How hard is it to play in the swiss national league

[ZombieAttack27 1]

Just like the topic says... what level of US professional hockey would compare to like an SC Bern type team?

[BarDownGinos 3]

Unless you have a Swiss passport....AHL minimum. There are always exceptions but, across the board the Swiss pro league is the most difficult to get into. They pay well for a Euro league, they're stable, and it's Switzerland, you can't pick a much nicer place. The Swiss are also an extremely xenophobic group of people. You have to bring something super special to the table to dislodge a natural born Swiss player from a roster spot.

Looking at their current roster they have 21 Swiss, 5 Canadians, 1 Frenchman and 1 Swiss born Dutchman. All of their Canadian players have lengthy NHL experience or were AHL All-Stars.

[raganblink 82]

Most europe leagues also have maximums on how many 'foriengers' you can have on your team. Usually it is national based, sometimes just limited to non-EU.

If you couldn't play AHL right now forget about it. A lower division would be more suitable, or a slightly more obscure country in Europe for puck.

I have a friend who is playing in the German top league.. he is ex-AHL/mainly ECHL career. He is one of the better defensemen (top 20) in the league.

[greech 4]

Have a few buddies playing in Europe, I'll echo what has been said. If you can't make an AHL roster, try and go somewhere more obscure. These guys aren't 4th line scrubs, either, more like40+ points a year in the American League type players. But if you can make it, the lifestyle over there beats anything you can realistically find short of the show.

[BoDangles 0]

It's not even just the well known leagues like the Swiss and Swedish leagues that are like that. My cousin played 2 years of AHL on second D pairings in both Providence and Peoria (hope that's spelled correctly) along with ECHL and NCAA D1 experience and he is now playing in the high level German league (not sure the name of it).

I sometimes wonder if the European leagues really get the respect they deserve from North Americans.

[dw91 0]

It's not even just the well known leagues like the Swiss and Swedish leagues that are like that. My cousin played 2 years of AHL on second D pairings in both Providence and Peoria (hope that's spelled correctly) along with ECHL and NCAA D1 experience and he is now playing in the high level German league (not sure the name of it).

I sometimes wonder if the European leagues really get the respect they deserve from North Americans.

Who's your cousin BoDangles? I'm pretty close to Peoria, I've probably heard of him or skated with him at some point. The german first league is the DEL (Deutsche Eliteliga). I agree with you on the lack of respect for European leagues, most of the major ones are on par with the AHL, minus the goons.

[twolinepass 0]

I think one of the problems with the European leagues is the casual hockey fans will see a fringe player go over and put up good numbers and they assume its due to lesser talent.

[BoDangles 0]

Who's your cousin BoDangles? I'm pretty close to Peoria, I've probably heard of him or skated with him at some point. The german first league is the DEL (Deutsche Eliteliga). I agree with you on the lack of respect for European leagues, most of the major ones are on par with the AHL, minus the goons.

Jared Ross. Believe he was only a lender when he was in Peoria.

[dw91 0]

ah, ok. still, small world when it comes to hockey

[BoDangles 0]

Yeah I would say.