Kurt Bachmann - Biography

[Blutch 21]

Kurt Bachmann is born on 21st september 2004 in Brühl, a small city south of Cologne in Germany. His family is composed of himself, his brother Michael and their parents, Wilhelm and Hedwig. His father is a hockey fan, followed the NHL and love the history of the game. He also played roller hockey semi-professionally. Wilhelm taught his kids to skate early, first on rollers then on the ice. Kurt and Michael put on skates for the first time around 3 years old. Kurt loved the ice, the cold, the smoothness, the speed. His brother prefered rollers, so they never played together in a club, although they had plenty of fun in the streets. Michael followed his father's steps, currently playing roller hockey semi professionnaly himself.

 

Kurt joined the Junghaie, the Kölner Haie development system, at 5 years old as part of the Junghaie U7 team. He was a good skater for his age and was always taller than average. One of his favourite things about hockey was that you are allowed to bump other kids. He developped entirely in the Kölner Haie system, from U7 to U18, when he reached 18 he was even called up to the big club and played a season in the DEL.

 

Wilhelm loves talking about hockey, about the history, the players, how the game evolved throughout the years. He would tell the stories of the great players to his kids, Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman, Sakic... Kurt's favorite players were the big guys, being one himself. He loved hearing his father talk about Larry Robinson, Vlad Konstantinov and his favorite Scott Stevens. Kurt always loved the physicality of the game and these guys were who he wanted to model his game after. Scott Stevens is also the reason he wears the number 4.

 

Kurt ended up growing to 1.88m and is comfortable playing at around 100kg. He became a good, reliable, shutdown defenseman. He doesn't do a lot of flashy moves and his skating is above average without being excellent. But he loves to throw big hits, he'll block shots even in the last seconds of a game and he uses his reach to poke the puck off the opposition player pretty well. He allows the forwards to be more calm and try some more risky stuff because they know he'll be there if something goes wrong. When he's on the ice the opposing players must be aware of that and keep their heads up.

 

In school his favorite classes outside of sports were history and biology. His father's love for teaching him the history of hockey since it's inception started an interest about history in general and he likes to read about historical events. He was a pretty average student, not excellent but not terrible. He earned his Abitur (end of high-school diploma) with a slightly above average grade, then chose to not go to university to pursue hockey.

 

Outside of hockey, on of his favorite pass-times is playing video games. He took that from his mom, whom he liked to sit with and watcher her play. He obviously play hockey games like EA NHL or Eastside Hockey Manager, but he also likes strategy and tactical games, like the X-Com series or Age of Empire. As a good german he also like simulator games, mostly Euro Truck Simulator.

 

After his year with the Haie Kurt decided he neede a new challege. For that he decided to go to north america and join a VHLM team, hoping to improve and be drafted by a VHL team. Keeping with the Haie (Sharks) maritime theme he signed as a UFA for the San Diego Marlins. Although he had a good season in germany, his arrival in north america didn't make a huge noise, due to his low numbers he passed under the radar of a lot of scouts. So far on the ice it's going fine, he had his first assist in his second game and his first goal in his seventh while having a positive +/-, blocking shots and throwing some hits. He is learning to improve his level of play as well as adapting to the north american ice, although his style of play fits this smaller size of ice pretty well.

 

The adaptation to north america is something that he is still working on, for that he can count on the help of his teammates and the Marlins management. Everything is bigger, further, than in europe. He bought his first car, a 2005 Opel Corsa. He currently rents a house around Pacific Beach, he thanked on of his new teammates for giving him the contact for this house. Kurt and his brother are very close, never having been apart before Kurt left for the US. They still talk every day, Kurt semi seriously trying to convice him to join him and play roller hockey in San Diego.

[Banackock 8,143]

[LucyXpher 1,585]

Great bio!  Should be a fun player to follow!