10-05-2025
Fashionably Late: Senators Star Adds More Ottawa Content To World Hockey Championships
After leading the Ottawa Senators in scoring this season, Tim Stützle is shifting his focus to the international stage as he prepares to represent Germany at the 2025 IIHF World Hockey Championship.
Team Germany's sports director, Christian Künast, says Stützle shared the good news with them right after the Senators' season ended last week.
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"We are pleased that we have now calmly resolved all the formalities and that (Tim) will be joining us," Künast said in a release yesterday on the German national team's website. "We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ottawa Senators, from whom we have already received approval for his participation, and we look forward to Tim's arrival here in Herning."
Stützle's arrival wasn't in time for Germany's first game against Hungary on Saturday, but the hope is to have him in the lineup as soon as possible. Their next game is on Sunday against Kazakhstan, but The Hockey News' international site editor, Derek O'Brien, says Stützle won't play until at least game three on Tuesday.
The 22-year-old centre stayed fully healthy this season, appearing in all 82 games. That wasn't the case last year when he ended the season with an injury, knocking him out of all consideration for Germany's 2024 World Championship squad.
Stutzle closed his NHL campaign with 24 goals and 79 points in 82 games, then put up five more points in the team's six playoff appearances.
This will be Stützle's second time competing at the senior World Championship level, having previously played for Germany in 2022. He also made a name for himself at the World Juniors in 2020 and 2021, serving as team captain in the second year and being named the tournament's best forward after a 10-point performance.
'We are, of course, delighted that Tim, a very high-quality player, is joining us and will further strengthen our team for the tournament,' German coach Harold Kreis said. 'He demonstrated his strengths in the past NHL season and delivered a great season with the Senators. We had a very good and detailed conversation during our NHL trip, during which he reiterated his intention to join us. It's all the more pleasing that his participation in the World Championship is now working out.'
Stützle won't be the only Senator at the tournament. Fellow Sens centre Shane Pinto (USA) and defenceman Nikolas Matinpalo (Finland) are both on the rosters for their respective countries.
Linus Ullmark wanted to play, but with the Sens in the playoffs, Sweden made other plans.
Pinto didn't play in America's 5-0 opening win over the co-host Danes on Friday. But Matinpalo played over 15 minutes in Finland's tight 2-1 win over Austria.
That might seem like a surprisingly close game, but Austria seems to have some Finnish kryptonite, actually beating Finland last year for the first time in an IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
Canada opened the tournament with a 4-0 win over Slovenia on Saturday morning, outshooting them 44-11. Nathan MacKinnon led the way with three points.
The tournament runs until May 25th in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark, featuring 16 nations.
Steve WarneThe Hockey News-Ottawa
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