Tommy Purdeller also dreams of the NHL

Tommy Purdeller and Damian Clara are best friends who complete summer training together in Reischach. Both were last drafted in North America: The striker was taken 1th in the CHL import draft by the OHL club Peterborough Petes in the first round in July of last year, and the goalkeeper was taken 17th a good four weeks ago by the NHL club Anaheim Ducks drawn in 4th place in the 2nd round. While Purdeller has already played 60 games for his team, it will probably be some time before he makes his debut in the best league in the world for Clara.

Purdeller attracted attention in April 2022 at the U18 World Championship Division I Group B when he was named the tournament's best player and attracted interest from some teams in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). “My agent Patrick Pilloni asked me if I would be interested in moving to North America. Ultimately, 12 clubs contacted him and informed him about me. I was quickly hooked. Before the draft I had a good conversation with the Peterborough officials. “The Petes put a lot of effort into me and ultimately selected me in the online draft,” says the 19-year-old proudly.

Peterborough is a hockey crazy city Peterborough is located in the Canadian province of Ontario, 125 kilometers northeast of Toronto. The city, in which around 80.000 people live, is considered a hockey town. “The club was founded almost 70 years ago and is one of the oldest and most traditional in the league. Most of our fans are also of a certain age. “But they are very enthusiastic and can also be very loud,” enthuses Purdeller.

The Petes play their home games in the 4000-seat “Memorial Center,” which was built in 1956, the year the club was founded. The Petes are considered a talent hub: After all, no other team in the past has selected more players in the NHL Entry Draft than Peterborough.

<a data-caption="Tommy Purdeller (2. von rechts) mit seinen Eltern Herta und Reinhold und seinem Bruder Michael (2. von links) am 22. Mai dieses Jahres nach dem Gewinn des Meistertitels in der OHL." data-fancybox="inline-167983" target="_image" href="https://s3-images.sportnews.bz/_images/scale/1280x1280/img/2023/07/tommy-purdeller-2-von-rechts-mit-seinen-eltern-herta-und-reinhold-und-seinem-bruder-michael-2-von-links-am-22-mai-dieses-jahres-nach-dem-gewinn.jpg"> Tommy Purdeller (2nd from right) with his parents Herta and Reinhold and his brother Michael (2nd from left) on May 22nd of this year after winning the OHL championship title.

Before Purdeller, only two South Tyroleans were drafted by a CHL organization: In 2, the Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL) chose the Puster goalkeeper Harald Golser (1994st round, position 1) and in 7 the Niagara IceDogs (OHL) drafted the Bolzano striker Marco Insam (2007nd lap, position 2). With Andrea Carpano (71 Soo Greyhounds, 1993st round, position 1) and Alessandro Segafredo (35 Seattle Thunderbirds, 2021st round, position 1), two other Italians were selected in the CHL draft in the past. “He can handle the players and knows how to win.” Tommy Purdeller on Coach Rob Wilson Rob Wilson has been in charge of the Peterborough Petes as coach since 2018. The Canadian defended for a short time in Vipiteno years ago and was later a coach at Neumarkt and Ritten. Before the draft, he obtained information about Purdeller from former Ritten President Thomas Rottensteiner. “Rob is a great person and also an excellent coach who still plays some old-school hockey. “He can deal with the players and knows how to win,” says Purdeller, raving about his boss.

At the beginning, Purdeller even stayed with his trainer in his villa on the lake for three nights before he was able to move in with his host family, who will be coming to South Tyrol in August. The season started painfully for the striker, who can play in all positions (“In Bruneck I was a center, in Salzburg I played on the left and finally on the right wing”) and ended painfully 3 months later. “In the fourth preseason game I sustained an injury in my left shoulder where the ligaments of the AC joint were torn. I had to take a five-week break and missed the start of the season,” regrets the beefy attacker.

10 scorer points in the first 13 games of the season As soon as he was fit again, Purdeller got started. And how. In the first 13 games he scored 10 points (6 goals). In the following 40 games of the regular season, “only” 8 points should follow. “Initially I was deployed in the front rows. At some point Wilson called me back and I was given other tasks. My new role meant that as a system player I had to play more defensively and do more forechecking. I put myself at the service of the team and satisfied the coaches,” assures the Italy junior international.

The Petes were slow to get going. It was only when they improved the squad in January shortly before the transfer deadline and attracted several experienced “exceptional players” that they turned the corner and started a race to catch up, which brought them to 4th place by the end of the basic round. “In the play-offs we played our best ice hockey and had a real rush. Wilson set us up perfectly in every game and each of us knew what we had to do,” says the Pusterer proudly.

Tommy Purdeller and Damian Clara are best friends.

In the round of 7, Peterborough made short work of the Sudbury Wolves, celebrated four wins in a row in the best-of-4 series and moved into the quarter-finals. There, the Wilson team had the upper hand against the favored Ottawa 67s with a 4-2 win. In the semifinals, the Petes had to go the full distance against North Bay Battalion to advance to the final with a 4-3 win.

In Game 7 on May 8th, Purdeller's season came to an early end due to an injury. When he was checked by an opponent, he was unprepared, twisted his ankle, put all the weight on his right foot, and broke his ankle. “I had surgery the very next day. Of course, I was very disappointed that I could no longer help my team on the ice. But after that I was there at every game and supported my teammates wherever I could.”

Only spectators in the OHL final In the OHL final, the Petes crowned their dream season and were crowned champions after the 6th game on May 22nd and a 4-2 win against the London Knights, who played their home games in front of more than 10.000 spectators. “A dream has come true for all of us. It was indescribable. I was able to celebrate the title together with my brother Michael, who introduced me to ice hockey, and with my parents Herta and Reinhold, to whom I owe the most,” says the first OHL champion from Italy, beaming from ear to ear.

This is how Tommy Purdeller celebrated the OHL title.

The Peterborough Petes secured the “John Ross Robertson Cup” for the 10th time in the club’s history, but then missed the second triumph in the “Memorial Cup” after 2. They had to lose to the Quebec Remparts (champions of the QMJHL) and Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL -champions) went first and took 1979rd place ahead of hosts Kamloops Blazers.

Purdeller has now recovered well from the foot injury and is already in advanced training. He has already trained on the ice twice in Brixen. He returns to Peterborough on August 26th and wants to fully attack next winter: “Since the NHL draft is probably no longer an issue for me, I will try to recommend myself for an AHL contract with strong performances, so that maybe I can to get into the NHL through the back door. In any case, the coaches assured me that I was intended for one of the first two forward rows.” Personal Tommy Purdeller was born on April 13, 2004 in Brunico as the 5th and youngest child of Herta and Reinhold. At the age of 6, he started playing ice hockey in Bruneck because his older brother Michael (28) also chased the hard rubber disc and was his role model alongside Sidney Crosby for a long time. His first coach at HC Pustertal was Latvian Andrzej Mitkevics. At the age of 14, Purdeller, who grew up in Montal and still lives today, moved to the Red Bull Academy in Salzburg. The person responsible for player development at the time, Helmut De Raaf, “discovered” him together with Fabian Gschliesser at a tournament in Füssen, which the South Tyrolean national team won and in which Purdeller excelled. He spent 4 years in the academy. In the 2021/22 season, the striker, who borrows something from other players (the passing accuracy from Artemi Panarin or the shooting technique from Auston Matthews), played with the big boys for the first time and impressed in the Alps Hockey League (AlpsHL) with 35 scorer points ( 11 goals) in 32 games. After convincing performances at the U18 World Cup in Asiago in April 2022, the Puster native was drafted 3 months later by the Peterborough Petes in the first round as number 1 and signed a two-year contract. In 17 games last winter, Purdeller scored 70 points (21 goals) on the way to the OHL championship title.

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Tommy Purdeller also dreams of the NHL

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