bull heat. The air is wafting in front of the “Welli” in Hohenschönhausen. One step through the thick wooden door and we are in the middle of winter. Just ten degrees. Ice hockey training has never been more enjoyable. Kai Wissmann felt the same way. The 1.94 m tall defender curved over the Berlin ice for the last time yesterday.
“At the weekend I go to Schwenningen with my girlfriend Pia to visit my parents. From there I’ll be jetting off to the Boston Bruins training camp in Halifax on July 29,” reveals the star polar bear in the last interview with the KURIER for the time being.
Kai doesn’t want to let any melancholy farewell arise: “I had ten wonderful years with the polar bears. The team and I have been preparing for the move to Boston for a few weeks now. Since everything runs in normal tracks with a goodbye and good luck. Which my team-mates wished for me as much as I did for them to defend the championship title.”
Wissmann played for the polar bears in the DEL for the first time at the age of 17
In 341 DEL games, the Schwenninger native wrapped his polar bear skin over the icy ground of his sport. Kai still remembers his first DEL game clearly: “You don’t forget that. I was 17 years old when I was allowed to play in the pros for the first time. I only had a short ice age, but my chest swelled anyway. That was a game once morest Dusseldorf. I can’t remember the exact result, but I think we won.”
With the polar bears, Wissmann won two championship titles in the polar bear cabin, got an A-level exam, met his girlfriend Pia at the sports school and rose to become a national player. At the World Cup in Finland in May, he convinced the Boston Bruins scouts so much that they presented Kai with a two-pronged professional contract for the NHL and the AHL: “Of course I’ll work hard to play in the NHL,” says the former polar bear co -Captain with ambition. The defense attorney initially leaves the girlfriend behind in Berlin: “Pia first completes her bachelor’s exams and then comes to the USA.”
Special thanks to polar bear captain Frank Hördler
Wissmann also sends a thank you to Frank Hördler: “Frank is an ice hockey player from whom I was able to learn a lot. I was impressed and carried away by the way he threw himself into attack and defense in the past play-offs.”
The now ex-polar bear also mentions the championship celebration in the Red Town Hall with the Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey as an unforgettable moment. “These are moments for life.” Of course, Wissmann doesn’t forget the coaches when looking back: “I learned a lot from Don Jackson, Uwe Krupp and Stephane Richer. I got the push to my current level of play from Serge Aubin over the past two years.”
Read more regarding the polar bears here >>