Contrary to expectations, the NHL striker has found a second home in Winnipeg. But the captain of the national team fears that local ice hockey will lose its status.
Worried about the future of Swiss ice hockey: Nino Niederreiter.
Rich Storry / Reuters
Nino Niederreiter currently has few reasons to be dissatisfied with himself and life. He has just extended his contract with the Winnipeg Jets by three years and twelve million dollars. Winnipeg is the fifth NHL organization in the powerful Graubünden native’s career. And perhaps the most outlandish. Niederreiter, 31, never thought he would end up there, in Manitoba, where it can get as cold as minus 50 degrees in the winter. But he accepted without complaint that the Nashville Predators, the team of his friend Roman Josi, traded him there in February 2023 without warning.
Niederreiter says he came to the city without any prejudices: “At an away game in the NHL you usually hardly see anything except the stadium and the hotel. I wouldn’t presume to form an opinion in such a short space of time.” And he adds that he was pleasantly surprised: “The city offers everything. Of course it’s cold, but you get used to it. I have grown to love a lot of people here. The organization takes first-class care of the players; the catering, for example, is the best in the league.” He has also discovered leisure activities: sometimes he goes moose hunting on the prairie. The hobby is a family tradition; he once got his hunting license as a pastime during a forced break from his involvement with the Minnesota Wild. He says: “This thing is valid all over the world. Except in the canton of Graubünden. . .»
With the Jets, Niederreiter has become something of a secret favorite to win the Stanley Cup; Winnipeg is one of the positive surprises of the season. And the Swiss plays an important role as a leader, even if he is given less responsibility offensively than last year; In 47 games he produced 25 scorer points. Trainer Rick Bowness says: “I love his versatility and character.”
The seven Canadian NHL teams have been waiting for a Stanley Cup triumph since 1993
The Jets are the only major league franchise in the city of 750,000, where Niederreiter says you can hardly take two steps without seeing someone with Jets memorabilia. The team was active in the NHL from 1976 to 1999 before it was sold to Phoenix. The Jets only returned in 2011, taking over the license from the Atlanta Thrashers. Season tickets sold out months in advance and there was a long waiting list. Since the comeback, the Jets have only won three play-off series and their hunger for success is great; Winnipeg is poised to become the first team since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens to bring the Stanley Cup to Canada. It is something that connects Niederreiter with this team. Because he is also waiting for a title in his 14th season in an NHL organization.
The Stanley Cup is one of Niederreiter’s two big remaining goals in North America. He also wants to break the 1,000 game mark, which no Swiss player has ever achieved. If he stays healthy, the brand will become a formality with the new contract. Only Josi has played more games than Niederreiter with his 857 appearances. Number 3 is pioneer Mark Streit with 786 NHL games. Streit, now co-owner and board member at SC Bern, ended his career in Montreal in autumn 2017.
Niederreiter, on the other hand, is toying with ending his famous career in the National League one day. He says: “Of course I want to stay in the NHL as long as possible. But me and my girlfriend want to get married and start a family at some point. It’s already in my head to play in Switzerland for another year or two. And to experience another Spengler Cup.” So a move to HCD, for whom he once made his professional debut at the age of 16 under Arno Del Curto? Niederreiter laughs and says: “I wouldn’t commit to a destination today. Zurich, Davos, Lugano, Rapperswil, Chur . . . Who knows where it will fit right now.”
Chur, currently the confident leader in the third-tier Myhockey League under coach Reto von Arx, is Niederreiter’s home club. He is still strongly connected to his roots today, has been on the board for several years and follows practically every game via live stream. He hopes that Chur will soon be able to provide the financial resources for promotion to the Swiss League: “That would be a win for the entire Swiss ice hockey. We need a strong, powerful second division. This would be particularly important for the young players. Today it is almost impossible to make the jump from the U20 directly to the National League, the difference in level is enormous.”
It is a deep concern about the future of Swiss ice hockey and not least the national team that Niederreiter is speaking about. He says: “We have to be careful not to be overtaken left and right. The Slovaks have done an excellent job, as can be seen in the results at the Junior World Championships. Germany is making enormous progress. I have the feeling that we allow ourselves to be blinded and that we are not as good as we think we are. The expectation is now that we will reach the semi-finals at the World Cup every year. But if you look at the balance of power, that’s not the reality.” Switzerland is currently in seventh place in the world rankings, ahead of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But the last exploit at a major tournament was a long time ago: Since the silver medal in Copenhagen in 2018, Switzerland has never made it past a quarter-final.
The highlights of the 2018 World Cup final, when Switzerland won a medal for the last time.
The number of Swiss NHL exports has fallen to just ten players
Niederreiter sees many reasons for this, including the recently consistently poor Swiss results in the NHL draft, to which he says: “Since Nico Hischier was number 1 in 2017, not much has come.” What’s true: The only Swiss first-round draft since that year was defender Lian Bichsel (number 18, Dallas Stars) in 2022, and hardly any Swiss were selected in the later rounds either.
Which is a problem, because the number of NHL exports has shrunk from up to 16 to now 10 players. For comparison: Finland has 44, the Czech Republic 32. And it’s not as if there are too many high-flyers in sight among Swiss young talent. Today’s figureheads like 33-year-old Josi and Niederreiter will not be able to lead the national team forever.
Niederreiter recognizes the reasons for the halting development, not least in the National League. He says: “It is a highly attractive league, a wonderful, functioning product. But in my opinion, the National League thrives not least on the quality of the foreigners, on the fact that the highest wages in Europe are paid and the best players are brought in. I’m not sure how much the Swiss benefit from the National League. Maybe you should also ask yourself whether 14 teams is really the right league size. But we’re probably too stubborn for that; “Everyone thinks too tightly in their own garden, that’s a typically Swiss problem.”
Niederreiter left Switzerland as a hockey player in 2009 when he broke off his heating plumbing apprenticeship to conquer the big, wide world of ice hockey. He has remained closely connected to his homeland, acts as national team captain and is a kind of model Swiss who visits wrestling festivals. The geographical distance and the completed accumulation of wealth – he has earned more than 40 million dollars in the NHL to date – allow him to call things by their name independently and with an open perspective. It’s probably worth taking your concerns seriously.