Hungarian national team defenseman Kevin Wehrs has found his club for the 2018-19 season. Wehrs will be playing the upcoming season in the German 2nd tier.
Kevin Wehrs has signed with DEL2 side Tölzer Löwen in Bad Tölz, Bavaria, this is his four team in four seasons and the first time not playing in the EBEL since 2014. Wehrs was born Minnesota, his high school teammate was future NFL player James Laurinaitis. Wehrs went on to play junior hockey in USHL where he was teammates with Teddy Purcell, Alec Martinez and Justin Abdelkader. He went to play college hockey at the University of Minnesota where he was teammates with Kyle Okposo and Blake Wheeler. After finishing his degree he turned pro and sent a season in Norway, which was followed up by a two season stint in Brasov. In 2014 he signed with Fehérvár AV19, during this time he got his Hungarian citizenship and made his debut for the Hungarian national team. After two seasons in Fehérvár he stayed in the EBEL as he spent one season in Villach and Innsbruck. He has played a total 39 games for the Hungarian national team.
He did it end up that you would sign with Tölzer Löwen?
I was getting offers throughout the summer from Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom throughout the summer. I would have prefered not to play there. This offer came in last minute, we thought about it for a couple days and decided to go. We did not want to wait until November to find a team, which would have happened most likely if I would not have taken this offer.
You had mentioned earlier that you would prefer to get a multi season contract this time around, how many seasons did you end up signing for?
Just one season, we would like to settle down in one place instead of moving around from year to year. A couple seasons ago I was trying to get into the DEL or go play in the top league in Finland, however we are at the point right now where we are content where we and just want to be somewhere for a while.
How did your offseason conditioning and preparation go this summer?
I pretty much worked out and did cardio the way I usually do every summer so that I would be ready for when I did get the call. Chris Bodó puts a program together called BodzFit, we did it last summer, this summer I justed used the workout plan that he gave me the year before and incorporated more conditioning into it.
How much research did you put in on finding about the league and the team before you signed?
I looked into finding about the town and I had already was well informed about the league and how it is a good league. We put a lot of thought into and and also talked to my agent and he thought it would be a good place for us to go. So we ended up deciding to go.
What are your expectation for the upcoming season for yourself?
I need to work hard and to keep getting better, my goal is always to play better than in the previous season. This will be a fresh start for me playing in a new league. Last year was not the best for the team last season as they were only promoted back to the DEL2 only recently. It would be nice to a part of a successful season with them and to make some noise in the league hopefully.
