Team Germany comes to the 2022 World Juniors looking to build on the success of last year's team, one that reached the playoffs for the first time in this upstart hockey country's history. 

Even in defeat, Germany left with their heads held high. Their 2-1 loss to Russia in last year's quarterfinals served as confirmation of years of progress leading up to that moment. That they pulled this off after enduring a COVID outbreak that limited them to 14 skaters through their first two matches, and without Moritz Seider, Lukas Reichel, and their expected starting goaltender Tobias Ancicka, only makes it that much more impressive.

It's going to be tough for the Germans to build on that relative success at this year's tournament. The leading scorer on last year's team, Tim Stützle, is now a full-ti