The German Development League (German: Deutsche Nachwuchsliga, DNL) is the elite junior league of the German Ice Hockey Federation. It was founded in 2000 in cooperation with the national hockey associations. Its objective is to educate and care for young German ice hockey players, as well as to serve as an introduction into the German professional leagues of the sport, including the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).
There are presently 15 DNL teams and 16 DNL2 teams.
References
German Development League Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA