German Juniors Named – Deeper Roster
The German U20 national team will prepare for the World Junior Championship as of next Wednesday in Kingston, Ontario. Four skaters will be cut to determine the final roster.
“It will be an awesome experience for my boys to play in Canada. Hockey is very popular there similar to football in our country. Our goal is to play like a top-10 team and to show that we deserve to play in this division,” said Pat Cortina, who coaches both the men’s and U20 national teams of Germany.
The Germans travel to Canada with a deeper roster and fewer underage players than usual. 11 players return from last year’s team that won the relegation battle against Norway.
The biggest name missing on the list is Leon Draisaitl, who played in the World Juniors the last two years. After being drafted third overall last summer, the 19-year-old Cologne native made the NHL roster of the Edmonton Oilers where he has played in all 29 games (2 goals, 5 assists).
The roster consists of players with different club backgrounds. Some of them already play professionally in Germany’s top league DEL including Fabio Wagner, who appeared in 22 games for ERC Ingolstadt, and a trio that has three scoring points in the current DEL season with forward Dominik Kahun, Marc Schmidpeter and defenceman Jonas Muller.
One player plays junior hockey in Canada – the Medicine Hat Tigers’ Markus Eisenschmid – six in the United States and one player, Frederik Tiffels with the Western Michigan University, played college hockey in the NCAA.
Four players join from Red Bull Salzburg’s junior team, an Austrian-German project with the team competing in the Russian-based major junior league MHL.
Germany camp roster as of 11th December 2014
Goaltenders:
Florian Proske, Heilbronner Falken
Kevin Reich, Green Bay Gamblers (USHL)
Ilya Sharipov, Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Defencemen:
Tim Bender, EHC Red Bull Munich
Patrick Kurz, Ravensburg Towerstars
Yannik Moser, Ohio State University
Jonas Muller, Eisbaren Berlin
John Rogl, Landshut Cannibals
Dorian Saeftel, Heilbronner Falken
David Trinkberger, Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)
Fabio Wagner, ERC Ingolstadt
Kai Wissmann, Dresdner Eislowen
Forwards:
Andreas Eder, Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Markus Eisenschmid, Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL)
Vladislav Filin, Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Erik Gollenbeck, Eispiraten Crimmitschau
Dominik Kahun, EHC Red Bull Munich
Maximilian Kammerer, Red Bull Salzburg (AUT)
Stefan Loibl, ESV Kaufbeuren
Marc Michaelis, Green Bay Gamblers (USHL)
Fabio Pfohl, Kolner Haie
Marc Schmidpeter, ERC Ingolstadt
Denis Shevyrin, Minnesota Magicians (NAHL)
Nico Sturm, Austin Bruins (NAHL)
Frederik Tiffels, Western Michigan University (NCAA)
Parker Tuomie, Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL)
Manuel Wiederer, Straubing Tigers
Head Coach:
Pat Cortina
