The other side of the coin – Swiss ice hockey is threatened by mediocrity

It was a chance encounter, one of those events that makes you sit up and take notice: On Thursday evening , Andres Ambühl was given a ceremonial farewell in Kloten during the Swiss national ice hockey team's final test match on Swiss ice before the start of the World Championship. The now 41-year-old Davos native will retire this spring and was celebrated accordingly for his outstanding achievements.

The previous morning, news had arrived from Dallas that the Swiss U-18 national team had been relegated from the World Championship in the USA after a 5-4 penalty shootout loss to Norway. It was their fifth defeat in five matches. The results included a 10-0 loss to the USA and a 10-3 loss to Sweden. After nineteen years in the A division, the Swiss have been relegated to Group B for the first time.

Swiss ice hockey is currently experiencing a tangle of glory and misery. Just a year ago, Patrick Fischer's team nearly became world champions at the World Championships in Prague. In the final against the hosts, the Czech Republic, they perhaps lacked just a little more courage to secure a historic victory. At the end of the day, Switzerland won its third World Championship silver medal in the last eleven years. These results were made possible by an exceptional generation of players led by their captain, Roman Josi.

Three weeks ago, Swiss Ice Hockey celebrated last year's silver medal at the OYM in Cham with the premiere of the film documentary titled "Road to the Silver Medal 2024." National coach Patrick Fischer says the difference compared to the last medal in 2018 in Copenhagen was huge. Back then, the plane on the flight home to Switzerland was full of party spirit. On the return trip from Prague, the mood was subdued. Silver, that's what's starting to show.

Patrick Fischer remains committed to his ambition to lead the Swiss national ice hockey team to the World Championship title. He has been part of a successful Swiss medal campaign three times, as assistant coach (2013) and head coach (2018, 2024). Before the World Championships in Herning and Stockholm, expectations are no longer quite as high. Key players like Roman Josi, who is currently recovering from his sixth concussion, will be missing.

The exact team's appearance in Herning and Stockholm will become clear in the coming days. This weekend, the team will play its final tests in Brno before the World Cup kickoff against the Czech Republic and Finland. After that, Fischer will make his selection for the World Cup.

But the coach is already looking ahead. 2026 will be a big year for him and the Swiss national team. The Olympic tournament featuring NHL players will take place in Milan in February, followed by the World Championships in Zurich and Freiburg in May (May 15-31). But the golden generation of Swiss players, including Roman Josi, Nino Niederreiter, and Andres Ambühl, is slowly aging.

Ambühl will hang up his skates for good after the upcoming World Championships at the latest. Others will follow him in the not-too-distant future. Fifteen of the 26 players from last year's silver medal team are now 30 years old or older.

And what comes after them? The answer to this question is sobering and leads back to the U-18 national team. In the shadow of the glamour of a booming league, young talent in Swiss ice hockey was criminally neglected. The league and the association were worn down in a useless power struggle over money and competence. The Swiss League, the most important substructure of the National League, is a patchwork quilt with no prospects and an uncertain future.

Longtime insiders are following this development with growing unease. Since Nico Hischier was drafted No. 1 in the NHL's annual draft in 2017, the Swiss have played little role. The exception was Lian Bichsel, who went to the Dallas Stars with the No. 18 pick in the summer of 2022.

But this very Lian Bichsel is a persona non grata within the Swiss Ice Hockey Association. The 20-year-old defenseman made his first NHL appearances this season. Because he declined a call-up to the U-20 national team and instead preferred to play for his Swedish club Rögle in the national championship, the association's sporting directorate has banned him from all national team activities until 2026. This includes the Olympic tournament and the home World Championship.

In the run-up to this World Cup, national team director Lars Weibel again sought contact with Bichsel. However, no real rapprochement was reached. Weibel says he hasn't received a conclusive response. Bichsel is currently playing with his Dallas Stars in the playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche. The series is currently tied 3-3. The decisive Game 7 took place last night in Dallas.

After the U18s' first disappointing results in the USA, a letter to the editor summarized the problems he saw in a few points: "In overly soft, spoiled juniors, in helicopter parents, in the refusal to install top coaches in the association and force them to work closely with the clubs, and in the association with its influence on the junior teams." It went on like this. It was a kind of reckoning with everyone involved in Swiss ice hockey.

Despite all the controversy, there was also a grain of truth in the assessment. There's too much conflict in Swiss ice hockey, rather than cooperation. Since last fall, Martin Baumann has led Swiss Ice Hockey as CEO. He's supposed to finally restore calm to the office. In an interview with Swiss television on Thursday evening, Baumann spoke of "a striking difference in performance" that he had witnessed in Dallas. The association now needs to do its homework, but it can't do it alone. The clubs also have a responsibility.

The topic isn't new. When the Swiss disappointed with all their NHL players at the 2018 Olympic tournament in Pyeongchang, losing to Germany, former Davos coach Arno Del Curto proposed a round table to discuss the future of Swiss ice hockey. The proposal was received with enthusiasm, but nothing has happened since. Quite the opposite. The foundation of Swiss ice hockey is crumbling. There's a lack of sufficient, high-quality young talent and, above all, a lack of competition in which promising talents can thrive.

Today, the most talented young players are looking to develop their skills abroad. Of the eleven players who played more or less regularly in the NHL last season, only Roman Josi and Janis Moser made the jump directly from the National League to an NHL organization. All the others chose the route via Scandinavia or one of the North American junior leagues. In Switzerland, they lacked the competition they needed to grow. These are not good prospects for Swiss ice hockey.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »