Tim Stutzle is the pride of German hockey – but a Swede has been crucial to his success

STOCKHOLM – After Leon Draisaitl, Tim Stützle has emerged as Germany’s great offensive weapon in the NHL. The Ottawa Senators’ young star center can, to some extent, thank a Swede for his successes.

It was the former Elite League defenseman Jan-Axel Alavaara who convinced the super prospect to stay in Adler Mannheim and take the next big step in his hockey career.

“His belief in me opened many doors,” Stützle said to hockeysverige.se ahead of the NHL Global Series.

As a player, Jan-Axel Alavaara was an effective defenseman, playing 573 games in the Elite League for MoDo, Frölunda, and Skellefteå. He also won two Swedish championships during his years in Gothenburg and played a handful of matches in the blue and yellow national team jersey for Tre Kronor.

As a leader, the 48-year-old from Kiruna has been equally successful – especially since he took over as the sports director of top German squad Adler Mannheim in 2018. There, he helped the team win a championship in his first season and has since narrowly missed out on the final with a couple of semifinal losses.

However, the most significant thing he has done for German hockey may have been signing a first-team contract with a certain young German in the summer of 2019. The top prospect had moved four hours south from Krefeld to Mannheim two years earlier and spent two seasons in the club’s junior operation. Despite this, it was anything but certain that he would stay and play senior hockey during his draft year in 2019-20.

Alavaara, however, managed to convince him – and especially his parents – to stay.

“My parents were actually strictly against me turning pro,” laughed Stützle during a conversation with hockeysverige.se ahead of the NHL Global Series in Stockholm. “They were afraid I wouldn’t get the matches and ice time I needed during my draft year. But Axel gave me the chance. I asked him and the coach how much I would get to play so I could calm my parents down, but they promised I would get my chance and if I behaved, I could get a good role in the team while they were careful to point out that they couldn’t play me if I didn’t deliver.”

It worked out well.

As a 17-year-old, Stützle stepped up and formed a successful line with former Swedish league players Ben Smith and Tommi Huhtala. He scored 34 points in 41 games from the German prodigy’s stick and was subsequently picked third in the 2020 NHL draft by the Ottawa Senators. His NHL debut came during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season. Since then, he has proven to be one of the league’s best young players.

Alavaara has been an important figure in that journey.

“Absolutely, he has meant incredibly much. His belief in me as a player opened many doors,” said Stützle, who also praises the Swede’s significance for the club as a whole. “He is very tough and sets high demands on his players, but he is also the first to back them up if they need help. Every year, he puts together a good team and they are almost always favorites to become champions. Sure, they have good resources with the money and all that, but it takes more than that to be able to have a good team. He has done an incredibly good job.”

One of the initiatives that has made Adler Mannheim successful is their investment in junior operations, which is far from a given for German clubs.

“The youth program is fantastic. It’s very unusual to find such in Germany,” explained Stützle. I was lucky to play there for two seasons and had a fantastic time. I am very grateful to have been part of that organization. They have helped me enormously to become the player I am today, and I still go there every summer and train with the guys.”

Even though he is now an NHL star, his heart remains close to domestic operations. He speaks at length and passionately about German hockey and its future prospects.

“All teams in the top league must have three U23 players in their teams,” he said. “There are many guys who may not be ready when they are 17, 18, or 19 years old, but this gives them the chance to develop. The best example is Nico Sturm [on] the San Jose Sharks who really got a boost when he was around 23 and now he has won a Stanley Cup (with the Colorado Avalanche). He is the perfect third or fourth-line guy in the NHL. He is one of those guys who really worked hard to make it all the way to the NHL, and that’s what German hockey is about. Helping the players improve and assisting the guys to get used to tougher play and hopefully help them make it to the NHL.”

With better players and international successes like the Olympic final in 2018 and the World Championship final this year, hockey has grown stronger in Germany.

“It’s hard to beat soccer,” Stützle said with a laugh. “We just try to get better year by year. We have several really good players who can become very good, (J.J.) Peterka in Buffalo and (Lukas) Reichel in Chicago not least. You can notice that the interest is growing and that feels like the most important thing.”

Considering the successes that he, Leon Draisaitl, and Moritz Seider have had, does Stützle get recognized more often back home in Germany now?

“In Mannheim, which is more of a hockey town, I get recognized, but it’s definitely more relaxed than in Canada,” he said. “There, it’s hard to go out without being recognized. So, it’s quite nice to come home and have a bit more privacy, but of course, we play for the fans and depend on them, so it’s always fun to sign autographs and take pictures with them.”

Why did you choose hockey and not soccer, which should be more obvious for a young German guy?

“It was actually difficult,” he said. “I was quite good at soccer too, maybe even better than I was at hockey at a young age. But my closest friends played hockey and my dad played when he grew up so I liked the sport more. No one told me I could earn $50 million (laughs), we just played because we loved the sport.’

Stützle has established himself as a superstar in just over three seasons with the Senators. Last year, he hit 90 points and already has 20 points in 14 games this year – including a three-point effort against Detroit to kick things off in Sweden.

For Stützle, the rapid success hasn’t come as a surprise.

“I think you always have to have self-confidence and believe in what you can do,” he said. “I have always believed in myself and now it’s just about getting better every year and focusing on what you can do to improve. But for me, it’s not about achieving personal success. I want the team to get better and for us to win more games.”

Is the next goal to reach 100 points and become the second German after Leon Draisaitl to achieve this milestone?

“No, for me, it doesn’t matter if I have 70, 90, or 100 points,” Stützle said. “It’s about how good we are as a team and how tight we are as a group. I think the most important thing is to set high expectations for ourselves in the locker room and try to fulfill them. If I score 100 points and we miss the playoffs, nothing is won.”

Many believe this will be the season when the young and promising Ottawa Senators take the next step and become a playoff team. The start of the season has been a rollercoaster, though. In 13 games, they’ve only earned 12 points, and the team is unexpectedly last in the Atlantic Division.

Despite this, Stützle chooses to focus on the positive.

“It feels like we have the team to be successful,” he said. “We have a group where many have signed up to stay in Ottawa for a long time and enjoy being there. This has been shown by our ability to sign good free agents, like “G” [Claude Giroux] and “Vladdy” [Vladimir Tarasenko], which maybe wasn’t the case before. We just need to find a way forward to take the next step.”

This story appeared on hockeysverige.se this week and has been translated from Swedish to English

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