Olympic silver medalist Christian Ehrhoff returns to his hometown club. The Krefeld Pinguine announced on Wednesday that the 40-year-old will be back on the ice for them next season – in the German Ice Hockey League 2.
Ehrhoff returns to his roots. In 2003, at the age of 20, he became German ice hockey champion with Krefeld before starting his impressive career in the NHL. Now, quite surprisingly, five years after retiring from the national team and leaving the Kölner Haie, which was considered to be the end of his career, he wants to lace up his skates again for the penguins.
Sports director Draisaitl believes in the success of the comeback
Sports director Peter Draisaitl believes that despite Ehrhoff’s long break, the coup can succeed: “After Christian Ehrhoff took the initiative and he described to us clearly and realistically how he imagined his way back onto the ice, there there’s no reason not to try.”
At Ehrhoff, the spark probably jumped over during the second division playoffs: “After Adrian Grygiel’s farewell in the playoffs and the emotional games that I witnessed live here in the arena, the fire was kindled in me again.” Like Ehrhoff, Grygiel was part of the 2003 championship team. When his family gave him the green light, he approached the penguins. “It’s a good signal for the location when deserving players who identify with the club are so committed,” says Draisaitl.
Ehrhoff was in the Stanley Cup and Olympic finals
It is well known that the heart of the native Moerser is attached to the penguins. When he left the NHL in 2016 after 862 games (81 goals/282 assists), he initially rejected the Krefeld team and ended his active career in the DEL with the Kölner Haie. However, his connection to Krefeld was always great – after his return from North America, he drew one of his greatest triumphs to the city.
Ehrhoff was denied further titles, but he has even greater sporting successes as a Stanley Cup finalist (2011 with the Vancouver Canucks) and Olympic silver medalist (2018 in South Korea). In the DEL he played 314 games for Krefeld and Cologne and also appeared 118 times in the jersey of the German national team.
Ehrhoff is supposed to help penguins climb
After Ehrhoff failed to win another title with the Kölner Haie in two attempts, he ended his active career in 2018 – for the time being, as one has to say. The 40-year-old took over a fitness studio in Moers in 2017 and will probably have to get fit there himself in order to be able to help the Krefeld Penguins at the second attempt in the coming season after they recently missed being promoted directly to the DEL. “The coaching staff and I expect Christian to work hard in the coming weeks and months so that he is physically at the highest level at the start of the season,” says Draisaitl.
With Ehrhoff, who played for Krefeld in the DEL again in 2012 during an NHL lockout, and head coach Boris Blank, who played for the Penguins between 2005 and 2014, the Krefeld team are relying on crowd favorites for their resurgence. Blank took over the coaching job in December from Draisaitl, who had been promoted to sports director, and led the penguins to the semi-finals of the promotion playoffs, where they failed at Ravensburg.
