Everything had to go quickly on Tuesday. The Edmonton Oilers had been eliminated from the NHL play-offs the night before, so Dominik Kahun was faced with the choice: should he say goodbye for the summer or fly to Latvia for the ice hockey world championship? “I only had a few minutes to make up my mind,” Kahun said two days later when he was sitting in a hotel room in Riga and talking to the press on his smartphone. Franz Reindl, President of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB), was also involved and called the 25-year-old's arrival a “perfect signal”. It connects the memory of 2018, when the DEB selection won Olympic silver.

Back then, Kahun was playing in Munich. Fortunately for him, because the NHL hadn't approved their players. Even now at the World Cup in Latvia big names are missing. There are correspondingly many outsider victories, Reindl calls the World Cup a “lucky bag”. This is reminiscent of 2018 - one of the reasons why Kahun got on a plane in Edmonton and came to Riga via Montreal and Frankfurt. Now he was “very tired”, he said after his first night in a hotel, but it was worth it, he was “very, very excited about the World Cup”.

He can still only watch, like on Saturday evening when the Germans lost 2-1 to Finland. Three days of individual quarantine, another three only within the DEB team, daily corona tests. If all six are negative, Kahun can play. Maybe this Monday (3:15 p.m. on Sport1) against the United States. The morning before the game is one last test. "If everything is going well from an organizational point of view, then it is very likely," said DEB sports director Christian Künast on Sunday.

Joining a new team is no problem.

The fast and technically strong striker has played for eight clubs since 2012.

As a 16-year-old, he left the Mannheim youth, moved to the junior league in Canada, but when he didn't want an NHL team after two years, he came back.

At Red Bull Munich, at the age of 19, he became a regular, three times champion, national player with the climax of the Olympics.

Then he got the NHL contract, in Chicago.

Although he played well, he was transferred, to Pittsburgh, then to Buffalo.

After that he was without a contract and went to Edmonton to go to childhood friend Leon Draisaitl, sometimes played in the top rows, sometimes sat outside, in the end he got 50 games and 15 scorer points.

"Maybe the statistics weren't the same as usual, but I can be satisfied," says Kahun, who is now looking for a club again.

This time it can be a longer contract, "but even if I sign for seven years, it can happen that I'm gone after two weeks," says Kahun. Only superstars have contractual clauses that protect them from transfers. In Latvia, Kahun is the star of the German offensive. If that works, things could go back to 2018. This would increase Kahun's market value. For a new NHL contract. No matter where.