Austria’s participation at the 2021 World Junior Championships wrapped up on the Thursday against the Czechs. Austria’s pre-secured participation in next year’s tournament was largely the only positive take-away from the games. Without Thimo Nickl and Kilian Zundel, the team had a hard time generating offense from the back, or defending against the offensive salvos of their opponents. Paired with an unfortunate group, that was completely bereft of any comparably skilled competition, the game results were expected. For me, the results were both positive and negative. I expected over 30 goals to be allowed in the tournament, 4 goals allowed against Sweden was quite unexpected, and while I suppose 29 is not a massive improvement, it was prevented by many rigorous saves by Sebastian Wraneschitz. On the other hand, I did expect 2 or 3 goals to be scored, and only one was slightly disappointing, though no more disappointing than surrendering 29 goals instead of well over 30 was cause for celebration.
The End of an Era
Thus is comes to pass, the end of the Marco Rossi’s Austrian Junior International hockey career. Rossi now boards a plane to Minnesota, where he hopes to spend the rest of the season. The venue was a befitting venue for the end of an illustrious junior career. The result, perhaps less befitting, but a different result would probably have been unrealistic. He now passes the torch to Marco Kasper, who made his first U20 appearance this season as well, and tallied an assist on Austria’s only goal.
Austria retires 14 members of the 2001 class, and brings back 11 members from the 2002-2004 classes. Though, to be absolutely clear, nothing conclusive should be derived from the results of this tournament, my thoughts on the player performances leaving the tournament are as follows.
Sebastian Wraneschitz – a fantastic performance on his part. I think reasonably he should perhaps only be evaluated on the first 40 or so shots of each game. I think, to evaluate how a goalie was able to maintain his focus and energy level after some 60 or 70 shots is not a useful metric or a typically realistic scenario. His performances were extremely clean, and the occasional ugly goals often coming after games were long gone and the shot counts had gotten extremely high are extremely uninteresting to me.
Jakob Brandner – a clear step down from Wraneschitz, but still managed a respectable performance against Russia. Did not have the former’s exceptional ability to track the puck laterally with his vision and his movement.
Jonas Kutzer – very good skater, good mobility, but likely somewhat attributable to what he gives up in size. He didn’t have the physical tools to compete, and he also didn’t have the playmaking ability to do more than fire the occasional one-timer from the blue line. His mobility allowed him to get his stick on pucks or get close enough to opposing forwards to harass them and generally avoid getting beat. Probably the most inconspicuous player on the team, his presence undetectable for better or for worse.
Luis Lindner – Austria had to ride Lindner very heavily, and he consistently demonstrated why they were willing to do so. He’s developed smart defensive skills. He also tries very hard to play a physical game, though physically he was still behind the players from the bigger nations. He still showed the explosiveness to move the puck up the ice, though nothing ever came of it. The trajectory of his development has been very good, and while his style of play doesn’t quite fit what is becoming popular in NA, I think he could have an excellent career in Europe.
Lukas Necesany – his improvement over the duration of the tournament was noticeable. Each game he made more in the way of defensive plays. He still struggles to read the play on the ice and get to spots fast enough. His rather average skating did not help this, and his relative youth made it difficult for him to compete physically with the players from other nations. However, at least as a younger player he can reasonably attribute these his youth, unlike older players who seemed similarly unprepared. Where he typically stands out, his puck-handling skills, were certainly there, particularly with some nice crossovers at the blue line, but even those faltered at times against the quality of the competition.
Timo Pallierer – Pallierer is Austrian-style, or “modern hockey” defenseman. Like other defensemen on this team of the same description, against elite level talent, such a defenseman’s mobility and puck-moving ability may be neutralized, and defensive weaknesses become pronounced. This was not helped by an unwanted COVID break in this middle of his season. He tied Pfeffer for the worst +/- on the team, at -9. On the puck-handling front, a gap still showed between himself and the better players of the team like Lindner, or Wimmer, or even Necesany.
Jacob Pfeffer – proved himself to be a warrior. Blocked shots, fought extremely hard. A player of a sturdier build, he was able to fight more physical battles to a draw than most other defensemen on the team. However, he struggled to make a significant impact on other aspects of the game. Mobility tends to have an inverse relationship with size, and as a slightly bigger defenseman, the lack in mobility caused pains not entirely compensated for by the increase in size.
Bernhard Posch – like Pfeffer, willing to throw himself into the fire, which I find extremely admirable. His top speed is not bad, and allowed him to threaten with his presence on the rush occasionally, but his play with the puck left something to be desired, even measured against the performance of the other Austrians. He has utility in “bend-don’t-break” situations, where he was at least somewhat effective, but this did not lead to an attractive corsi score.
Dominik Unterweger – he played conservatively, had a lot of positional integrity, which allowed him not to get beat particularly often. His ability to compete physically was also greater. However, his speed is not great, either in terms of top speed or acceleration. As a result, opponents were able to use the corners of the ice to gather possession against him and sustain long possessions in Austrian territory.
Philipp Wimmer – Wimmer has always had good hands and the ability to read the movements of opposing defenders particularly well. The hands were on full display. He was able to make plays, even dangerous plays, with the puck, and escape slippery situations with some sick moves. However, he did get caught trying to be too fancy a couple times, one directly leading to a goal against. Aside from his spectacularly illegal check on Moynihan in the first game, he was still able to be the most physically competitive Austrian defenseman. However, his skating also requires a lot of work, his lack of agility in particular led to long periods of Austria getting hemmed in their own zone.
Mathias Bohm – Bohm has a lot of things going for him. He has a nose for the puck, he is bigger, and only getting stronger. He can get on top of the puck, score goals, tally assists. His forecheck pressure was excellent. The calls are for him to play a more simple, power forward, game. I think he can try to be more, but ultimately it will require a lot of extra stickhandling work on the side. His puck-handling abilities were not on the level necessary to be a playmaker at this level of hockey. However, as a double underager, he clearly has a lot of talent, and could be a significant contributor at next year’s World Juniors.
Tim Harnisch – the only player to be able to consistently make small flashes of offense throughout tournament. His solo offensive ability is unsurprising for anyone who is familiar with his game. His trick, getting to the outside of a defenseman and trying to poke check and run away with the puck, works occasionally against every level of competition. However, Harnisch showed a lot more in this tournament. Particularly in the game against the Czech Republic, the Salzburg forward played a 200 foot game. He competed relentlessly, and had a tremendous amount of impact that was not reducible to his typical occasional breakaways. I believe if he made such performances as against the Czechs a regular occurrence, he would be a regular in the IceHL, where he has largely been invisible in all his outings.
Fabian Hochegger – two aspects of Hochegger’s game stand out. His “get” and his shot. His get was very much a factor throughout the tournament. He is one of the stronger members of the team, and showed a consistent willingness to create plays by going into the dirty areas, pursuing the puck, and getting to open spaces. As a result, he was able to greatly minimize the chances against his team while he was on the ice, and create some chances for his team. He and Kasper each shared the best +/- figures on the team, excluding Unterweger and Theirich, who both played significantly less. However, his shot was not as lethal at this level as it typically is. As the recipient of most of the feeds on his line, he was ultimately unable to reach the back of the net, and thus a lot of positive work on his part never reached the score sheet.
Marco Kasper – extremely entertaining to watch. He wore all of his emotions, his frustration, his elation, on his sleeve. His play is electric. Physically, he clearly has some catching up to do to get to the older guys both in terms of strength and power on his skates, but his playmaking prowess is not inferior. To borrow and alter a quote, seldom do I ever witness an Austrian hockey player as young and skilled as he is. He has the potential to be very special and I’m very excited to watch this journey unfold.
Clemens Krainz – Krainz certainly gets an “A” for effort, but his physical and technical limitations were very apparent. Being a big guy, he doesn’t have the mobility and puck-handling ability that some of the smaller guys have. But despite being a big guy, he wasn’t quite physically on the level of the opposition. He had good compete, but certainly made Austrian fans nervous most times he was on the ice.
Julian Pauschenwein – at times he was certainly more noticeable for good. He had enough skill to make some plays, and was one of the more physically competent members of the team. But bright spots were still fewer and further in between. Rarely do you see such a skilled player come from one of the smaller developmental programs in Austria, Pauschenwein has impressed me, but there is still a demonstrable chasm between the level of the players at the big clubs and the level of the players at the smaller clubs.
Senna Peeters – Peeters had his best outing against Russia, when he had the goal, though not strictly because of that goal. He has improved significantly in his defensive play in the off-season, and this has first been visible in his outings in the J20 Swedish league, and now in the WJC, where he continued to make plays at both ends of the ice. He flashed his speed at times, and showed his passing prowess. However, opposing teams were still largely able to limit his line, and himself, to single shot opportunities, usually at range or an angle and without a screen or any other complicating factor.
Marco Rossi – Rossi was hustling big time for the first few games and showed a great willingness to compete, even though the puck was often in his own zone. Opposing players seemed to be at least aware of who he was, he never got the puck long before someone would step into his face and contest him. However, he still put in a great defensive effort, made good passes to his linemates to try to spring offensive chances, and showed off his speed at times to put pucks on the net. No player on the team battled as hard or as successfully for the puck and for possessions. Marco demonstrated his exceptional level of physical competence and often forced misplays by opposing players. In the last game, he appeared to be favoring a hip. Hopefully that is nothing, as he has an NHL training camp to attend.
Lucas Thaler – the Villacher plays the game with good pace and good enthusiasm. He didn’t struggle as much with the fast pace of the elite game. He made a number of nice moves throughout the tournament, albeit very sporadically. He was able to create a lot of chances in the form of his passes to Fabian Hochegger. He also, like Lindner, clearly tried to up the ante physically. However, like many others, he had trouble protecting the puck, his stickhandling was often not quite tight enough, and while he put in a solid effort, he was rarely competitive physically. He was able to stem the bleeding more than others, but couldn’t break through.
Maximilian Theirich – his speed showed, and he was able to make a play I believe in the Russia game. Physically, he was not up to this level of hockey, and it prevented him from affecting the game in other ways that he might wish to affect the game. As a very young player, he has plenty of time to bulk up, but his length may still present itself as an issue in the future.
Marlon Tschofen – Tschofen was actually quite disruptive on the forecheck. But for his comparatively under-developed puck-handling skills, he actually could have had himself a number of legitimate chances on the counter. He’s a bigger, more physical player, who plays a simple game. If that game was any more complex, he could have been a significant threat from the bottom lines.
Finn Van Ee – the KAC product struggled with the strength and maturity of the opposing players. Like Theirich, his fellow 03′ class member, the experience will mostly be positive as an indicator of what to expect in future ventures.
Leon Wallner – Wallner plays a rather simple game. He is a smart player, makes good passes to his teammates, fights hard for pucks, and generally demonstrates a level of sophistication above what one would typically associate with an Austrian junior. If he had the moves, or the dynamic and explosive scoring element to his game, he would likely not always be tasked with babysitting the checking line. He’s grown much taller, but still feels physically less competitive than many of his teammates. Overall, he’s a promising talent who still appears to have a lot of room to grow and improve.
Looking Ahead
Austria will return up to 2 goalies, 1 defenseman, and 8 forwards in next year’s lineup. Thus, there are a lot of gaps in the lineup to fill, particularly on defense. The largest underage omission this season, due to COVID reasons, was Oskar Maier. He will be in the lineup, and his presence will certainly be a boon to the offensive unit. Maximilian Hengelmuller could also be looking at a slot on the team next year. Martin Urbanek is also a likely choice, though for me he leaves much to be desired. Here are the underage players, however, who are on watch for potential participation in next year’s WJC, though each player must still play his way into contention.
Defense: Christoph Tialler, Lorenz Lindner, Maximilian Preiml, Lukas Horl, Luca Erne, David Reinbacher, Moritz Molls, Leo Raab
Forwards: Vinzenz Rohrer, David Cernik, Luca Auer, Jonas Dobnig, Moritz Lackner, Stefan Klassek, Timo Sticha, Ian Scherzer
A Final Word
Austria’s best went to the bubble in Edmonton. Players who, when back in Austria, would skate circles around their opposition. Players who the young players on the watch list above likely even looked up to, or believed to be good players. And they were not competitive, against players, some of whom will be future NHL players, but others of whom will play in the AHL, the SHL, the NLA, and perhaps even some day, the IceHL. If a young Austrian prospect wants to be competitive, attendance of official practices and use of team programs is not enough, but also the willingness to go above and beyond. It’s an unfortunate truth, but an inevitable one. And while physical deficits can be more easily solved in the weight room, Austria seemed to struggle more with puck-handling and skating skills than merely brute strength. The greatest Austrian hockey prospects in the last 5 years each went above and beyond the call of duty, putting in the extra hours, working on stickhandling, working on skating. Sometimes with no more than a stick and a ball at home. And I believe this will continue to be the case. Some of the onus certainly falls on Austrian hockey builders, but for now, the responsibility lies with the players.
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