EHC Kloten | |
---|---|
City | Kloten, Switzerland |
League | National League |
Founded | 1934 |
Home arena | SWISS Arena |
Colors | |
General manager | Larry Mitchell |
Head coach | Gerry Fleming |
Captain | Steve Kellenberger |
Affiliate | HC Thurgau |
Website | www.ehc-kloten.ch |
Franchise history | |
1934–2000 2016–present | EHC Kloten |
2000–2016 | Kloten Flyers |
Current season |
EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 years. EHC Kloten won four consecutive Swiss championships from 1993 to 1996. They had never been relegated until the 2017–18 season. They returned to the NL following the 2021-22 season.
The team was called the Kloten Flyers between 2000 and 2016. [1]
EHC Kloten was founded by a group of seven members, led by Emil Hegner, on December 3, 1934. During the first few years, only exhibition matches were played. The home matches were played on the frozen Nägelimoos-Weiher.
When EHC Kloten began to participate in the championship, they had to start in the lowest league, as usual. In 1941, they were promoted into the Serie B and five years later into the Serie A. One year later, in 1947, the EHC Kloten was promoted into the Swiss League. In 1962, they joined the National League when the league expanded to 10 teams.
In 1967, they became the champions for the first time, headed by their Czech coach Vladimir Kobera.
The team has remained in the highest Swiss league since their promotion and are the longest-serving team in the NL.
For the 1998-99 season the former Russian ice hockey player Vladimir Yurzinov was asked to become the new coach. He introduced a new playing style and encouraged the development and promotion of young players. Even though many people liked this philosophy, the team remained unsuccessful. During the 2003-2004 season, the team reached the playoffs for the first time in their history. A year later, in the 2004-2005 playoffs, they again managed to remain in the highest league. However, this strategy is paying off today.
In October 2004, Yurzinov was released as their coach. He took on a new role as a youth promoter until the end of the season. Yurzinov's successor was former EHC Kloten defenseman Anders Eldebrink and assistant Felix Hollenstein. The new coaching duo managed to get the team back to success and are still in charge of the team.
During the 2008-2009 season, the Flyers swept both HC Geneve-Servette and EV Zug in the playoffs before losing the playoff final against HC Davos in seven games. They finished the regular season in 3rd place.
The club has a well known junior program. There’s a partnership between the Kloten Flyers and the teams of Bülach, Dielsdorf-Niederhasli and Winterthur. Since the founding of the elite-junior league, the teams have won 19 titles, the latest being in the 2005-06 season.
The team's name was reverted from Kloten Flyers to EHC Kloten for the 2016–17 NLA season [2] after the club had been taken over by businessman Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, who bought the organization from the owner group Avenir Sports Entertainment. [3] Pekka Tirkkonen from Finland was appointed new head coach [4] for the 2016–17 season after Sean Simpson had parted company with the club. The team had one of the worst attendances of the NL for the 2016–17 season, averaging only 5,229 spectators over their 25 regular season home games. It was also the only team which failed to sell out at least one game during the regular season. [5]
On February 1, 2017, the team won the first Swiss Cup in club history, against Geneve-Servette HC, in a packed Swiss Arena.
The team won the Swiss League title in April 2022 against EHC Olten to gain automatic promotion to the NL.
Updated 5 July 2024. [6]
No. | Player | Position | Career | No. retirement |
---|---|---|---|---|
4 | Marco Klöti [7] | D | 1992–2007 | – |
7 | Peter Schlagenhauf | RW | 1969–1994 | – |
20 | Reto Pavoni | G | 1986–2002 | – |
21 | Roman Wäger | LW | 1980–1999 | – |
22 | Victor Stancescu | LW | 2001–2016 | – |
24 | Felix Hollenstein | RW | 1985–2002 | – |
26 | Mikael Johansson | C | 1992–1997 | – |
32 | Anders Eldebrink | D | 1990–1995 | – |
The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and is the top tier of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2018–19 season, the league had an average of 6,949 spectators per game which is the highest among European leagues. The capital city's club SC Bern has been ranked first of all European clubs for 18 seasons and had an average attendance of 16,290 after the regular season. The ZSC Lions are another club in the top ten of European ice hockey attendance, ranking seventh with 9,694 spectators.
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Anders Karl Daniel Eldebrink is a Swedish former ice hockey defenceman who played in the SEL in the 1970s and 1980s. He also played 165 games for the Swedish national team.
Sean Simpson is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former professional ice hockey player. He last served as head coach of Adler Mannheim in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) in Germany.
Felix Hollenstein is a former Swiss ice hockey player, who became four times Swiss champion with the EHC Kloten in the Nationalliga A. In his career, Hollenstein played 650 matches in the NLA and 131 for Switzerland men's national ice hockey team, where he scored 47 goals.
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William "Will" Petschenig is a retired Canadian-Swiss professional ice hockey defenseman. Among the professional teams he played for are EHC Biel and Genève-Servette HC of the National League (NL) as well as HC La Chaux-de-Fonds of the Swiss League (SL).
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Vincent Praplan is a Swiss professional ice hockey forward who is currently playing for Genève-Servette HC of the National League (NL).
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Deniss Smirnovs is a Latvian professional ice hockey centre for EHC Kloten of the National League (NL). He previously played with Genève-Servette HC and won a NL title with the team in 2023.
Kay Schweri is a Swiss professional ice hockey right winger who is currently playing with HC La Chaux-de-Fonds of the Swiss League (SL). He previously played with EHC Kloten, Genève-Servette HC, the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, the SCL Tigers and HC Ajoie.