Almost four weeks before the start of the World Championships in Finland and Latvia, the German Ice Hockey Federation is plagued by a problem. The sudden and hardly understandable increase in insurance sums for professionals from the North American NHL could prevent the best available players from May 12th from really being there.
A number of nations are therefore in excitement, not just the DEB. This has been an issue worldwide for months. Even in North America, where the NHL playoffs start this week.
“It’s stupid if the best players couldn’t be there because the associations can’t manage to pay the insurance,” said top striker Leon Draisaitl, for whom the DEB would have to dig deep into their pockets if he should Edmonton Oilers fail surprisingly early.
Big sums
“That’s a big problem,” said the former national coach and now employed as a coach in North America Marco Sturm of the German Press Agency. “You can’t pay 200,000 euros for a Leon Draisaitl for a World Cup. Not us Germans anyway. In my time it was 20,000, 30,000 or 40,000 – which wasn’t a problem.”
Even if Draisaitl is not an issue for the World Cup because of his Stanley Cup ambitions, the DEB would have to pay a higher six-figure amount this year to nominate the available players from the NHL and the second-class AHL. What sounds ridiculously small in football is a lot of money for the national associations in ice hockey. Sometimes too much. Last year, the Swedish FA reportedly gave up the services of then-available world-class defender Victor Hedman because he couldn’t afford his insurance policy.
“We also heard about the rumor,” confirmed DEB sports director Christian Künast of the dpa. Such a case should not exist for him if possible. “We will solve everything,” promises Künast. On Tuesday, the updated provisional World Cup squad for Thursday and Saturday’s friendlies against Austria will be announced. The first NHL reinforcements such as Nico Sturm (San Jose) or JJ Peterka (Buffalo) should be there. However, it is uncertain whether all the stars already available, such as Tim Stützle (Ottawa), Moritz Seider (Detroit) or Lukas Reichel (Chicago) will come to the World Cup.
Important Olympic qualification
How much the new national coach Harold Kreis is dependent on the top performers was shown by his failed debut games against the Czech Republic (2:6 and 1:5) last week. Since this World Cup is also about direct qualification for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, the DEB is actually dependent on everyone. Künast has therefore been begging for sponsors and the DOSB since October. “Our partners are very understanding,” said Künast and promised: “No player will not come to us because of the sum insured.”
This hardly applies to all nations. Even record world champion Canada now has a problem. It currently seems unlikely that world star Sidney Crosby, who missed the playoffs with Pittsburgh, will be at the World Cup. The world association has long been alarmed. “Of course, the IIHF has an interest in the best players being there,” said Künast. Therefore, there is financial support from the world association, but even there the means are limited. “With regard to the current World Cup, not much will happen yet. But it is a major concern for the future,” said Künast.
What worries nations in general is the seeming arbitrariness with which brokers’ policies are valued in North America. “It’s hard to grasp how some sums come about. But you also have to see that our players over there now have a different status and a different salary. Some of them are top stars,” said Künast, referring to world-class players like Draisaitl and Stützle, who earn an average of around 8.5 million US dollars per year.
