The Arizona Coyotes inked two players shortly after the culmination of the 2014-2015 season that came as a bit of a surprise.

The first was Matthias Plachta; a hopeful future depth power forward with strong defensive awareness out of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany, Plachta earned himself an entry-level deal following a strong showing at the 2015 World Championships with Coyotes forward Tobias Rieder.

The Coyotes then took another DEL player, this time going for a former NHL prospect and one of the DEL’s biggest stars last year — netminder Tyler Beskorowany was inked to a one year AHL deal with the Springfield Falcons, where last season’s Goaltender of the Year in the German league will hope to revitalize his North American career.

Now, they’ve added both another German and another goaltender — bringing in one of the DEL’s other elite netminders from the 2014-2015 campaign in 24 year old Niklas Treutle.

Originally ranked 2nd among German-born netminders by NHL’s Central Scouting department coming into the 2012 Entry Draft, 6 foot 1 Treutle went undrafted at the NHL level during his eligible seasons. Quick and agile, the Nuremburg native posted the lowest goals against average (GAA) in the DEL for the 2014-2015 season; as a hopeful depth option down the road for Arizona, he’s a brilliant pick-up.

For fans of junior hockey, Treutle may actually be a familiar face. Although the 2011 World Junior Championships saw the Team USA upset of Team Canada as the highlight of the tournament, one of the two relegated teams — Germany — caught the eye of fans for the impressive play of a few of its skaters. Like at the World Championships this year, where Rieder shone on a clearly outmatched German team with Plachta, the German national team at the 2011 WJC in Buffalo, New York had a couple of worthy prospects watched by fans. On the ice, Plachta and Rieder were the shining stars that they once again were in 2015 — but in net, the duo of Treutle and Philipp Grubauer was the real headliner.

Grubauer was as impressive as Washington fans hoped him to be, but the teen who he split the net with — Treutle, who was coming off an already-successful season as a backup in the DEL — was actually the stronger performer of the duo. The fact that he’s remained unsigned by an NHL club until now, given his performance then and his excellent numbers in the DEL, is somewhat surprising.

The DEL isn’t a comparable for the NHL; it’s not even a strong comparable for the KHL or SHL, instead finding it’s closest-matched QoC likely coming from either the Czech Extraliga or Sweden’s tier II league, Hockeyallsvenskan. The discovery of more and more underrated talent out of Germany is a trend that not just the Coyotes are picking up on, though — clearly, the Capitals are very high on Grubbauer, who started a playoff game this spring and will likely challenge for the backup role next year.

With the addition of Treutle to the Coyotes’ system, they gain a few things.

He’s been playing in the same league as Tyler Beskorowany for the last year, so attempting to find harmony among the two netminders shouldn’t be hard as they compete with prospect Louis Domingue for starts in Springfield. They also provide two options for depth at the minor league level, which prevents the rushing of any of the team’s younger netminding prospects.

He also spent time on an underdog roster with both Rieder (who was the Coyotes’ Hardest Working Player in 2014-2015 and led all NHL rookies in shorthanded goals last year) and newly signed Plachta. The trio have shown talent on rosters that struggled to succeed due to outmatched opponents, with the two skaters providing strong defensive play and Treutle posting some of the best netminding numbers in his 2011 international appearance despite playing for one of the worst teams. Where some netminding prospects are given the benefit of the doubt for good stats behind strong rosters, Treutle offers a look at a calm, confident, athletic netminder who plays to keep his team in games.

Although he’ll almost certainly either shuttle between the Springfield Falcons and the ECHL’s Gwinnett Gladiators or start in Springfield altogether, strong minor league play from Treutle could quickly earn him a look at the NHL level in the coming seasons.