Photo: sportsnet.ca
Basic Player Overview
2019/20 Team: Adler Mannheim (DEL)
Position: Centre/Left Wing
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 187 lbs
Handedness: Left
Introduction
Tim Stützle is the highest ranked German player since Leon Draisaitl back in 2014. Since he was 15 years old he’s been playing for Adler Mannheim in Germany. He dominated every single youth league he was playing in. Last year he scored more than a goal per game and also picked up 32 assists in 21 games. At the beginning of the season, he was around that 10th spot in the rankings but throughout the year he has climbed higher and higher. This season he had an opportunity to look into the senior hockey in Germany. He was playing top-line minutes, more than 16 minutes per game. And he totally deserved that ice-time. He was pretty productive, 34 points in 41 games, and another 5 points in 8 games of Champions Hockey League. But what really has got him into everyone’s head, especially in North America, was his WJC performance. He absolutely dominated there, was almost at every single dangerous situation of his team, and played a key role in keeping Germany in the elite division.
Skating
It’s tough to find a better skater in this year’s eligible players. He’s able to create space with his tremendous speed, which will allow him to translate to the NHL effectively. He’s not a physical player, he definitely has room to fill in there and there’re times where he struggles against bigger and stronger competitors. This may be evident in the NHL. If he didn’t draw to space up by his speed and gets too close to the opponent, he can be easily sent down to the ice. Guys like Anton Lundell or JJ Peterka can handle it better.
At these clips, you can see how is Stützle using his speed as a skillset. He can easily get around the defender thanks to that as well as he can use speed as a covering the puck ahead of an opponent’s player.
But his skating is not only about speed, but he has also outstanding edgework and agility. He has no problem with changing direction in high-end speed, changes the rhythm of the game, and use it as a deadly weapon for a great pass or shot.
Shot
You can’t say Stützle has a perfect shot. I’d say he has an extremely accurate shot, that’s why he’s able to score goals he has scored. This season he put the puck ten times in the net. If you did a line that crosses the middle of both circles in the offensive zone, he didn’t score once above that line. If he adds upper-body strength, it will help him so much in two key aspects of shots and goal-production.
The first one would be a variety of scoring. If he has a more powerful shot, his attempts from a long-range would become more dangerous. After that mentioned line through the circles, he produced 37 times on the net. None of them ended up being a goal. It’s everything because of that upper-body and hand strength. He uses slapshot very rarely and wrist shots are often not successful from that range.
The second thing that would get even better is his close-range scoring. He didn’t score a single goal this season around the net, where he’d have to put his body on somebody. There were two typical ways of Stützle scoring goals. 1 – he flew into this spot and release an extremely accurate blast of his blade. 2 – he remained alone and absolutely unprotected in front of a goalie and had tons of time to score.
Power play
This is what people fell in love with at the World Juniors. His movement on the left side is tremendous. He can pick up the speed with three steps out of the offensive zone, receive a puck on the blue line, and then it’s just magic. He can either throw a puck on the net or pass across the zone.
This is basically how Germans played PPs at the tournament. Stützle or Seider carried the puck into the offensive zone, in this example it’s Stützle’s work, he slowed down a little bit, passed a puck off the board behind a net. Then it’s a known story. He collected brilliant assist from the circle on Peterka’s goal.
But he’s not blind and one-trick pony. If he has an opportunity to shoot the puck, he does it. Like on this clip from a game from Champions Hockey League. He sees a perfect screen in front of the opponent’s goalie and produces an accurate shot once more.
Puck Skills
As mentioned before, thanks to his stature and style of skating, Stützle is being fouled pretty often. It has to be stressful for defenders because they cannot do anything with it. The combination of speed and stickhandling is just too strong. Stützle is one of the best players in terms of stickhandling and playmaking in a high-speed level this year.
He enters the zone very fast, slides around the defender, and always tosses the puck from forehand to backhand. He’s not that strong so he gets tripped easily sometimes and referee mostly evaluate that as a penalty.
Overplay
I don’t want to criticise player like Stützle, but I don’t live in a fairytale and I want to show some bad plays of him as well. And maybe it’s not even a bad play, he’s just too confident sometimes. I was trying to name a specific problem and I’d say he struggles in finding simple plays. He’s overplaying and even more in games where he’s on fire. He risks pretty often and sometimes it just doesn’t pay off.
The next three clips are examples of his bad decisions in his own zone. He didn’t recognize that the best way how to get from a tough situation is by simple play. Pass the puck behind the net or pass it to the neutral zone. He wants to make an unbelievable play every single time. But don’t get me wrong, failure teaches success and who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.
There was only one game that annoyed German fans due to Stützle. When Germans played Kazakhstan in the relegation series, he looked just bigheaded. He’s an incredible player, but he has to be more humble sometimes. But when he’s playing against men, he has no problem with that. This game just wasn’t his best. He lost too many pucks by pointless dekes.
DY Environment
Stützle spent the whole season in DEL, where he played 16 minutes per game. He also played with the team in Champions Hockey League and after Christmas at World Juniors. This tournament was the only one where he played center. This was the main difference to the previous seasons when he was always taking faceoffs.
Draft Rankings
#4 — Recruit Scouting
#8 — EliteProspects
#2 – ISS Hockey
#2 — McKeen’s Hockey
#3 — Future Considerations
#1 — NHL Central Scouting (EU Skaters)
#2 – TSN/Bob McKenzie
Expected Round of Selection
Stützle is one of the best players coming out into this draft and he’s projected to be guaranteed TOP 5 pick. He can go as high as second and if he slips out of the first five selection, it’s going to be a steal for a team that picks him.
NHL Comparable and Projection
Mathew Barzal, Kyle Connor
Stützle was used to play center but when he came into senior level, he was determined to play wing. And that’s also expected at NHL-level. He is capable of playing in the middle but a top-line winger is more likely to happen.