A highly decorated top star Leon Draisaitl, a much-noticed newcomer Tim Stützle and Philipp Grubauer as a goalie with great ambitions: When the 104th season in the National Hockey League starts on Thursday night, the German NHL professionals also want to make their way into the move your field of vision. Eyes will particularly be on Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner Draisaitl with the Edmonton Oilers, who now has national team friend Dominik Kahun at his side. League newcomer Stützle with the Ottawa Senators and goalkeeper Grubauer with the highly rated Colorado Avalanche are also attracting great interest.
In addition, Tobias Rieder wants to impress with the Buffalo Sabres, Nico Sturm wants to establish himself with the Minnesota Wild, goalie Thomas Greiss wants to help the Detroit Red Wings rebuild and Marc Michaelis with the Vancouver Canucks and Lean Bergmann with the San Jose Sharks want their place in the best ice hockey league in the world. Finally, Tom Kühnhackl hopes to regain his footing with the New York Islanders after his serious shoulder injury. “It will be an exciting season from a German perspective. There are many things that are very interesting from a German perspective: how Tim asserts himself, how Marc finds his way, how Lean can work his way through in the second year and a lot more,” says national coach Toni Söderholm.
If you add Moritz Seider (loaned to Sweden from Detroit) and Leon Gawanke (Winnipeg Jets/Manitoba Moose), who are on the NHL radar, the influx of German NHL exports continues to grow. An aspect that also pleases Söderholm, as it has a qualitative impact on international competitiveness. “The development is of course very positive because the fight for places in the NHL is incredibly big. We have some players who are now experienced NHL players and now hopefully the new wave is coming. We should be proud that the players can prove themselves there. “We have developed the players in Germany so that they are good enough for the NHL,” he says DEB-Coach.
The PENNY DEL has now also become a good springboard to North America, with talents like Lukas Reichel (Berlin) and JJ Peterka (EHC Red Bull München) or others get the tools for their dream of a long NHL career here. “The quality there is now so good that the players can offer themselves for the national team and then also for the NHL,” Söderholm also points out, but at the same time emphasizes: “But it is also important that we are never satisfied with this situation keep pushing.”
On the first game day of the new NHL season, which begins almost everywhere without an audience and has been reduced from 82 to 56 main round games per team, Draisaitl and Kahun are challenged with the Oilers against Michaelis' Canucks. Grubauer also wants to make a mark against the 2019 champion St. Louis Blues. The Rosenheimer team Goalies Söderholm also has a lot of confidence. “Colorado will have a strong team, they have learned a lot in the last few years. I think that Philipp has a good opportunity to go far,” says the 42-year-old Finn, who is also very excited about the purely Canadian division that was set up for this season due to Corona: “The factor comes into play in practically every game Pure rivalry, it’s difficult to judge how that will play out.”
NHLFans can initially watch games on Sport1+, selected matches will also be shown on Sport1 on free-to-air TV during the season. In general, the NHL presence in Germany has also developed, adds Söderholm: "You can see that in Leon and his award for Sportsman of the Year. The NHL is now reaching sports fans in Germany. When I was a child, we didn't know much about what was happening in the NHL. Today, the German NHL players are so close to the German Fan like never before."
