Originally an Edmonton Oilers‘ 4th round pick in the 2011 draft (#114 overall) German-born right wing Tobias Rieder(9) was traded in a prospects’ deal to Phoenix Coyotes and quickly signed to a 3-year entry level contract.
He starts his pro career on reassignment to AHL affiliate Portland Pirates, where he’s making things happen in short order on the score sheet with 6 goals and a pair of assists in 11 games. He got sidelined with a lower body injury suffered in the debut but also scored his first two tallies.
The not so huge 5’11” 190 lbs. forward is always squarely in the middle of the play and usually comes out on the other end with a puck and a scoring chance.
At only 20-years old, he’s already played one campaign professionally in the Germany2 league for his hometown EV Landshut and did pretty well scoring 10 goals, 13 assists in 45 games as a teenager.
After that he left for three years of junior hockey in the OHL with Kitchener Rangers and amassed 231 points in 205 regular season and playoff games.
There’s little doubt he is a player that can make the jump up to the NHL. It’s just a matter of being given an opening, which looks likely to happen for him as a rookie.
