Felix Schütz voted European Player of the Month of January

24 Feb 2013 | Dennis Mende

Kölner Haie forward Felix Schütz scored eight goals and four assists in nine DEL matches in January 2013. His performance was reason enough for the readers of eurohockey.com to make him European Player of the Month.

Born and raised in Erding, Felix Schütz started his career in the youth teams of local TSV Erding. At the age of 15 he then played for Jungadler Mannheim in DNL, Germany's top junior league. During the 2004-2005 season the left winger who also can play center, gave his debut in professional ice hockey for the Landshut Cannibals from 2. Bundesliga while at the same time also playing for their DNL team EV Landshut. The youngster went on to play junior hockey in Canada during two years for the Saint John Sea Dogs and Val-d'Or Foreurs of QMJHL. There he attracted the attention of the NHL scouts for the first time and later was drafted at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres in the 4th round as 117th player.

In the 2007-2008 season Schütz played for ERC Ingolstadt in DEL before he tried his luck with Buffalo's farm team Portland Pirates for who he played 153 games in the American Hockey League. In 2010, after a successful World Championsip in Germany, he signed again with Ingolstadt. At the start of the 2011-12 season though he decided to continue his career with DEL top team Kölner Haie. Currently the German national team player is third in the scorer list of his team from Cologne.

Felix Schütz will be in the focus again when he plays the World Championship in Finland and Sweden in May 2013. After a disappointing qualification tournament at home in February, Team Germany failed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Sochi.

Interesting: Felix is not the only member of the Schütz family who is good at playing ice hockey. His four year older brother Axel made it to the 3rd tier in German ice hockey where he currently plays for his home team from Erding.