It would have been too nice for German ice hockey. Leon Draisaitl would have helped the German team at the Ice Hockey World Championships in Finland in two ways: in terms of sport, certainly, and even more so in terms of public perception. Because the man from Cologne has been one of the best attackers in the world for years, but hardly anyone in this country who has little or no interest in ice hockey sees it.
But now Leon Draisaitl is not traveling to Finland. He hasn’t played for the national team since 2019, and it’s probably nonsense to keep him under the signet “national player” since Wednesday’s cancellation. Draisaitl plays for himself, for his success in the National Hockey League (NHL), which has little to do with the rest of the ice hockey world and what’s going on in Europe.
And he is not alone with this attitude, many top stars of this sport avoid the World Cup tournaments because they are simply hardly relevant for them or their clubs and do not want them to get injured in such a tournament. The focus of the world stars of this sport is the NHL, athletically and of course financially.
This time they could have paid the insurance sum with the help of DEB for their superstar, who is once again not their superstar: So it has to be the same in the decisive game against the Danes on Thursday (7.20 p.m., Sport 1); although it wasn’t at all certain whether Draisaitl could have played there at all. That would have been a laughing matter in the event of a defeat: Draisaitl would have been on the ice in the three following probably meaningless games (the German team should hardly be relegated given their strength).
Without Draisaitl, there is a lot at stake for the Germans after the three unfortunate defeats in Tampere, it is about a possible quarter-final participation at the World Cup and a qualification at the Olympics. Then Draisaitl might even be there at the 2026 Games in Italy. But who knows, recently the NHL closed shop twice during the winter games and didn’t let its players go to the Olympics.
Conclusion for the DEB is: It has to work without Draisaitl this time and also in the future. Because he is not a national player, but an NHL professional.
