Toggle sidebar

Would an all-time team Germany be enough for them to compete for gold in best on best?

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
Eye of Ra

Eye of Ra

Grandmaster General of the International boards
Nov 15, 2008
19,354
5,535
Malmö, Sweden
Asking that about the big 7 would not be worth it, the question is yes, with no doubt.

But its intresting to look at nations behind the classic top 7 nations, like Germany for exemple.

We know Germany stand no chance to win WC and best on best, but...what if they had their all time team right now? Would that be enough for Germany to be a gold-canidate in wc and best on best tournaments?

Only Germany allowed having all-time team that is, and everyone is this all time team in their prime.


Olaf Kölzig
Thomas Greiss
Philipp Grubauer

Christian Ehrhoff - Dennis Seidenberg
Christoph Schubert - Uwe Krupp
Sascha Goc - Jan Benda
Ulrich Hiemer - Udo Kießling

Leon Draisaitl - Erich Kühnhackl - Tim Stützle
Marco Sturm - Marcel Goc - Jochen Hect
Dieter Hegen - Peter Draisaitl - Gerd Truntschka
Tobias Rieder - Dominik Kahun - Tom Kühnhackl
Len Soccio, Mark MacKay

Is it enough to make them a challenger?
Click to read more...
 
On paper this team is still going to be substantially behind a typically top end best on best team from countries like Canada, the US, Russia, Finalnd and Sweden. The depth simply is not there. One way to see this is to ask, which of these players in their prime would make the up coming Canadian Olympic Team for example. Draisaitl is the only forward. Even at the top of their games I don't see either of Ehrhoff or Seidenberg making the team.

But games are not played on paper. There is always a chance that with the right chemistry, disciplined play, great goaltending and some luck that they could go on a bit of a run in a short ternament.
 
Truntschka was my favourite German player growing up. Would be very interesting to know what him, Kühnhackl and Hegen could have done in the NHL.
Unfortunately the gap of salary between Bundesliga and NHL wasnt that big to that time, so all 3 stayed in Germany.
Hiemer is the only player of that generation who had a longer NHL stint. He had 73 points in 143 games as young defenseman. Dont know why he left after 3 seasons
 
I don't think they'd be close, it's still just too far behind the big teams. There's just not many players there that make the rosters of any of the big teams. Everyone obviously takes Leon Draisaitl but it's probably only a couple guys per team after that.

Canada - Kolzig starts, they consider Ehrhoff.
USA - Kolzig #2/3.
Sweden - Kolzig probably starts, consider Stutzle/Hecht but likely no.
Finland - Kolzig starts, Ehrhoff + Seidenberg are their 2nd pair, and they consider Stutzle/Hecht.
Russia - Same as Finland except Kolzig would be the backup.

I think you'd be looking at the 6th best roster in a best on best tournament and they'd be competitive with the current Czech/Swiss/Slovak teams. I'm probably underrating Kuhnhackl and he likely makes some of these rosters too, but even if we just call him a Draisaitl level player I don't think that really moves the needle much with how much deeper the other teams are.
 
Last edited:
Bure80 said:
Truntschka was my favourite German player growing up. Would be very interesting to know what him, Kühnhackl and Hegen could have done in the NHL.
Unfortunately the gap of salary between Bundesliga and NHL wasnt that big to that time, so all 3 stayed in Germany.
Hiemer is the only player of that generation who had a longer NHL stint. He had 73 points in 143 games as young defenseman. Dont know why he left after 3 seasons
Click to expand...
It would not have been a whole lot of fun playing on those Devils teams back then.
 
Fourier said:
In the WC's yes but not in regular league play of course since I am a Canadian. (I am old).
Click to expand...

I havnt. But viewers told me that he had a similar level like the best Soviet/Czech players of that era. If thats right, he could make the Canadian Olympic team too.
 
Bure80 said:
I havnt. But viewers told me that he had a similar level like the best Soviet/Czech players of that era. If thats right, he could make the Canadian Olympic team too.
Click to expand...
It's very hard to say if this is the case based only on limited viewings. But while he obviously had a reputation of being a great player I would not have put him in the class of the top Soviet player of the 80's. But I'd be willing to listen to those that saw more of him. If others feel differently It would be great to hear why.

To be honest there are almost always a few guys on even the best on best teams that were not absolute stars. So it is very possible that a guy like Kuhnhackl could hve made a best on best version of the Canadian Olympic team back then (70's more so than the 80's). But even so it would not have been as a main guy.

Teams like Canada at their best can simply come a you in waves. even if your top few players are very good they will overwhlem your depth.
 
Last edited:
Fourier said:
It's very hard to say if this is the case based only on limited viewings. But while he obviously had a reputation of being a great player I would not have put him in the class of the top Soviet player of the 80's. But I'd be willing to listen to those that saw more of him. If others feel differently It would be great to hear why.

To be honest there are almost always a few guys on even the best on best teams that were not absolute stars. So it is very possible that a guy like Kuhnhackl could hve made a best on best version of the Canadian Olympic team back then (70's more so than the 80's). But even so it woudl not have been as a main guy. Teams like Canada at their best can simply come a you in waves. even if you top few players are very good they will overwhlem your depth.
Click to expand...

I can only argue with stats. Kühnhackl is ranked 7th in points at Olympics. He is 2 in P/GP in the Top 10 (1,824). Only Kharlamov has slight advantage (2,0 P/GP).
Looks even more impressive to me that he had to do much by himself compared to the Russians.
I think some players who didnt play NHL at that era are a bit underrated by Canadians. These players wasnt in the NHL because they werent good enough. This would include Truntschka and Hegen.

Olympic Games ‑ All-Time Points Leaders
 
Last edited:
Bure80 said:
I can only argue with stats. Kühnhackl is ranked 7th in points at Olympics. He is 2 in P/GP in the Top 10 (1,824). Only Kharlamov has slight advantage (2,0 P/GP).
Looks even more impressive to me that he had to do much by himself compared to the Russians.

Olympic Games ‑ All-Time Points Leaders
Click to expand...

The Olympics was a very different tournament back then. It's really hard to tell how god he would have been from his olympic numbers:

Erich Kuhnhackl Olympic Stats | Hockey-Reference.com (hockey-reference.com)

Really you had some very weak teams. But his numbers relative to his peers were certianly very good. As I said I'd be happy to hear from people who have a more detailed knowledge of Kuhnhackl than I would claim to have.
 
Fourier said:
The Olympics was a very different tournament back then. It's really hard to tell how god he would have been from his olympic numbers:
Click to expand...

I know. The first Olympics i watched was 1992. Ofcourse Canada or US didnt have the best team there. By far not the best. But Sovietunion and CSSR had their A team so its the only chance to compare to, if "you" are born a bit to late. Would be nice to hear more of him from viewers who saw him regularly.
 
Bure80 said:
I know. The first Olympics i watched was 1992. Ofcourse Canada or US didnt have the best team there. By far not the best. But Sovietunion and CSSR had their A team so its the only chance to compare to, if "you" are born a bit to late. Would be nice to hear more of him from viewers who saw him regularly.
Click to expand...

If we're talking 1976 then that wasn't the problem at all, the rosters were about as good as you could expect. The fact that Canada and Sweden didn't participate more so.
 
They'd be pretty close to the likes of Switzerland and Latvia, and might give the Czechs or Slovaks a run for their money on a good day (Draisaitl and likely Steutzle could make a difference but as mentioned the bottom half depth just isn't there).

They'd probably even lose to most top nations' B-teams (Canada's for sure), wonder if they could beat any of the US/ Finn/ Swede/ Russian 2nd teams.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lambo
kudla said:
Slovak all time team is not very far from top5-6
Click to expand...
Well considering there are only few real hockey countries, no team is far from the top 6.

Canada
Russia
USA
Sweden
Finland
Czech

Those teams still all are quite a lot ahead of Slovaks. Germany and Slovakia are closer to each other than any of the top 6 teams.
 
OKR said:
Well considering there are only few real hockey countries, no team is far from the top 6.
Germany and Slovakia are closer to each other than any of the top 6 teams.
Click to expand...
Not if we are talking all time, Slovakia has 6 guys that played atleast 1000 NHL games. Today, it's a different story of course, we are nowhere near to what we used to be
 
Last edited:
I think the all-time team would be somewhere between Finland's and Czech's current teams.
 
kudla said:
Not if we are talking all time, Slovakia has 6 guys that played atleast 1000 NHL games. Today, it's a different story of course, we are nowhere near to what we used to be
Click to expand...
Yes, even if we’re talking all time. Which team you realistically think they would be better than?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom