Sports director Richer bears so much complicity in the polar bear crash
from Jörg Luebrich
After the 4-2 draw in Düsseldorf on Friday, the polar bears are still stuck deep in the bottom of the league table. They are the worst champions in DEL history and they are in the middle of a relegation battle.
When it comes to the causes of this, polar bear sports director Stephane Richer (56) is the key figure. The Canadian is the league’s bad buyer.
He has been with the polar bears since 2017 and came to Berlin from the closed brother club Hamburg Freezers. Since then, “Rich” has been responsible for arrivals and departures in the sporting sector. While he did a very good job in the last two master years, the childhood friend of the EHC supervisory board chairman Luc Robitaille (Los Angeles) is now out of luck and “shines” through bad purchases, inability to act and a misjudgment of the situation.
► Richer thought he could absorb top goalkeeper Mathias Niederberger’s departure to Munich with young goalkeepers Tobi Ancicka (21) and Juho Markkanen (20). A fallacy.
Ancicka ranks 26th in the DEL goalkeeper statistics, Markkanen ranks 22nd. Top goalkeeper Henrik Haukeland (now DEG) was on the market until June (!).
► With the exception of defender Marco Nowak (32), ALL of Richer’s other newcomers proved to be bad buys.
The Dane Peter Regin (36) has his best time behind him, is much too slow. The defender Julian Melchiori (31), who came from Wolfsburg, is afraid, does not go into duels and has never found his game. Brendan Guhle (25) was set to replace Kai Wissmann (26), who migrated to the NHL, and only replaced seven games. He has since ended his career. More cases are in the storm.
While other clubs rely on German players, the polar bears only have two top German strikers in their squad in Leo Pföderl (29) and top scorer Marcel Noebels (30). The newcomers Frank Mauer (34/was even rejected by Schwenningen before the season) and Jan Nijenhuis (21) are second-class. The German-Canadian Lewis Zerter Gossage (27) came in the middle of the season – also just average.
This season is messed up due to Richer’s many bad purchases and misjudgments. But the new season also threatens to be difficult.
BZ learned: die polar bears are currently not active enough on the market. Examples: National player Nico Krämmer (30/Mannheim) was available for a short time. But he goes to Munich. Or: Young striker Justin Schütz (22). He is moving from Munich to Cologne. As so often, the polar bears go away empty-handed…