Ice hockey pro Leon Draisaitl will not strengthen the German national team at the World Cup in Finland and Latvia after the play-off with the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL. This was announced by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) on Wednesday morning. “It is not possible in the short time to realize his World Cup participation,” said DEB sports director Christian Künast, who had a “detailed conversation” with Draisaitl on Tuesday. “After 92 NHL games including two intensive series, he now simply needs time to recover from the exertion and to regenerate physically,” explained Künast: “Especially since there are also exit meetings and media appointments with the Oilers on site .”
“Given his role in the Oilers, we fully understand” the cancellation. On Tuesday, Draisaitl left open his participation at the closing press conference in Edmonton. “I’m in contact with the German team,” confirmed the 27-year-old, “we’re trying to sort things out. We’ll see.” The decision was then made in a telephone conversation with Künast.
Draisaitl, who had broken the 50-goal mark for the third time in the past NHL main round, failed in the sixth game against the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night. A big problem would have been getting to Tampere in time, where the German team had lost their first three World Cup games against favorites Sweden, Finland and the USA. If she doesn’t win against Denmark on Thursday (7:20 p.m. CEST, Sport1 and MagentaSport) either, the quarter-finals and direct Olympic qualification could already be out of reach.