2023-11-10 11:37:43
The President of the World Ice Hockey Association makes national coach Harold Kreis very happy. After two Olympic tournaments, the NHL stars will probably intervene again.
Landshut.
National coach Harold Kreis seemed extremely satisfied. It wasn’t just the ice hockey vice world champion’s 4-1 opening win at the Germany Cup in Landshut against the Danish selection that put everyone in a good mood.
In all likelihood, Kreis will be able to field its entire star ensemble around Leon Draisaitl at the 2026 Olympics. The world-class striker’s dream of finally playing with all NHL players on the national team again is becoming more and more likely.
World association president Luc Tardif confirmed to Magentasport an impending agreement between the IIHF and the North American professional league NHL. The NHL professionals should finally be able to take part again at the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in just over two years.
Hoping for more NHL stars
“The NHL players have said themselves that they would like to come. That would be a huge improvement for German ice hockey, but also for ice hockey as a whole,” enthused Kreis. His team has already qualified for the Olympics.
In 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the NHL stars were missing because there was no agreement between the world association and the professional league. Four years later, the top stars around Draisaitl’s Edmonton teammate Connor McDavid were missing in Beijing because the coronavirus disrupted the schedule in North America with numerous cancellations. In addition to Draisaitl, there are other outstanding German professionals in North America in Tim Stützle, Moritz Seider, JJ Peterka, Nico Sturm and Philipp Grubauer.
In Landshut, however, Kreis not only has to do without the NHL players, but also numerous top performers. Therefore, the 4:1 start with a mixture of few established players, several newcomers or returnees made the coach happy. “The boys fought for over 60 minutes. I liked that,” said the national coach. The pool of candidates for the national team has now grown to 40 to 60 players. “I could have nominated two teams,” said the coach. (dpa)
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