New chance for one of the once world’s greatest ice hockey talents: At this year’s Germany Cup in Krefeld from Thursday to Sunday, almost everything revolves around Dominik Bokk.
The 22-year-old potential exceptional striker with an NHL contract, but without a single NHL appearance so far, can prove himself to national coach Toni Söderholm for the first time in three years.
“Everyone can see that Dominik has a lot of potential. I’m looking forward to him,” said Söderholm ahead of Germany’s first game in the four-nation tournament on Thursday (7:45 p.m.) against Denmark.
Bokk still waiting for NHL debut
“Perhaps he’s a player who took a little longer to realize where his limits are,” the national coach added diplomatically. Because at Bokk, for whom a career similar to that of world-class striker Leon Draisaitl was mapped out, things have not gone as planned since 2018.
The Schweinfurter played in the strong Swedish league at the age of 17 and was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the NHL draft at the age of 18 – the annual assignment of the world’s best talents of a year to the teams in the North American professional league.
He is now under contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. However, he has not played an NHL game to date.
Söderholm certifies NHL pick Bokk a change
“That was also my fault,” Bokk admitted sheepishly. Even in the national team, the highly talented always failed. The Franconian was considered “Brother Lightfoot”. As someone who is difficult to integrate into a team corset and rather does “his thing”. As someone who would rather pose on Instagram with gold watches and open shirts than torture himself for his career.
Söderholm said it was quite meaningful again: “We don’t need any hocus-pocus tricks, but a solid team performance if we want to win games.” But he now confirmed a change to Bokk: “I think he worked very well on the entire ice.” So not just in attack.
In an interview with the specialist magazine “Eishockey News”, Bokk was recently purified. “I haven’t been with the national team since 2019 because my performances weren’t good enough for it.” During this time, Bokk continued to play in Sweden, in the second-rate North American AHL and, since last season, on loan in Germany.
The change from champion polar bears Berlin to the lions Frankfurt, which was noted with astonishment in the industry, has paid off so far. With ten goals and twelve assists from 18 games, Bokk is the best DEL scorer in the current DEB squad for the Deutschland Cup and the third-best scorer in the entire German Ice Hockey League.
National coach Söderholm already has the World Cup in mind
Bokk even forced one of his biggest critics on “MagentaSport” to speak clearly. “We’re not completely stupid either. We can’t afford not to invite him,” said Söderholm, who instead relinquished proven top performers such as DEL top scorer Matthias Plachta from Adler Mannheim.
Söderholm wants to use the time in Krefeld for casting for the 2023 World Cup in Tampere. Because recently there were some annoying cancellations for Söderholm after the disappointing Winter Olympics in Beijing in February for the World Cup in May.
Apparently he wants to prepare himself better for this. “We want to take steps towards preparing for the World Cup. Hopefully we’ll be better prepared after that,” said Söderholm. In addition to less experienced regular players like Berlin’s Marco Nowak, the squad includes many talents and returnees.
And Bokk should be highly motivated in the games against Denmark, Austria (Saturday, 5:30 p.m.) and Slovakia (Sunday, 2:30 p.m.). “I have no contact with Carolina at all,” said the attacker.
His contract with the Hurricanes is on hold. “My goal is to play in the NHL. I’ll give everything for that. But that’s a long way off at the moment.” A continued strong DEL season and the 2023 World Cup could change that.