When the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) tapped Harold Kreis as men’s national team head coach three years ago, many observers saw it as an obvious choice. The Winnipeg-born coach had spent most of his life inside German hockey and brought decades of experience to the job.
Kreis first arrived in Mannheim in 1978 as a 19-year-old Canadian recruit, one of several North Americans signed to help the newly promoted club compete at the top level. Their presence stirred mixed reactions among fans — welcomed at home but sometimes met with hostility on the road. Kreis remembers being heckled during warmups in Rosenheim; when he pointed out Rosenheim’s own Canadian-born goalie, Karl Friesen, the taunting stopped. ‘‘People simply weren’t used to such an influx of Ausländer,’’ he said, noting that many of the imports had German roots.
Kreis became a fixture in Mannheim, spending 18 seasons with the club and earning 180 caps for the West German national team. He was selected for the initial roster at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics but was removed at the last minute over a passport technicality — a strange episode he now looks back on with a laugh. He went on to play at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Games and retired as a player in 1997 after claiming a second title with Mannheim.
He moved into coaching straight away, serving as an assistant to Lance Nethery in Mannheim before building a successful head-coaching career that included two Swiss championships. As Germany’s national coach, Kreis led the team to a surprise silver medal at the 2023 World Championship — his first major tournament in charge.
The debate over foreign players in German hockey remains. The DEL now allows up to nine imports per team, a sharp change from the two permitted in 1978. That influx has been blamed for limiting some paths for homegrown youngsters, though Kreis argues it raised the overall standard of the league. To protect local development, the DEL has introduced a requirement that rosters include two U23 German players to ensure young prospects receive top-level minutes.
Now 67, Kreis will make his Olympic head-coach debut in Milano Cortina. For the first time since the 2014 Sochi Games, the NHL is allowing its players to participate, and Germany will be stronger for it — the roster includes several NHL talents, among them Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl, Ottawa’s Tim Stützle, JJ Peterka, Detroit’s Moritz Seider and goalie Philipp Grubauer.
Even with that firepower, Germany aren’t considered one of the frontrunners; traditional powers such as Canada, the United States and Sweden still have deeper pools of NHL stars. Many German players, including Draisaitl, have waited years for a genuine best-on-best Olympic tournament.
Kreis credits a cultural shift inside German hockey to former coach Marco Sturm, whose influence helped Germany capture Olympic silver at Pyeongchang in 2018. ‘‘Sturm brought a completely different mindset to the dressing room and to the whole association,’’ Kreis said. ‘‘Losing 3-1 to Canada was no longer acceptable. The attitude became: we can do better, and we intend to do better.’’
Kreis declined to set a specific medal target, but he believes advancing from a group that includes the United States, Denmark and Latvia is realistic. He singled out Denmark and Latvia as opponents Germany know well and against whom they often match up evenly, especially in terms of NHL representation. ‘‘Our objective is to play our very best in every game and see where that takes us,’’ he said.
Germany opens its Olympic campaign against Denmark on February 12.