National team: Premiere for Stanley Cup winner Kühnhackl

“Summer camp” in Füssen with many NHL stars and returnees / Sturm: “Take advantage of the opportunity”

Stanley Cup winner Tom Kühnhackl from the Pittsburgh Penguins will join the national ice hockey team in the first phase of preparation for the Olympic qualification in Riga, Latvia (September 1st - 4th). Also at the preparation camp in the Federal Training Center Füssen from 20th to 26th. July will feature NHL stars Christian Ehrhoff (most recently Chicago Blackhawks), Tobias Rieder (most recently Arizona Coyotes) and Korbinian Holzer (most recently Anaheim Ducks). In total, national coach Marco Sturm named 27 players for the “summer camp”, including two goalkeepers, ten defenders and 15 strikers for his squad.

“We want to use this opportunity shortly before the official start of training in the clubs to lay the foundation for the second phase of preparation for the qualifying tournament in Riga,” said Sturm, who, in addition to the 18 World Cup participants from Russia, will also be relying on veterans like Justin Krueger (SC Bern) Kai Hospelt (Kölner Haie), Yasin Ehliz (Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers) and Matthias Plachta (Adler Mannheim) can count.

In addition to Kühnhackl, defender Konrad Abeltshauser (EHC Red Bull München) are with the national team for the first time. Both players were most recently in the young talent area for the selection of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) in use. The other German NHL players Thomas Greiss (New York Islanders), Leon Draisaitl (Edmonton Oilers) and Dennis Seidenberg (most recently Boston Bruins) are training individually after consultation with national coach Sturm. “In Füssen, in addition to ice training, we will also carry out performance tests and focus more on off-ice units,” said Sturm.