TWU snags former Swiss U-18 National Team forward Niedermaier

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With the Trinity Western University Men's Hockey season-opener less than a month away, the Spartans officially announced the addition of Swizterland-born forward Florian Niedermaier on Thursday.

The 5-foot-8 Niedermaier, 19, comes to TWU after last year captaining the Davos U20 team and collecting eight goals and eight assists in 38 games. He also got a chance to play one game with Davos’ top side.

Niedermaier also has plenty of experience internationally as he has represented Switzerland at the U16, U17 and U18 levels. In 2011, he competed with Switzerland’s U18 team at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, which also featured the likes of Teuvo Teravainen, Aleksander Barkov and Morgan Rielly.

For the last three years, Niedermaier has played full-time with the Davos U20 club, compiling 18 goals and 23 assists in 115 games.

“We are excited to be adding more European flavor to our program for next season,” said Spartans coach Barret Kropf. “Florian has a great pedigree of international competition and has been a leader throughout his career both on and off the ice. We are confident that Flo will be able to make a quick adjustment to the Canadian game and give us the scoring depth that we’ll need to get over the hump and win championships.”

Niedermaier graduated from Stiftung Sport-Gymnasium Davos – a sport school in Switzerland – and plans to study human kinetics at TWU.