Dennis Seidenberg Will Play in Germany


Dennis Seidenberg will play for a familiar–in more ways than one–team in Germany. Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Four Boston Bruins have now made NHL lockout-necessitated decisions to play abroad in Europe.

Dennis Seidenberg has signed with Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in his native Germany.

Adler Mannheim–the first European team to take on a Bruin and have a section of their official website in English–has played host to Seidenberg before, from 1999 to 2001 in the early stages of his career. During the 2004-05 lockout, he played with the AHL affiliate of his then-current NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers, but this time he has elected to go overseas.

Part of the appeal of Adler to Seidenberg–and to Marcel Goc, who will also head to Germany–is a sibling connection. Seidenberg’s younger brother Yannic plays for Adler, as does Goc’s younger brother Nikolai.

In fact, Seidenberg had been considering this decision since August, partly because Yannic had been lobbying him to come over and make Adler a team of siblings. At the time, he said that he hadn’t put a lot of thought into the idea of playing in Germany, but now he has made a decision.

While Goc has already flown to Germany and hopes to start training with Adler on Sept. 25, Seidenberg has not yet decided on a leaving date. Adler has agreed to terms with both Goc’s team, the Florida Panthers, as well as the Bruins, but must wait for them to be released by their clubs first. Adler’s English-language release about the acquisitions says that the earliest date Goc and Seidenberg could potentially play is Sept. 28, provided the releases are given and Seidenberg is in the country before then.