Kirk Furey names U20 World Cham­pi­onship squad

“We would of course have liked to have Marco with us at the World Championship, but we have complete understanding for his situation. No player has played a comparable number of games over the past twelve months. We always have the bigger picture in mind, which is why we are giving him a break for the U20 World Championship,” explains Men's Sporting Director Roger Bader, who will be on site in Canada as General Manager.

ÖEHV President Klaus Hartmann reiterates: “Naturally, we want to use Marco primarily with the senior national team, even though he would still be eligible for the U20 team by age. We are aware of the extraordinary workload he faces as a young player due to his enormous schedule and are convinced that the decision to do without him now makes sense in order to achieve our shared sporting objectives in the medium and long term.”

At the U20 World Championship in Halifax (CAN), Austria will face Sweden, Czechia, hosts Canada and Germany. The aim during preparations and in the two warm-up games is to quickly reach World Championship form and gel as a team.

“Many players put themselves forward, so selecting the squad was not an easy decision. We are delighted that it is now only a few weeks until we get underway. The first objective is to mould the boys into a unit. Once on site, we will again face the difficult decision of which squad we will ultimately take into the World Championship,” reports Head Coach Kirk Furey, who is already alluding to the fact that two more players will have to be cut from the squad in Canada.

David Reinbacher can expect to secure a place in the World Championship squad. For weeks, he has been watched by NHL scouts in the Swiss league and with the national team at the Deutschland Cup. Many eyes will be on him at the U20 World Championship, as well as on Vinzenz Rohrer, who was drafted 75th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the summer.

On 15 December, the national team will relocate from Vienna to Antigonish (CAN), where they will play warm-up games against Germany on 20 December and Slovakia on 23 December. The final World Championship squad will then be named. Austria will begin the tournament against Sweden on 26 December.

The major objective is to stay in the top division, which can currently be achieved in two ways: 4th place in the group stage and the resulting qualification for the quarter-finals, or victory in the best-of-three relegation series.

U20 World Championship preparation squad

2023 IIHF World Junior Championship

26 December 2022 - 05 January 2023, Halifax and Moncton (CAN)

Group A, Halifax: Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Germany, Austria
Group B, Moncton: USA, Finland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Latvia

Schedule
Dates and times refer to our local time zone, with the local time shown in brackets.

Friendly: Austria vs. Germany
Tue, 20 December 2022, Antigonish (CAN), time TBC

Friendly: Austria vs. Slovakia
Fri, 23 December 2022, Antigonish (CAN), time TBC

U20 World Championship: Sweden vs. Austria
Mon, 26 December 2022, 19:30 (Mon, 26 December 2022, 14:30)

U20 World Championship: Austria vs. Czechia
Wed, 28 December 2022, 00:30 (Tue, 27 December 2022, 19:30)

U20 World Championship: Austria vs. Canada
Fri, 30 December 2022, 00:30 (Thu, 29 December 2022, 19:30)

U20 World Championship: Germany vs. Austria
Fri, 30 December 2022, 22:30 (Fri, 30 December 2022, 17:30)

All information and the full schedule can be found at www.iihf.com