Would "Team German" be good enough to compete for a cup?

swissdude

Registered User
May 18, 2019
439
432
i don't think he was the worst captain the isles had albeit at a time when they weren't exactly competitive, to reduce him to the last few years in the nhl shows either young age or neurological problems
 

Rodgerwilco

Entertainment boards w/ some Hockey mixed in.
Feb 6, 2014
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Is every Swiss nhl player Swiss-German? Any French speakers?
Most of the ones I googled from this list speak German because it’s the most common language in Switzerland. Adding them in fills out the hypothetical, but really doesnt makes much sense.
 

K1900L

Registered User
Dec 27, 2019
1,164
1,386
Most of the ones I googled from this list speak German because it’s the most common language in Switzerland. Adding them in fills out the hypothetical, but really doesnt makes much sense.
I didn't find any of the named not to be Swiss-German, or not at least closest to being so.
Moser and Daccord were the only somewhat shaky candidates. Moser was born in a town that is bilingual, so he probably has grown up this way and you could nominate him for "Team French" as well. Daccord's Swiss background is his mother's family, who comes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, but this exact town has a Swiss-German background and he himself stated in an interview that it's important for him to continue speaking Swiss-German (additionally to English).

So for whatever reason, all of the Swiss NHL-players seem to have more or less a Swiss-German background.
 

LEAFANFORLIFE23

Registered User
Jun 17, 2010
47,322
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There have been numerous interesting threads/posts in the past where hypothetical teams were created by focussing on certain non-existing nations/nationalities or on linguistic/cultural connections (teams Yugoslavia, USSR, Scandinavia, North America etc.).
Currently, the German-speaking part of the world has produced some very talented hockey players and probably for the first time ever would be able to ice a whole squad made up of players situated in North America (=who are (close to) NHL skill level).

What were my requirements?
1. The player must have the nationality of a country where German is the main-language (being able to speak German would not be enough, which excludes players like Nikolaj Ehlers, Drake Batherson, Josh Norris and others)
2. The player has to be able to speak German
3.
The player must be situated in North American hockey (=play in the NHL or a farm team; former NHL players or very talented players in the European leagues do not meet requirements)

This is what I was able to come up with:

Timo Meier — Leon Draisaitl — JJ Peterka
Nico Hischier — Tim Stützle — Kevin Fiala
Nino Niederreiter — Marco Rossi — Philipp Kurashev
Pius Suter — Marco Kasper — Nico Sturm/Lukas Reichel



Roman Josi — Janis Moser
Jonas Siegenthaler — Moritz Seider
Lian Bichsel — David Reinbacher
Joey Daccord
Philipp Grubauer
If this team were to be an additional NHL team due to an expansion, how many franchises would you rank ahead of it and for what reason, and what do you perceive the chances of this team to win a cup?

Not with that goaltending
 

BruinLVGA

CZ Shadow 2 Compact: finally here!!!
Dec 15, 2013
15,346
7,610
Switzerland
Is every Swiss nhl player Swiss-German? Any French speakers?
Every Swiss person speaks 2, 3 or more languages. I am pretty positive that most, if not all, Swiss players on that list do speak French. Nico Hischier comes from Wallis/Valais/Vallese canton which is pretty much bi-lingual (French and German). They‘re also known for wine production and it‘s a very pretty canton (top 3, alongside Graubünden/Grisons/Grigioni and Ticino/Tessin. Canton Bern is also very pretty, imho).
 
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Rodgerwilco

Entertainment boards w/ some Hockey mixed in.
Feb 6, 2014
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Pretty certain Seigenthaler is a Swiss Italian speaker, not Swiss German.
Interesting player here. He did say in an interview that Swiss German was his first language, but he learned English pretty immediately after that... Never knew that he was the first player of Thai descent to play in the league.
 

Zenos

Registered User
Oct 4, 2009
2,268
2,522
Pretty certain Seigenthaler is a Swiss Italian speaker, not Swiss German.
Name: Jonas Siegenthaler.
Born in Zürich to a Thai mother and Swiss father with the name “Daniel”.

Not saying you’re wrong, but nothing here says “Italian-Swiss” to me.
 

JPT

Registered User
Jul 4, 2024
814
1,633
I don't know. I feel like strict rules about who can join a group of Germans has been tried before with bad results.
 

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