeutschland.tv.

Since stats at this level are fairly unreliable, most of this is very much a crapshoot, but over the years I have gotten a better understanding about how to interpret the stats I find. Still, at this point those are mostly watchlists with a bunch of names I plan to keep an eye on as they get older.

So again, if you are wondering about the sources for the stats let me know and I will either post them or send you a pm.

 

[Rakl]

Thanks!
I agree with you, the statistics are quite subjective and depend on many factors (league, playing time, team, etc.).
But it is definitely a reason to keep watching the players.

 

[Maverick41]

Thanks!
I agree with you, the statistics are quite subjective and depend on many factors (league, playing time, team, etc.).
But it is definitely a reason to keep watching the players.

True, and some of that information (most notably playing time) is not available to me. So, it is almost exclusively guess work, but sometimes there are kids that just jump out at you by scoring a ton of points when they are a year or two younger than most of their competition.
That's how 2022 Flyers pick Alex Ciernik made it on my radar at 12/13 years old when he was playing in Dresden if I recall correctly.

Still, I am doing this almost just for fun. And a little bit for the off chance of maybe spotting the next great talent, before most others.

 

[Bombay66]

For the late 2005s (mayer - tropmann) and 2006 agers - U20 2024 WJC will be decisive, I dont see any draft potential so far...but maybe a good tournament could get them on the list for a late round like szuber or panocha

U20 2025 looks juicy for me...getting some vibdes of the u20 wcj when seider, bokk, reichel, stüzle, perterka put germany on the highlight shows of tsn. I remember stützle obliterating switzerland

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

For the late 2005s (mayer - tropmann) and 2006 agers - U20 2024 WJC will be decisive, I dont see any draft potential so far...but maybe a good tournament could get them on the list for a late round like szuber or panocha

I've been having thoughts about the WJC as well.

My first thought to your projection for this year's team is that I can't see Sumpf not being part of the team. Not unless the DEB is trying to save money on flights from NA.

At this point, anyhow, he looks like a gimme.

Also, I'm thinking Krening is going to have a significant role on this team and am ready to bet that he and Hauf will be on a line together, no matter where it is in the line-up. Dunno which would be on the wing though. Also, I see Hördler and Oswald getting a significant piece of responsiblity. For all we know, Oswald could be the team's top center by December.

The blueline is scary. Although Bettahar and Panocha have to be seen as locks, I'm hard-pressed to make any prognosis on anybody else, even if the names you list are pretty probable. Part of me wants to see Handel be one of the 8 because, like, why not. Like Sinn or Weber are gonna be so much better than at last year's (often scary) showing???

Wolf would seem the hands down starter. He's off to a fairly strong start with Salzburg as well.

Something else I've gotten used to though is that Abstreiter will likely bring someone who we don't really have on the radar.

Could it be someone like Assavolyuk or Pul up front? A Kauhanen or Konze on the bleuline?

U20 2025 looks juicy for me...getting some vibdes of the u20 wcj when seider, bokk, reichel, stüzle, perterka put germany on the highlight shows of tsn. I remember stützle obliterating switzerland

Very juicy, and I'm thinking that Max Bleicher, Sebi Zwickl, and perhaps even Toby Krestan could be pushing for a spot on that team, even if we've seen a very conservative approach in Abstreiter's team selection to date agewise. Sager and Schneider could be topics as well.

But in general, this is the team we've been waiting for. Just hope Neiße has established himself as "the guy" in goal by then.

And here's hoping that Witthöft and Handel keep on with their current projections. Should be real NHL topics by then.

 

[Maverick41]

I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, but I have been sick the last few days and am busy catching up with my work, so I don't have time to get into it, but expect a lengthy post soon.

 

[Bombay66]

I've been having thoughts about the WJC as well.

My first thought to your projection for this year's team is that I can't see Sumpf not being part of the team. Not unless the DEB is trying to save money on flights from NA.

At this point, anyhow, he looks like a gimme.

Also, I'm thinking Krening is going to have a significant role on this team and am ready to bet that he and Hauf will be on a line together, no matter where it is in the line-up. Dunno which would be on the wing though. Also, I see Hördler and Oswald getting a significant piece of responsiblity. For all we know, Oswald could be the team's top center by December.

The blueline is scary. Although Bettahar and Panocha have to be seen as locks, I'm hard-pressed to make any prognosis on anybody else, even if the names you list are pretty probable. Part of me wants to see Handel be one of the 8 because, like, why not. Like Sinn or Weber are gonna be so much better than at last year's (often scary) showing???

Wolf would seem the hands down starter. He's off to a fairly strong start with Salzburg as well.

Something else I've gotten used to though is that Abstreiter will likely bring someone who we don't really have on the radar.

Could it be someone like Assavolyuk or Pul up front? A Kauhanen or Konze on the bleuline?



Very juicy, and I'm thinking that Max Bleicher, Sebi Zwickl, and perhaps even Toby Krestan could be pushing for a spot on that team, even if we've seen a very conservative approach in Abstreiter's team selection to date agewise. Sager and Schneider could be topics as well.

But in general, this is the team we've been waiting for. Just hope Neiße has established himself as "the guy" in goal by then.

Just hope Witthöft and Handel keep on with their current projections. Should be real NHL topics by then.

Thx, You are absolutely on point with Sumpf, I knew I missed someone. The line combos and positions are just random wanted to have an overview. Overall I think we are getting some depth, no peak level but solid DEL potential. 2007 could be the masterclass of„A“s.

 

[Bombay66]

I have a lot of thoughts on this subject, but I have been sick the last few days and am busy catching up with my work, so I don't have time to get into it, but expect a lengthy post soon.

Get well soon legend…this thread is top notch

 

[Bombay66]

Man the Stützle stats at the age of 15 and 16 were so impressive. The Griva Twins are almost 6 months „younger“ than him if you compare their stats at the same age, but Stützle
blew up the Dnl with records, griva twins are „just“ dominating.

 

[Maverick41]

Ok, here we go. These are my thoughts on our potential WJC teams for the next two years. I'll make a separate post for the U18 tournaments either later today or tomorrow.


2024 WJC:

Goalies:
This one is easy. Wolf should be the starter, Dietl the back up and then just take one of the 05s (Pertuch, Willerscheid, Ankirchner, whoever) as the third goalie. Not really much to talk about here.

Defensemen:
This is problematic. There are really not any truly established 04s. Bettahar and Hübner have not really prgressed the way I had hoped, Hafenrichter seems to have rebounded a bit and it looks he is finally in a situation that works well for him as far as the tranistioning to a pro game is concerned. All three have a decent chance to be on the team, but I feel they all may have been surpassed by Philip Sinn and Jakob Weber. Anyway, those are the five 04s I would currently nominate along with Mayer, Tropmann and of course Panocha. Though I have no bloody idea how to pair them up. I would probably go with Panocha and Tropmann on the first pairing.
Sinn and Weber on the second.
Bettahar and Hafenrichter as the third.
And finally Mayer and Hübner as the fourth.
Although honestly, 2 through 4 could be arranged in any order, but whatever pairing Panocha is on would be my first and I like him with Tropmann.

For me, there are not a lot of other options out there. Kauhanen seems completely off the radar of the coaching staff and adding another 05 with Niehus seems unlikely, but who knows.

Forwards:
Oh boy, years ago this looked so good. Then, for a while it looked so bad, and now I am starting to be slightly optimistic again.

I like the pairings of Kechter and Lutz as well as Hauf and Krening.
I could see a first line with Kechter and Lutz on the wings, centered by Veit Oswald, and a second line centered by Krening with Hauf on one wing and Eric Hördler on the other.
Then a third line of 05s with Bicker as LW, Sumpf as C and Brandl as RW.
For a fourth line I could see a combination of Moritz Elias, who has been playing pretty well this season and will hopefully continue to improve, with Daniel Assavolyuk, who seems like a nice utility player you can plug anywhere in the line up, and Lennard Nieleck, who would mostly be there because he is right shot, and there is nobody who is clearly better than him, at the moment.
However, if I were to ignore the right shot thing, I would probably go with Ralf Rollinger.

Other alternatives include Leon Sivic, Edmund Junemann, Matthias Pischoff or if the coaches want to really surprise me, Nikita Krymskiy or Anselm Gerg.
They could also go for another 05 like Paul Vinzens.

I don't think there is a way for an 06 or let alone an 07 to make this team.


2025 WJC:

Goalies:
A difficult choice for all the wrong reasons. Nobody has really established himself as the top dog.
First it looked like Willerscheid might be the one, then it seemed like Pertuch might take over and even Dean Döge made a few waves at one point. Suddenly there was Ankirchner putting up great numbers with Salzburg, but he had a dismal showing with the then U18 team, last time I saw him play for Germany. Around the same time Keanu Salmik put on some impressive numbers in the DEL2, but in a really small sample size and he seems to be struggling a bit right now.
They could all be surpassed by someone of the 06s like Neiße, but while I like his tools, I don't know if he has the consistency to really take over. He has not even necessarily really established himself as the best 06.
As of now I would go with Willerscheid, Pertuch and Neiße and probably give each of them a game in the group stage (assuming we are still playing in the top division).

Defensemen:
I'll stick with the pairing of Panocha and Tropmann. Beyond that I'd have Mayer, Niehus, Peukert, Bosecker, Vladelchtchikov and Merkl making the team. Jonas Müller, Kilian Kühnhauser and Paul Lemke could also be in the mix along with 06s Manuel Schams, Max Hense or Jacob Ficenec.
Dark horse here is Carlos Händel ('07). If it weren't for the reluctance to bring double underagers, he would make my roster prediction.

Forwards:
I am going more for what I expect than what I would do with this one, so there won't be any 07 forwards on the team either. Especially since most of the 07s have been a bit underwhelming this season compared to the expectations I had. And like I said above, double underagers are not that common.

With that in mind, a top line of Bicker - Sumpf - Brandl seems like it could work (I already have them playing together this year, so maybe this could become a thing).
A second line might have Timo Ruckdäschel, Paul Vinzens and Vadim Schreiner. On the third line I could see the only 06 forward Elias Pul, joined by Raphael Jakovlev and Robin Rieke and the final three spots are really wide open.
My guess at this point would be Lukas Kopietz, Luca Kinzel and Marco Münzenberger.

There are a ton of candidates for those three spots and even for the spots of Jakovlev and Rieke (the other 7 are locks for me).
To name a few Noah Münzenberger, Noah Garthe, Niklas Greil, Noah Samanski, Artjom Khaydarov, Georg Thal, Jonas Fischer, Hannu Tripcke, Niclas Focks, Jonas Mommensohn, Richard Samigullin, Maurice Hildebrand or Björn Salhi.
And as far as 06s are concerned they might consider Tim Schütz, Simon Seidl, Maximilian Brunner, Tobias Schwarz, Nick Maul, Clemens Seeger, Nikolas Biggins or Felix Kerbel. Maul and Kerbel are the one I would consider most likely, not because they are the best of the bunch, but they might be the best fit.

Neither team really has me excited. Maybe a couple of the 07s will force the coaches hand by the time of the 2025 WJC, which would make it far more interesting and there are a number of guys who have that potential. Händel, Bleicher or Kose on defense and Willhöft, R.Griva, G.Griva, Lewandowski, Späth, Zwickl, Ziergiebel, Schneider or Kessler among forwards.

 

[MrGuyPerson]

I know the 07 birth year looks good for germany, but I actually found a couple kids on elite prospects in the 08 birth year with stats that look quite promising.

Lukas Buschbeck, Jakub Kottner, and Quirin Schlager​

Anybody know if these 3 are legit? Schlager has 3 points in 3 games for team Germany u16 team and is producing quite well at the u18 level RB academy and over 2 points per game for RB academy u17 team

Buschbeck has 1 point in 3 team Germany u16 games, but 2 points per game in German u17 league.

Kotter has 14 points in 9 games at u17 for Kölner


Side Note: I did not intend to make their names bold, it just pasted that way

 

[Maverick41]

I know the 07 birth year looks good for germany, but I actually found a couple kids on elite prospects in the 08 birth year with stats that look quite promising.

Lukas Buschbeck, Jakub Kottner, and Quirin Schlager​

Anybody know if these 3 are legit? Schlager has 3 points in 3 games for team Germany u16 team and is producing quite well at the u18 level RB academy and over 2 points per game for RB academy u17 team

Buschbeck has 1 point in 3 team Germany u16 games, but 2 points per game in German u17 league.

Kotter has 14 points in 9 games at u17 for Kölner


Side Note: I did not intend to make their names bold, it just pasted that way

I like Schlager. I don't think he is quite on the level of the top 07s, but he is certainly an intriguing prospect at this point. He has some size, is a pretty good skater and also possesses decent hands and stickhandling abilities.
I have seen only a little of Buschbeck and I don't really have a solid grip on his game. The last time i saw him, he looked allright, playing a high energy game, not afraid to go where it hurts. I need to see more when it comes to his puck skills and his shot, before I can comment on those areas.

Kottner is the one I have not seen yet, but he is high on my list to watch, along with his teammate Leon Haman (09 birth year).

 

[MrGuyPerson]

I like Schlager. I don't think he is quite on the level of the top 07s, but he is certainly an intriguing prospect at this point. He has some size, is a pretty good skater and also possesses decent hands and stickhandling abilities.
I have seen only a little of Buschbeck and I don't really have a solid grip on his game. The last time i saw him, he looked allright, playing a high energy game, not afraid to go where it hurts. I need to see more when it comes to his puck skills and his shot, before I can comment on those areas.

Kottner is the one I have not seen yet, but he is high on my list to watch, along with his teammate Leon Haman (09 birth year).

Thank you for your response. I will add Leon Haman to my list. I actually just found 2 more 08 Germans through the whc u15 tournament page that look pretty impressive on paper.

Tobias Krestan​

RB academy. Nearly 3 points per game in czech u15 last year. Also more than 2 points per game in austria u18 last season.

This season is over 2 points per game in Swedish u16 region.

Lukas Greil​

Also RB academy. Nearly 3 points per game in czech u15 last year.

This year over a point per game in austria u18 and 2 points in 3 games for the germany u16 national team.

EDIT:

Found 3rd 08 player i figured I would add.

Moussa Hackert​

RB Academy. Defenseman. Point per game in austria u18 this season and 2 points in 3 games for Germany u16 team

 

[Maverick41]

Thank you for your response. I will add Leon Haman to my list. I actually just found 2 more 08 Germans through the whc u15 tournament page that look pretty impressive on paper.

Tobias Krestan​

RB academy. Nearly 3 points per game in czech u15 last year. Also more than 2 points per game in austria u18 last season.

This season is over 2 points per game in Swedish u16 region.

Lukas Greil​

Also RB academy. Nearly 3 points per game in czech u15 last year.

This year over a point per game in austria u18 and 2 points in 3 games for the germany u16 national team.

EDIT:

Found 3rd 08 player i figured I would add.

Moussa Hackert​

RB Academy. Defenseman. Point per game in austria u18 this season and 2 points in 3 games for Germany u16 team

At this point Krestan is the German top prospect for 2026 in my opinion. From what I have seen so far (still need more viewings) he is ahighly skilled puck- and stickhandler, good skater, not a bad shot (lots of room for improvement, though). However, I have seen a few things that make me unsure about his compete level, but I have seen far too few games of his to really judge this part of his game. I could be completely off here.

Greil, for me, is in a similar category as Schlager, one tier below Krestan. Greil is fairly skilled and in the games I have seen he was quite tenacious on the forecheck. When he is on the ice he usually has or is near the puck. I have seen him on the penalty kill a few times and he looked pretty good.

Not really seen enough of Hackert to judge him. While I have seen several games he played in, I have only focussed on him once. In the other games he was not really noticeable (not necessarily bad for a defensemen). The weird thing is that his numbers suggest he might be an offensive dman, but so far I have not seen any of that. The one game where I watched him closely, he did everything well, but nothing great. Just solid all around. No defensive mistakes, he did alright in transition both skating with the puck and making outlet passes, he had one really nice point shot that missed the goal by a hair, but not much else when it comes to offense.
Like with most of these kids that are still 3 drafts away, I need more viewings.

This is usually the season I start watching them more closely, so I hope to have a clearer picture of this group by the end of the season.

 

[Maverick41]

Here are my thoughts on our teams for the 2024 and 2025 U18 WJC.

2024:

Goalies:
At this point I would expect it to be between Lennart Neiße and Linus Vieilllard, although I would not completely write off Michail Elagin or even Erik Eder and Cole Danielsmeier, yet. I definitely expect them bring along one 07 goalie like Stuhrmann or Oswald (there are 2 or 3 other candidates who are not far behind those two).

Defensemen:
The top defensemen are 07s. I would choose Carlos Händel and Max Bleicher over any of the 06s (though it is really close between Bleicher and Merkl), and that's not even a knock against them. I actually like the dmen of this group quite a bit. Besides Merkl, I also like Schams, Hense and Ficenec. Then I would add two of Pape, Serikow and Schlenker. Fabio Kose as another 07 could also be an option. Noah Hahn and Rio Kaiser are more longshots in my opinion, but should at least be considered. And there are a number of others who could quite easily make it into the conversation with a strong season. To name a few: Dominik Zerhoch, Nikita Müller, Lenny Elwing, Robin Krening and Julian Beck.

Forwards:
Here, I expect to see quite a few 07s on the team as the 06 forward group appears underwhelming to say the least.
Right now I would hope/expect Dustin Willhöft, David Lewandowski, Rihards and Gustavs Griva to make the team, and anyone of Nikita Kessler, Elias Schneider, Mateu Späth or Sebastian Zwickl could make a push and play themselves onto the team. Elias Pul and Felix Kerbel are the only 06s I would consider absolute locks. Tim Schütz should also be, but I am not sure if the coaching staff likes him as much as I do. Tobias Schwarz, Simon Seidl and Clemens Seeger should be close to being locks, but I am not entirely sure.
Other candidates include Max Herzog, Nikolas Biggins Clemens Sager, Nick Maul, Maximilian Brunner, Tom Fitschen, Eden Hofverberg and Maximilian Oswald. There is actually quite a bit of depth among the 06s of players that are pretty good but not great.
I am really curious to see how this season will play out, who will take the next step and who might fall behind a bit.


2025:

Goalies:
There are a bunch of candidates for this. I could seriously just throw names out there. The one that seems to be a lock is Lukas Stuhrmann, beyond that you have Bartholomäus Oswald, Noah Pfab, Anton Brandt, Sean Kuklok, Kimi Saffran and Aaron Kaiser, who could push for a spot.
If I keep to the practice of taking one underager goalie, I would probably go with Stuhrmann and Oswald as the 07s. For the underager I cannot make a pick yet. Right now it would be between Sascha Pitaev, Mika Hennig or Niclas Wolter, but there might be others, I have not seen yet.

Defensemen:
The defense starts to look a lot deeper than I initially thought. It is still not close to the forwards, but still deep enough to make it difficult for any 08 defenseman to make the team.
Händel, Bleicher, Bicker and Kose should be locks. I also really like Hempel and Hausfelder. Those are the 6 guys I would definitley have on my roster. Philipp Stock and Cedric Wijacki would complete the defense for me at this point, but Moritz Warnecke, Matthias Harr, Simon Schlosser or Alexandrs Kohans would also be on my radar.
Underager options could be Darian Rolsing, Daniel Kettler or Moussa Hackert. A few others could enter the conversation, but I am not seeing it right now. Either way, it will be extremely difficult for any 08 to make this team at any position.

Forwards:
I would probably try to include Tobias Krestan in this team, because he is a really skilled player who would deserver to make it as an underager in most years, but it is so difficult to find a spot for him, with this insanely deep forward group.
Barring injury Willhöft, Lewandowski, R.Griva, G.Griva, Kessler, Späth, Schneider and Zwickl have to be on the team. Max Ziergiebel and Maxim Schäfer are close to being locks for me as well. And after that you still have a pretty long list of players that would make the team in many other years.
Awrelij Fomenko, Tobin Brandt, Stanislav Kronhardt, Timo Kose, Matteo Schroth or Justus Kaufmann are all good options, and I could list another 10 names that would probably be able to hold their own as well. This group is so deep, it will be very interesting to watch who ends up making it.

2002 will probably remain the better birth year for German hockey, because of the extremely high end talent at the top, but once you get to the 10-12 forward spot, 2007 looks better than 2002. It's still a long way to go for these kids, but damn this looks promising.

 

[MrGuyPerson]

At this point Krestan is the German top prospect for 2026 in my opinion. From what I have seen so far (still need more viewings) he is ahighly skilled puck- and stickhandler, good skater, not a bad shot (lots of room for improvement, though). However, I have seen a few things that make me unsure about his compete level, but I have seen far too few games of his to really judge this part of his game. I could be completely off here.

Greil, for me, is in a similar category as Schlager, one tier below Krestan. Greil is fairly skilled and in the games I have seen he was quite tenacious on the forecheck. When he is on the ice he usually has or is near the puck. I have seen him on the penalty kill a few times and he looked pretty good.

Not really seen enough of Hackert to judge him. While I have seen several games he played in, I have only focussed on him once. In the other games he was not really noticeable (not necessarily bad for a defensemen). The weird thing is that his numbers suggest he might be an offensive dman, but so far I have not seen any of that. The one game where I watched him closely, he did everything well, but nothing great. Just solid all around. No defensive mistakes, he did alright in transition both skating with the puck and making outlet passes, he had one really nice point shot that missed the goal by a hair, but not much else when it comes to offense.
Like with most of these kids that are still 3 drafts away, I need more viewings.

This is usually the season I start watching them more closely, so I hope to have a clearer picture of this group by the end of the season.

I really appreciate that you can provide preliminary information these guys because I can't see them play at all. Any thoughts on jj peterkas brother? He isn't putting up the numbers jj was, but he is related to him so maybe he is a late bloomer?

 

[Maverick41]

I really appreciate that you can provide preliminary information these guys because I can't see them play at all. Any thoughts on jj peterkas brother? He isn't putting up the numbers jj was, but he is related to him so maybe he is a late bloomer?

Sorry, not seen Jack Peterka play yet, except for half a game in a super crappy stream, where I could not identify a single player because reading the jersey numbers was impossible no matter what I tried. Most of my viewings of the Red Bull guys comes when they play for the junior national teams.

Last season I caught a few streams that were not that bad where I could watch Krestan and Greil and a few others.

I don't think Jack will get anywhere near JJ's level, and being related does not mean there has to be something there. I believe at this point the best we could hope for for Jack is a Dennis and Yannic Seidenberg situation or maybe a Marcel and Nicolai Goc thing, where one brother does well in the NHL while the other has solid to very good career in the DEL.
But there are plenty of examples where one brother turns into a decent pro and the other retires before they even start a pro career.

It is also difficult to compare the two, because they are playing in different leagues and with different teammates. JJ's teams were stacked and practically blew out most of their opponents, that is not the case for the current version of these Red Bull teams.

At this point my guess is Jack will have solid career in Germany or Austria or wherever he ends up playing, but does not sniff the NHL. But he is very young and has plenty time to prove me wrong. The development is rarely linear and never the same for two players, and it is certainly possible that he turns out to be late bloomer. In a year or two the picture will become much clearer. He is definitely interesting enough to keep on your radar.

 

[Bombay66]

Here are my thoughts on our teams for the 2024 and 2025 U18 WJC.

2024:

Goalies:
At this point I would expect it to be between Lennart Neiße and Linus Vieilllard, although I would not completely write off Michail Elagin or even Erik Eder and Cole Danielsmeier, yet. I definitely expect them bring along one 07 goalie like Stuhrmann or Oswald (there are 2 or 3 other candidates who are not far behind those two).

Defensemen:
The top defensemen are 07s. I would choose Carlos Händel and Max Bleicher over any of the 06s (though it is really close between Bleicher and Merkl), and that's not even a knock against them. I actually like the dmen of this group quite a bit. Besides Merkl, I also like Schams, Hense and Ficenec. Then I would add two of Pape, Serikow and Schlenker. Fabio Kose as another 07 could also be an option. Noah Hahn and Rio Kaiser are more longshots in my opinion, but should at least be considered. And there are a number of others who could quite easily make it into the conversation with a strong season. To name a few: Dominik Zerhoch, Nikita Müller, Lenny Elwing, Robin Krening and Julian Beck.

Forwards:
Here, I expect to see quite a few 07s on the team as the 06 forward group appears underwhelming to say the least.
Right now I would hope/expect Dustin Willhöft, David Lewandowski, Rihards and Gustavs Griva to make the team, and anyone of Nikita Kessler, Elias Schneider, Mateu Späth or Sebastian Zwickl could make a push and play themselves onto the team. Elias Pul and Felix Kerbel are the only 06s I would consider absolute locks. Tim Schütz should also be, but I am not sure if the coaching staff likes him as much as I do. Tobias Schwarz, Simon Seidl and Clemens Seeger should be close to being locks, but I am not entirely sure.
Other candidates include Max Herzog, Nikolas Biggins Clemens Sager, Nick Maul, Maximilian Brunner, Tom Fitschen, Eden Hofverberg and Maximilian Oswald. There is actually quite a bit of depth among the 06s of players that are pretty good but not great.
I am really curious to see how this season will play out, who will take the next step and who might fall behind a bit.


2025:

Goalies:
There are a bunch of candidates for this. I could seriously just throw names out there. The one that seems to be a lock is Lukas Stuhrmann, beyond that you have Bartholomäus Oswald, Noah Pfab, Anton Brandt, Sean Kuklok, Kimi Saffran and Aaron Kaiser, who could push for a spot.
If I keep to the practice of taking one underager goalie, I would probably go with Stuhrmann and Oswald as the 07s. For the underager I cannot make a pick yet. Right now it would be between Sascha Pitaev, Mika Hennig or Niclas Wolter, but there might be others, I have not seen yet.

Defensemen:
The defense starts to look a lot deeper than I initially thought. It is still not close to the forwards, but still deep enough to make it difficult for any 08 defenseman to make the team.
Händel, Bleicher, Bicker and Kose should be locks. I also really like Hempel and Hausfelder. Those are the 6 guys I would definitley have on my roster. Philipp Stock and Cedric Wijacki would complete the defense for me at this point, but Moritz Warnecke, Matthias Harr, Simon Schlosser or Alexandrs Kohans would also be on my radar.
Underager options could be Darian Rolsing, Daniel Kettler or Moussa Hackert. A few others could enter the conversation, but I am not seeing it right now. Either way, it will be extremely difficult for any 08 to make this team at any position.

Forwards:
I would probably try to include Tobias Krestan in this team, because he is a really skilled player who would deserver to make it as an underager in most years, but it is so difficult to find a spot for him, with this insanely deep forward group.
Barring injury Willhöft, Lewandowski, R.Griva, G.Griva, Kessler, Späth, Schneider and Zwickl have to be on the team. Max Ziergiebel and Maxim Schäfer are close to being locks for me as well. And after that you still have a pretty long list of players that would make the team in many other years.
Awrelij Fomenko, Tobin Brandt, Stanislav Kronhardt, Timo Kose, Matteo Schroth or Justus Kaufmann are all good options, and I could list another 10 names that would probably be able to hold their own as well. This group is so deep, it will be very interesting to watch who ends up making it.

2002 will probably remain the better birth year for German hockey, because of the extremely high end talent at the top, but once you get to the 10-12 forward spot, 2007 looks better than 2002. It's still a long way to go for these kids, but damn this looks promising.

2025 forwards....I would definetly add Noah Kosick at least as a possible prospect here. Skill set, I think he is above Krestan but most likely he will play for Canada. But you never know. Playerslike Draisaitl, Stützle, Seider are promoting Germany Hockey better than ever.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

2025 forwards....I would definetly add Noah Kosick at least as a possible prospect here. Skill set, I think he is above Krestan but most likely he will play for Canada. But you never know. Playerslike Draisaitl, Stützle, Seider are promoting Germany Hockey better than ever.

Very astute!

My info to date is that he's definitely planning on going the North American route (he's also half-American). He's already represented by a major label agency featuring a number of NHL stars.

But Tobi Rieder is one of their players.

And Kosick's dad naturally spent the bulk of his career in Germany. The connections remain intact.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

I do believe if given the opportunity, Kosick will represent Canada first.

Right now it’s highly unlikely he suits up for us from what I know.


I’d also like to add, what’s with Willhöft struggling in Sweden? We all know the talent he possesses so only 3 points in 9 games isn’t good enough when he is playing against kids he should be keeping up with statistically if he is as talented as we think. Anyone have any info?

Carlos Händel looks to have been playing a bit better, he has even gotten into a couple games at the J20 level.

 

[Chapin Landvogt]

I do believe if given the opportunity, Kosick will represent Canada first.

Right now it’s highly unlikely he suits up for us from what I know.


I’d also like to add, what’s with Willhöft struggling in Sweden? We all know the talent he possesses so only 3 points in 9 games isn’t good enough when he is playing against kids he should be keeping up with statistically if he is as talented as we think. Anyone have any info?

Carlos Händel looks to have been playing a bit better, he has even gotten into a couple games at the J20 level.

I checked out his game against Vita Hästen at the beginning of the month and I thought he looked pretty doggone good, both with and without the puck. He missed a wide open net on his first shift (it looked like the puck might have been deflected last second) and he had several charges up the LW side where the opponent couldn't keep up with his speed. He barraled past them, but couldn't beat the goalie.

He also had several episodes of dragging the puck effectively around the offensive zone, hopping around with confidence.

Also, Rögle was pretty much rolling 4 lines and his shifts were spread out 6, 5, 4 over the 3 periods.

In general, I thought he was quite assertive and that most of his decisions were sound. He was even pretty effective in blocking passing lanes while rarely commiting a turnover.

Judging by that viewing, you'd think he's easily a PPG player. But as you mentioned, he clearly isn't.

This one game was promising - but also pointless.

 

[pgfan66]

Love the discussions here. Unfortunately, it's too much to respond to everything, so I'll just leave some thoughts on @Maverick41's rankings. Overall, I don't think we have any huge disagreements.

2024:

At this point I have no idea who's a genuine draft prospect anymore (probably none of them?). I'd still guess that Mayer gets the most interest, although I personally still don't like him much. He just isn't smart enough.

2025:

Haven't seen nearly everyone yet but the top looks pretty good.

I do think Rio Kaiser deserves to be in the top 10 if not top 5, simply because his upside is so high. He does have a lot of work to do to get to where he needs to be, but his skating looks much improved and you just don't find many players that big who can play at both sides of the rink. He might just be an even taller Paul Mayer, but in a risk-reward sense, I'd have him much higher than you do at the moment.

One "random" player I'll throw out here is Arien Scholz in Düsseldorf. He isn't anything super special and won't be an NHL prospect. But I've really liked what I've seen from him and I feel like he'd deserve to be on a top 40 list.

 

[Maverick41]

Love the discussions here. Unfortunately, it's too much to respond to everything, so I'll just leave some thoughts on @Maverick41's rankings. Overall, I don't think we have any huge disagreements.

2024:

At this point I have no idea who's a genuine draft prospect anymore (probably none of them?). I'd still guess that Mayer gets the most interest, although I personally still don't like him much. He just isn't smart enough.

2025:

Haven't seen nearly everyone yet but the top looks pretty good.

I do think Rio Kaiser deserves to be in the top 10 if not top 5, simply because his upside is so high. He does have a lot of work to do to get to where he needs to be, but his skating looks much improved and you just don't find many players that big who can play at both sides of the rink. He might just be an even taller Paul Mayer, but in a risk-reward sense, I'd have him much higher than you do at the moment.

One "random" player I'll throw out here is Arien Scholz in Düsseldorf. He isn't anything super special and won't be an NHL prospect. But I've really liked what I've seen from him and I feel like he'd deserve to be on a top 40 list.

Very interesting, Scholz is not somebody who has been on my radar at all, which is pretty crazy considering how many players I am tracking (at some point I have to get an accurate count, but it's at least a thousand not including anybody playing abroad).
There are basically 3 groups of players I sort of keep track of.

1. The players in my rankings - I always try to watch all them (if they are prospects for one of the next 3 drafts) at least a few times per season.
2. Players I have on my watchlists - These are all the younger players that are still 4 or more years away from their draft, that have peaked my interest as well as players that are not ranked for the next three drafts, but I am aware of them and will try to watch them a couple of times to see if they may deserve to be ranked next time.
3. Players I have on stat spreadsheet - Basically these are players whose stats I check out like 3 or 4 times during a season, and if one of them suddenly jumps out they might get put on the watchlist or in rare cases even make it directly to the rankings.

Scholz has not been in any of these groups for me. I have completely missed him. Next time I watch Düsseldorf, I will keep an eye out for him and for now probably move him to my watchlist, so I will consider him for the January ranking.

So, thanks for pointing him out. I always appreciate it to be made aware of guys I've missed.