Niklas Treutle is new to North America, but he’s beyond excited to be here.

When he finished giving his interview on day three of the Arizona Coyotes rookie camp, the native of Nuremburg, Germany gave a huge grin. “Not bad for my first interview in English!” he boasted.

At 24, Treutle is coming off of his seventh season of pro hockey. The 6 foot 1 goaltender plays like a pro; in three days of practice with the Coyotes rookies this weekend, the former DEL starter was devoid of the nerves one would expect to see from a guy getting his shot at playing in North America. He also looked more comfortable on North American ice than you’d expect from a goalie new to the smaller rink dimensions.

That, he admitted, is because he prefers the North American style of game.

“I played the World Juniors in Buffalo,” he mentioned, “and I felt like I liked the smaller ice. Pucks are coming more to the net, players are having less time so they bring it to the net more. I kind of liked the game when I played the World Juniors.”

That wouldn’t be the first time Treutle mentioned how much he liked playing North American hockey, nor would it be the last. Fellow Coyotes netminders Adin Hill and Marek Langhamer both mentioned that he didn’t need much adjustment when practice began; that’s likely in part because he thrives on the smaller, tighter style of play.

It also has to do with his own preparation, though. The German standout, who recorded a .923 SV% in his second season with Red Bull Munich last year, has been putting in the extra work to make sure he’s ready to go this year.

Treutle’s number one goal is to be in the AHL next year, not down in the lower-tier ECHL — and he’s been making sure he takes advantage of every opportunity to turn that dream into a reality. He skated with Francois Allaire this summer in Switzerland, and he arrived in Arizona almost as soon as he was signed to practice with the vets at optional skates in Scottsdale. For the last three weeks, he’s been living with Coyotes captain Shane Doan at his ranch — and he said that the two regularly went to skate at the team’s practice rink leading up to rookie camp.

German goaltending isn’t as different from North American goaltending as one might think, according to Treutle. Growing up, his coaches tried to keep up with the way the game was developing across the pond — so he came to Arizona already familiar with everything from the basic goaltending techniques (such as reverse vertical-horizontal and t-push crease movement) to the fancy gadgets and off-ice workouts that North American goalie coaches favor. What instead marks the difference in the game between the two nations is the intensity.

“Starting with the practices, and the games too, the intensity is just higher. Everyone is always giving one hundred percent,” Treutle described the effort and stamina of even the depth players in North America as higher than in Germany. “It’s a more physical game. Even in games, even for the goalies, you see the big players going in to the net, and you have to fight to find the puck.”

“It’s a little bit more intense. But for me, it’s more fun to play like that.”

That’s hardly a surprise for those who remember Treutle’s performance at the 2011 World Juniors.

Behind a somewhat outmatched German U20 National Team, the lanky netminder shone and thrived. Splitting the net with fellow netminder Philipp Grubauer (who is now in the Washington Capitals system), some argued that Treutle was the more outstanding performer for the Germans — and now he’s getting the chance to show that those games weren’t just a fluke.

He’ll get to do it behind some old friends, too.

Of the 2011 World Juniors German roster, the Coyotes now employ three of the four skaters with NHL-eligible contracts. One is Treutle, and one is fellow recent signee Matthias Plachta — but the biggest name is Tobias Rieder, who broke an NHL record for the fastest subsequent goals scored short-handed by a rookie in a game against Edmonton last year. Treutle admits that’s something he likes about playing for Arizona; Rieder is able to show him and Plachta around, and it’s nice to have other German speakers on the roster with him.

The Coyotes initially inked Treutle when 23 year old prospect Louis Domingue announced plans to head to Europe for the 2015-2016 season; now, Domingue is back in the depth chart and will make it that much harder for Treutle to earn AHL ice time. Instead of just competing with fellow DEL standout Tyler Beskorowany and WHL prospect Marek Langhamer, Treutle will have a player with NHL experience battling for starts with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons.

That’s his goal, though — play in the AHL. “That’s why I came here; to play in the AHL. Obviously I want to play more games here than back in Germany; back in Germany, we only had 52 games, here there’s over eighty.”

Last season saw Treutle play in 30 games for the Munich DEL club and three games for the DEL2 team on loan; that means that he’d be making a jump to get a bulk of the starts in the AHL here. That doesn’t faze him, though.

“I want to play more games than last year, but I know you have to work hard. You have to be good at the camps, good at the practice games… with some luck, too, I hope then I can be a good goalie in the AHL.”

Then again, this is the kind of game that Treutle claims to love. Somehow, seeing him earn those starts isn’t all that difficult at all.