Rave Heads to Cologne

[tcookie 676]

For a lot of VHL prospects, their foray into the European league is a bit of a culture shock. For Phillip Rave, it's almost like a welcome home.

 

For the last year or so, Rave's hockey career has taken him worlds away from the place he spent most of his life. While Rave has been successful enough in a variety of winter sports to have competed nationally in skiing and speed skating at the junior level, he's hardly spent more than a couple of days in North America. For him, the culture shock was spending a year in San Diego.

 

After a brief stop in Malmo attending Nighthawks' training camp, Rave headed to Cologne today, where he was drafted 9th overall in the most recent VHLE draft. Compared to where the last year has taken him, Rave is pretty much in his own back yard in Cologne. Much of his adolescence was spent on the slopes in Switzerland and Austria, but you can hit Germany within about an hour of his hometown Vaduz, Liechtenstein, if you want to. Cologne is about a six-hour drive.

 

Rave is excited to be back closer to home. "It's been a bit of a whirlwind year and I don't know if I really had time to miss it," he says, "but now that I'm in Cologne it's kind of started to hit me. I've got a lot to take care of to get settled in here and ready for the season, but I'll definitely be making a trip or two back home and I think my friends and family will be able to come watch me play a few times this year, so that's pretty cool. I probably won't get to hit the slopes - I don't know if Malmo or Cologne would appreciate that very much - but I'll definitely be back and it's just a beautiful part of the world, I love it, and I'm happy to be back at least relatively close."

 

With the Express, Rave joins a team hoping to become a dynasty, as they have captured back-to-back Renaissance Cups. "I'm so excited to be here - honestly I think I was picked a little higher than I expected in the VHLE draft to get to come here - they obviously wanted me to be a part of the team and that's awesome. Obviously, they're such a strong team. Back-to-back Cups and you know they'll be in the hunt again this year. I was fortunate to play for a good team in San Diego, unfortunately, we just couldn't get it done in the playoffs but that's where you want to be, right? It's nice to be on a team where that's the expectation, where you know they are going to be competitive and do what it takes to win games. I know my role might not be huge here to start, but I look forward to growing into a bigger role and to helping this team win a third title."

 

Rave's hockey career is likely to take him away from this neck of the woods a little more permanently, one of these days. But for now, he's just happy to be back in a place that's a little more familiar and comfortable. "You know, some guys get drafted out here to play in the VHLE and they take a while to transition and get used to everything. That was me last year in the M and so I'm hoping that... being from the area, I can sort of skip that transition period this year and just get to focusing on hockey. There's a lot I need to work on if I'm going to play in the VHL next year and ultimately, that's the goal."

 

While he's probably going to start the year out as Cologne's third-line centre, don't rule out a rapid ascent up the lineup for Rave this year - after all, just look at what he did as a raw rookie in San Diego one year ago.