The old corrugated iron palace in Hohenschönhausen has its own special charm.

The ice rink was completed in 1964, and that's what it looks like.

A classic functional building of the GDR sports system, formerly the home of the series champion EHC Dynamo Berlin, which became the polar bears after reunification.

Today they play in a multifunctional arena at Ostbahnhof, they only come to Hohenschönhausen for training and a few games outside of the German Ice Hockey League (DEL).

What makes the fans particularly happy is that they love their "Welli" - without boxes, video cubes or upholstered chairs.

But for some players it takes some getting used to, especially if they are used to the comfort of the North American multi-billion dollar NHL league.

Sturm hardly dared to dream of the NHL

Welli was nothing new for Nico Sturm.

"I played here twice when I was young," he said in the anteroom of the old hall.

Sturm, who was born in Augsburg, has been earning his money with the San Jose Sharks for a few weeks.

And as luck would have it, they had already planned a trip to Europe before his move: On Tuesday there was a friendly in Berlin that Sturm missed due to injury, and on the weekend the first two league games against the Nashville Predators in Prague.

The team from California got to know a piece of German ice hockey history with Welli - but only for training, the game against the polar bears, which the NHL team won 3-1, took place in the arena.

That was something new for Sturm.

In general, this should be his first game of adult ice hockey in his old homeland.

Although Sturm is already 27 years old, he has never played in the DEL or for the national team.

Because he took an unusual path: he moved to North America as a teenager, but not to one of the big junior leagues in Canada like Leon Draisaitl did.

Sturm went to college in the United States and initially didn't even play in the major leagues there.

That didn't bother him much, his focus was anyway on studying "Financial Information and Analysis".

He hardly dared to dream of the NHL, not even of the DEL at home.

It was only over the years that ice hockey came to the fore.

The initially somewhat lanky 1.90 meter man became stronger and improved technically and tactically.

"The goals have changed enormously," he now looked back in Berlin: "I just had the opportunity to become a professional at the age of 24 through college." This time helped him, at 18 or 19 - as it is in Germany is common - he was not ready for a professional league.

“The path is different for every player, there is no blueprint of what is right or wrong.

That was ideal for me because I needed the extra time.”

As slowly as Sturm's career got rolling, once he arrived in the NHL, things went quickly: First games for the Minnesota Wild, from there this spring to the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he won the most important trophy in world ice hockey in June: the Stanley Cup .

In July, he brought the NHL championship trophy to Augsburg for a day.

Entry in the city's Golden Book, thousands of fans at a reception, enthusiastic youth players with wide eyes.

Suddenly, Sturm, known only to ice hockey insiders almost three years earlier, was a big name, and his picture adorned the front pages of specialist newspapers.

Did that change him?

"I'm still the same guy," he says.

But thanks to the Stanley Cup, he "of course has experience on the ice that not every player can draw on".

That also increased its value.

San Jose gave him his biggest contract to date this summer: three years and six million dollars.

Sturm now sees himself as a leader, and he no longer wants to be just the defensive striker who works outnumbered and kills opposing top players, he wants to become more offensive himself, score more goals and prepare.

You don't hear that often from 27-year-olds changing their playing style.

However, this 27-year-old is only before his fourth real professional season.