The youth storms and pushes forward: 16-year-olds suddenly appear in the DEL.
On the one hand, this has to do with the fact that the teams have to have at least two players under 23 in the squad.
But also with Corona.
In Nuremberg they committed by numbers for years.
The more games a player had in the North American NHL, the more desirable he appeared to the Ice Tigers.
In 2015, the Franks enthusiastically accepted when they were offered Dany Heatley, who was once considered the world's best.
A long time ago: At the age of 34, over 900 professional games had left their mark.
Heatley was half disabled when he played one season for Nuremberg.
His last.
Only his gate was still working.
The Canadian scored 19 hits from a standing start.
Today Nuremberg is intoxicated by other dates: Moritz Elias recently scored his first goal in the German Ice Hockey League - at the age of 16. The striker was born in 2004. Like Roman Kechter.
The junior national player will be on February 17th. Nuremberg, home of the players with the scarred NHL faces, enjoys two "grid players".
If you are not yet 18, you have to wear this special face protection.
Last season, three grid players mixed up the DEL: Tim Stützle in Mannheim, Lukas Reichel in Berlin, John-Jason Peterka in Munich.
The 2002 vintage was an exception, and it was believed that nothing would follow from below anytime soon.
However, this season proves otherwise.
With Julian Lutz, born in February 2004, the EHC Munich has identified the next highly gifted person in its talent pool in Salzburg;
At the MagentaSport Cup, the striker was allowed to sniff in, promptly he succeeded in assisting. After shining at the U20 World Cup, Adler Mannheim built Florian Elias (18) into one of the front rows.
With the Krefeld Penguins, the voices are getting louder to pull Luca Hauf, who has just turned 17, up from the reserve team playing in the Oberliga Nord - he has almost one scorer point per game.
At the Kölner Haien, 16-year-old defender Leo Hafenrichter was accepted into the DEL squad.
It's amazing when you consider that this club let the then 17-year-old Dominik Bokk move to Sweden in 2017 because they didn't trust him to do the DEL - a few months later he was first-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues.
The wave of young people has a little to do with the fact that the DEL introduced a U23 rule: Two players must be younger than 23, only then can all 19 positions in the team be filled.
"But the cost pressure caused by Corona also helps," believes Gernot Tripcke, the managing director of DEL.
"Some contingent players who eat up a lot of the budget have to be replaced by a young German player."
And the training has also improved.
A five-star program was launched in German ice hockey, and the junior departments are certified.
The two highest leagues DEL and DEL2 organize “Future Camps” in the summer.
In the first, as Gernot Tripcke recalls, a twelve-year-old named Tim Stützle was there.
He is now 19 and plays for the Ottawa Senators in the NHL.
Mannheim, which created Stützle, has an exquisite junior department with the young eagles, Munich is involved in the Red Bull Academy in Liefering, Austria.
"Three years ago you were still an exotic player under 20 in the DEL," says Gernot Tripcke.
Today the doors of the team cubicles open for 16 year olds.
In the DEL, 16 has always been the possible entry age, and players who later became greats in the NHL such as Marco Sturm (from Landshut) and Marcel Goc (then in Schwenningen) made their debut as youth players among men in the 90s.
The Bundesliga has only allowed 16-year-olds since the current season - a regulation with which Borussia Dortmund and Youssoufa Moukoko were accommodated.
The DEL has some moukokos.
Ice hockey players can be quite tall by the age of 16, but they often weigh little.
Potentially a risk in a sport where you can encounter defensive giants weighing 100 kilograms plus.
However, the DEL is careful: The sports medical examination checks whether an aspirant is physically mature for men's ice hockey.