Among the pleasures of international hockey is seeing familiar NHL stars adapt to new roles as they represent their countries.  For traditional powers like Canada or the United States, that means star players adapting to depth roles.  For nations without a robust NHL presence, it means NHL role players adapting to starring roles.  So it’s gone for Marco Kasper and Austria at 2025 IIHF Worlds, where the 21-year-old has continued his strong rookie season with the Detroit Red Wings on a global stage, helping Austria scrap its way to a place in the tournament’s quarterfinals.

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Kasper is the last Red Wing standing at the event.  Lucas Raymond, Simon Edvinsson, Erik Gustafsson, and Sweden just fell to Canada.  Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Norway have been knocked out.  Moritz Seider and the Germans fell to tournament co-host Denmark.  That leaves only Kasper and Austria, perhaps an unlikely success story but a compelling one.

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For the tournament, Kasper now has four goals and three assists in seven games played.  It’s not as though Kasper was a marginal player for the 2024-25 Red Wings.  Instead, by season’s end, he staked a strong claim to the number two center role.  Nonetheless, in bringing his game to an international context for an Austrian team thin on NHL talent, Kasper has to assume more responsibility, especially when it comes to contributing offense.

If 2025 Worlds are any indicator, that’s a responsibility Kasper is more than fit to handle, with the young centerman thriving as Austria’s leader.  It should come as no surprise really, considering the various ways Kasper embraced added responsibility throughout the year in Detroit—whether in taking over a top line winger spot next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, or moving back down the middle to drive his own line.

The next challenge for Kasper and Austria is a quarterfinal match-up with Switzerland Thursday, where he will look to keep the unlikely run going.  Austria has never finished better than sixth in an Olympics (1948), and it’s best Worlds finish is third (achieved twice, in 1931 and 1947).  Kasper will be looking to re-write that history, beginning with this spring’s Worlds and continuing on through his fast blossoming career.

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