Marco Rossi named Player of the Year

In a vote conducted by ÖEHV in cooperation with Powerplay magazine among experts, the Vorarlberg native finished comfortably ahead of Marco Kasper and Michael Raffl. Anna Meixner (5th place) and Selma Luggin (8th place) are the first two women to feature in the top 10.

10 March 20222 min read

Image information: His fighting spirit and performances in 2021 impressed the experts! Marco Rossi has been named Player of the Year for the first time - Copyright: GEPA pictures/Daniel Götzhaber

Marco Rossi has claimed the coveted title for the first time in his career, following a more than eventful year in 2021: At the turn of the year, he led the U20 team onto the ice at the World Championship in Canada. Shortly afterwards, myocarditis resulting from his COVID19 infection in autumn 2020 forced him to take a five-month break. At the end of May, Rossi was finally able to return to the ice and prepared in his native Vorarlberg for the NHL rookie camp with the Minnesota Wild. In August, he made his senior national team debut during Olympic qualifying and promptly scored his first goal in a warm-up match against Italy.

After being cut from the Minnesota Wild's final roster, he initially joined their farm team, the Iowa Wild, where he quickly became the top scorer. 457 days after Rossi was selected by the Minnesota Wild with the 9th pick in the NHL Draft, he finally made his debut in the world's strongest league against the Boston Bruins on Epiphany 2022.

That convinced the domestic ice hockey experts, who named Marco Rossi Player of the Year for the first time in his career. And by a clear margin! Rossi received 53 points in the vote, comfortably relegating Marco Kasper (27 points) and Michael Raffl (18 points) to 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

Marco Rossi: "First of all, I would like to say thank you. For me, the team performance always comes first; ice hockey is a team sport. But I am very proud of this individual award, as I now know that I have done something right. When I look at the previous winners, it is a great honour!"

A detailed interview with Marco Rossi will be available in the latest issue of Powerplay magazine from Friday.

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1st Marco Rossi, 53 points
2nd Marco Kasper, 27 points
3rd Michael Raffl, 18 points
4th Brian Lebler, 11 points
5th Anna Meixner, 8 points
5th Thomas Raffl, 8 points
7th Peter Schneider, 6 points
8th Selma Luggin, 5 points
9. Vinzenz Rohrer, 4 points
9. Kilian Zündel, 4 points