Tobias Rieder

[rangerfansince69]

RANGERS SELECT RIEDER 5TH OVERALL IN 2010 CHL IMPORT DRAFT - 6/29/2010
Kitchener Rangers Head Coach and General Manager Steve Spott has announced that the team has selected German forward Tobias Rieder 5th overall in the 2010 CHL Import Draft.
Rieder, a native of Landshut, Germany, played last season with the Landshut Cannibals of the Second German Professional League. He registered 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points in 45 games in 2009-10.
He also suited up for Germany at the Division I Group A IIHF World Junior Championships where his team went undefeated and earned a berth in the 2011 World Junior Championships in Buffalo. He finished tied for second in team scoring with four goals and two assists in five games.
Rieder is described as a very skilled forward that plays with an edge and has the ability to be a game-breaker. He is eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.
Spott had this to say of Rieder; "I have coached against Tobias at the U-18 World Ch ampionships and he was one of the elite players in the tournament as an underage. He will be an exciting addition to our line-up and I am confident that our fans will appreciate his skill level and the way he plays."
Tobias Rieder
Hometown: Landshut, Germany
Birthdate: January 10, 1993
Height: 5.10
Weight: 176 lbs
Position: Forward
Shoots: Left

[Rangers_Fan_All-the-way]

will he show up?

[rangerfansince69]

http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/740741

not if Hicks can help it

[Surly]

what I get from that article is that the Rangers are pretty good at preparing you for a pro career. The rest is up to the player. Kindl, Valabik, Kanko all come to mind. Once they left the organization something changed. They never got over the problem areas of their game.

The Rangers give players the best shot to make it but if the committment level doesn't stay when the player leaves that's not the Rangers fault.

I can't imagine how tough it must be to leave your country, learn a new language, go to school, all as a 16/17 year old and compete at a high level. It takes a special person to be able to do it.

[rgr4life]

I don't understand how the success/failure of these players after junior can be tied directly to the Rangers. Rudenko being charged with murder? Is Hicks saying that wouldn't have happened had he not come to North America?

As for Kindl, Valabik, Weber, and Boedker, it's a little premature to write them off. And Valabik has been a full-time NHLer for the past 2 seasons. His GP is down because of injuries.

[DB]

While Hicks probably thought it was a good bit of investigative journalism, his article was a classic case of biased reporting. There are a wealth of factors he didn't even consider at all. For one, lower picks like the Visenkas and Anderssons had little to no chance of a pro career. Second, changes in coaching made a huge difference. Developing under a DeBoer or Spott is much more likely than under a Brian Hayton. Also, Kitchener has had three (soon to be four) of its imports drafted in the 1st round of the NHL. That is an awesome track record. They took a kid like Valabik who wasn't even on junior teams' radars and made him a 10th overall NHL pick. That's miraculous development.

Finally, Hicks greedily makes the point that players like Sturm developed just fine in his native Germany. Really? Is that not blatantly ignoring the thousands upon thousands of players in that system who never even got a sniff at a pro career, many of whom would have lost that opportunity due to the lack of exposure, inferior coaching, etc. Sturm appears much more like the anomoly than the norm. And if Hicks is going to use that as an example, then it's only fair to say that the Rangers' system has produced Richards, Roy, Bellows, MacInnis, etc., etc. Or actually, it'd be even more accurate to cite all of the players the CHL has produced as opposed to Germany. That is much more apples to apples.

With all due respect to Hicks, it's assinine to suggest there is nothing to be gained by Reider in playing here. Really Hicks? Nothing to be gained by playing in an NHL scouting hot-bed that has produced no fewer than 6 1st round NHL picks this decade, and ample other NHL players - many of whom were brought from anonymity to stardom in this organization (Spaling, Clarkson, etc.).

I would think playing alongside Jeff Skinner and Ryan Murphy just might help your career a tad more than suiting up for Landshut. And to suggest otherwise is to turn a complete blind eye to the facts.

I am generally not a Hicks basher. He is entitled to his opinions. But I hate journalism that only tells one side of a story and only presents the facts that support the author's thesis. Try some balance Jeff.

[jonny three time]

Hicks tries to make a mountain out of a molehill here. If he were more rational with his argument than I might meet him half-way on this, but he's way to biased and slanted in it. The problem is that he lists all these guys like they ALL had NHL potential when they got here. That's obviously not the case. The only relevant guys to this argument are Kanko, Kindl, Boedker and Landeskog. They were all highly touted players when they showed up here and were already on the NHL's scouts radars (from what I remember anyway). The rest of the players mentioned were all much lesser prospects or played under a totally different regime. They're incomparable to Reider as players and/or who they played for.

Kindl and Boedker can both still make it as players. Neither is a failed player at all as they're both still a part of the team's system that drafted them. Landeskog certainly looks well on his way to having an NHL career and coming over looks like a positive move for him so far. The only guy who definitely didn't reach his potential is Kanko. He could have made it to the NHL, and his struggles at even the AHL level were a bit surprising and a disappointment for sure.

The flip side of the argument are guys like Weber and Valabik. They weren't on NHL scouts radars at all (as DB mentioned about Boris) and they're both big parts of their teams young cores going forward. Again, both still a part of the organization that drafted them. I think that all of Boedker, Weber, Kindl and Valabik still being with the same organization that drafted them says something positive about the young players that they still are, and the potential that they still have.

[AlleyMac2]

Hicks once again shows that he has zero clue what he is talking about.
How this guy isn't banned from the Aud is beyond me.
It's time for a new Ranger beat writer. We need some fresh blood to cover the team. The relationship has grown stale. Real stale.

I cancelled my subscription years ago. When I called the Record to cancel they wanted to know why. I said two words Jeff Hicks. Until that troublemaker is gone you won't be getting a dime out of me. If the masses of subscribers who have interest in the team did the same we would have a new beat writer by Saturday. I for one have had enough of his antics a long time ago.

[Surly]

Finally, Hicks greedily makes the point that players like Sturm developed just fine in his native Germany. Really? Is that not blatantly ignoring the thousands upon thousands of players in that system who never even got a sniff at a pro career, many of whom would have lost that opportunity due to the lack of exposure, inferior coaching, etc. Sturm appears much more like the anomoly than the norm. And if Hicks is going to use that as an example, then it's only fair to say that the Rangers' system has produced Richards, Roy, Bellows, MacInnis, etc., etc. Or actually, it'd be even more accurate to cite all of the players the CHL has produced as opposed to Germany. That is much more apples to apples.

and Khazakstan produced Nik Antropov. Are we to think Khazakstan is a great hockey development country? Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

There's a reason Canadian kids aren't going to Germany or any other country to play junior hockey. Its the same reason Euro's come to North America.

[Kenny the Rat]

Looks like Hicks got bored with the summer doldrums in place and decided as usual to take one of his many negative shots at the Ranger organization. As many said he left out a lot of factors in coming to his conclusion. Being a young up and coming player in any league in the world guarantees nothing when ot comes making an NHL team. Hicks laying the blame on the Rangers is just plain childish.He actually knows better and doesn't care along with his editor Carlo Berkobit who allows such drival. A good percentage of players that make the NHL come form the CHL. It is the best junior league by far. The players that come from Europe and don't make it just don't have what it takes to make pro. Just go into the hall at the Aud and look back at all the Ranger teams and see how many made the NHL. Not too many. Its not an easy thing to do no matter where the hell you come from. As usual Hicks is blowing smoke only this time its out the rear end.

[puckhead7]

/quote]

There's a reason Canadian kids aren't going to Germany or any other country to play junior hockey. Its the same reason Euro's come to North America.[/quote]


Oh, oh! Surly, you might get a 5 day suspension for that one.

[Surly]

why?

[rangerfansince69]

why?


on the ice, as you well know Surly, that would be a "slur"

[ronbholmes]

I have no problem when Hicks tells both sides of a story and doesn't candy coat things for the Rangers fans who believe every thing the Rangers touch turn to gold but this time he missed the boat and only told one side of the story and a very small part of that one side at that.

I would say judging by the number of Rangers imports that went on to become pros things seem to be very much in tune with the number of players from the Rangers or any other team that go on to become pros regardless of where they come from.

Most of the OHL players we enjoy watching today are at the very peak of their athletic careers right now and will never play professional hockey at any level let alone the NHL. A long NHL career after a great junior career will only happen to a handful of former Kitchener Rangers in decade or more, whether or not they are an import or North American.

[ronbholmes]

why?


on the ice, as you well know Surly, that would be a "slur"

There is a reason kids from here go to the NHL more often than Germans and there is a reason kids from here don't go to Germany to further their chances of going to the NHL.
Hockey is not the sport of choice in Germany. While they have become better at developing talent they are not and will not be considered a place where great hockey talent can be groomed to become future NHLers any time soon. They don't have the kinds of hockey programs we have in North America, particularly here in Canada.

That's not a slur it's a fact.