Big Cats Promoted

It would never work in North American hockey in any way, but I appreciate that European hockey uses a promotion-relegation method to push teams to continue to improve. While there are some teams who never really worry about being relegated, the teams that get promoted to the top European hockey leagues often need a season or two get themselves settled into their new leagues. One such team this season will be the Dresden Ice Lions - Dresdner Eislöwen in German - as they were promoted to the DEL for first time in that team's history. Will they have a shot at sticking around the DEL for more than a season? Can they skate with powerhouses like Eisbären Berlin, EHC Red Bull München, and Adler Mannheim? We'll find out as they join the DEL as the 14th team in 2025-26 in place of the relegated Düsseldorfer EG club after winning the DEL2 last year.

If you look at the Dresdner Eislöwen roster, the first thing you'll notice is that they have five goalies listed. Out of those five, Slovakian Július Hudáček has likely logged the most miles with stops in all of Slovakia's Extraliga, Sweden's HockeyEttan, Allsvenskan, and SEL, Russia's KHL, Czechia's Extraliga, and Germany's DEL. He's had some very successful stops in his career including the Cologne Sharks last season with 2.45 GAA and a .909 save pecentage despite being 16-15-0 on the season. Hudáček could be that veteran goalie that every team wants on their roster, and Dresden may lean on him heavily.

It's very interesting that Dresden boasts the brother tandem in the crease of Paul and Clemens Stocker. Paul was on the roster last season as part of the DEL2-winning team while Clemens suited up for the Rosenheim Star Bulls in the DEL2. 20 year-old Paul and 18 year-old Clemens could be fun to watch this season if they both make the club, but they'll have to work their tails off to unseat some of the other netminders. Janick Schwendener was the starter for the Ice Lions last season, and Marvin Berbner was his backup in the crease.

Of the eight defenders listed on the roster, Justin Braun's name jumps out as the most significant. The former Sharks, Flyers, and Rangers defenceman will log his third season in the DEL this year with Dresden, and he comes over from Straubing where he had three goals and 18 points in 51 games last season. At 38 years-old, Braun has logged a lot of minutes patrolling blue lines across the planet, and it will be interesting to see how what impact he'll have for Dresden.

Former Predators draft pick Simon Karlsson never made it over to North America, but he's been with Dresden for the last four seasons where he's turned into one of their most reliable defenders, notching 28 points last season for the third-straight year. David Suvanto also had 28 points from the blue line last season, but the Swedish defender led all the Ice Lions defencemen with nine goals. Oliver Granz added 17 points, Bruno Riedl had 12 points, Tariq Hammond scored 10 points, and Felix Krüger scored one goal. Emil Johansson joins Dresden from EHC Red Bull München where he had six helpers, but, as you can see, there isn't a ton of scoring from this group.

Up front, there's an ex-NHLer skating for the Ice Lions as former Flames and Blackhawks winger Lance Bouma joins Dresden after a five-goal, 12-point season last year with Linköpings HC in the SEL. Those 12 points wouldn't have moved the needle much for Dresden last season as that would have landed as the 13th-best scorer on the team, but Bouma will bring solid defensively hockey and leadership to a team that will need good leaders this season as they enter the DEL. Like Braun, the 35 year-old won't be on many highlight reels, but he'll help Dresden in their first season in the top German league.

The good news is that Dresden may not have to lean too heavily on Bouma for scoring as they have their top-five scoring forwards returning for the 2025-26 season. Leading scorer Dane Fox lead the team in helpers last season, second-leading scorer Andrew Yogan led the team in playoff scoring, and Travis Turnbull notched a team-leading 21 goals en route to being the team's third-highest scorer. Drew Leblanc and Tomas Andres each had nine goals while Leblanc had two more assists, and they round out that top-five in scoring. It's clear that Dresden might need more goal-scoring, but Tomas Sykora and Sebastian Gorcik each had a dozen goals last season.

David Rundqvist only played in nine games last season, but he's consistently been a double-digits goal scorer while scoring over 30 points, so the Ice Lions will need his production again. Niklas Postal had two goals and 11 points while Ricardo Hendreschke had three goals and nine points, so they need a few younger guys to find the net a little more. Connor Korte was promoted to Freiburg in the DEL2, but scored just one goal. Perhaps the biggest addition up front, however, will come from Trevor Parkes who scored 16 goals and 30 points with EHC Red Bull München last season. He makes them better.

You might be wondering what kind of offence the team will need to skate alongside some of the powerhouses mentioned off the top. Last season's MVP, Ty Ronning, skated with DEL champion Eisbären Berlin where he led the league with 37 goals and 73 points. Teammate Leonhard Pfoederl led the league in assists with 45 en route to finishing second in scoring with 71 points. Chris DeSousa had 27 goals for EHC Red Bull München while Zachary Senyshyn hit the same total with the Schwenningen Wild Wings. Just for the record, the relegated Düsseldorf club had six players with more than 25 points, and that still wasn't good enough. Dresden, by comparison, had eight players with more than 25 points in the DEL2, so they'll need to score.

There was a considerable gap between the bottom-three teams in the DEL and the rest of the field last season. Düsseldorfer EG finished with just 51 points, and were tied in the standings with the Augsburg Panthers who are making all sorts of moves to improve their team this season. Just ahead of those two clubs was the Iserlohn Roosters at 53 points, and they finished 15 points back of Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams. I'm not saying that Dresden can't hit the 60-point mark, but they're going to have to work their collective tails off every night if they hope to grab one of the playoff qualifying spots this season.

I feel like the Dresdner Eislöwen are going to be fun to watch this season. They'll open the season in Berlin, their closest rival, by playing the DEL champions on the DEL season's first day, September 9, 2025, to kick things off. From there, they return home for their home opener on September 14 against ERC Ingolstadt which should be fun inside a packed Joynext Arena that holds 4412 fans - smallest in the DEL! That intimate arena will be rocking all season until January 10, 2026 when the Ice Lions take the game outside for the DEL Winter Game (powered by MagentaSport) that sees the Ice Lions host the Eisbären Berlin potentially in front of 32,000 fans at the Rudolf-Harbig-Stadion football stadium! How cool is that for Dresden fans?

The last home game of the season will see the Eislöwen battle the other lions in Löwen Frankfurt on March 13, and the Eislöwen will wrap up their first season in the DEL with a game Bremerhaven against the Penguins. We'll see where the Eislöwen stand on that day, but it's pretty clear that Dresdner Eislöwen are starting to put the stakes in the foundation of what could be a very long and prosperous run in the DEL if a few things go their way in this historical season.

Get ready, Germany. The Ice Lions are on the prowl!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!