From Tuesday evening, the puck will be flying in Switzerland! New coaches, spectacular transfers and an ever-growing audience are fuelling the anticipation of an extraordinary National League season. blue Sport gives you an overview.

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The 2025/2026 National League season starts on September 9.blue Sport gives you an overview of the mode, the new coaches and the new import players.

Who will make the playoffs? Who is at risk of relegation? Which new import player will impress? Watch the video to find out Reto Suri’s assessment, who has 850 National League appearances under his belt.

Four full rounds will be played in the 14-team qualifiers, meaning all clubs will play 52 games. The top six teams after the regular season advance to the play-off quarter-finals (best of 7). The teams in 7th to 10th place play a so-called “play-in”.

The seventh-placed team takes on the eighth-placed team, with the winner of the first and second leg also progressing to the play-offs. The loser of this duel gets another chance against the winner of the pairing of 9th place against 10th place. The two teams in last place take part in the relegation play-offs (best of 7), while the loser has to defend its place in the National League in the league qualifier against the Swiss League champion. For the teams in 11th and 12th place, the season ends after the qualifiers.

As defending champions and winners of the Champions Hockey League, the ZSC Lions are the hunted. The squad has only been changed selectively. It will be interesting to see whether Marco Bayer, in his first full season as head coach in Switzerland’s top league, manages to keep the squad, which features numerous internationally experienced players, on course.

With a third title in a row, the Zurich team would achieve something that only HC Lugano (1986 to 1988) and EHC Kloten have managed in the almost 40-year playoff era. The cantonal rivals even triumphed four times in a row from 1993 to 1996.

The competition certainly seems to be ready – especially Lausanne. The Vaud team recently had to admit defeat to the Lions twice in the play-off final and are hungry for the first championship title in the club’s history. Fribourg-Gottéron is also aiming for this premiere. Zug, Bern, record champions Davos and Genève-Servette, the 2023 champions, also want to have a say in the title race.

Three clubs with a new head coach

A breath of fresh air is blowing at the helm in Zug, Fribourg and Lugano this season. The best-known of the three new head coaches is undoubtedly Roger Rönnberg. The Swede won two championship titles and four Champions Hockey League titles with Frölunda. Now he is to lead Fribourg-Gottéron to their long-awaited first championship title. His predecessor Lars Leuenberger, who took over shortly before Christmas after a turbulent start to the season and led the team first to win the Spengler Cup and then to the play-off semi-finals, will remain with the club as assistant.

The 1st round on Tuesday evening from 7.45 pm

HC Ambri-Piotta vs. EHC KlotenHC Davos vs. Lausanne HCFribourg-Gottéron vs. HC LuganoGenève-Servette HC vs. HC AjoieSC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers vs. SCL TigersZSC Lions vs. EHC Biel-BienneEV Zug vs. SC Bern

There is an opposite role change in Zug: Michael Liniger takes over from Dan Tangnes. Under the 2021 and 2022 champion coach, EVZ always reached at least the playoff semi-finals in seven years – until last season’s disappointing campaign.

In Lugano, those responsible are once again focusing on a fresh start with the signing of Swede Tomas Mitell. Since the last championship title in 2006 under Harold Kreis, 18 coaches have been at the helm of the South Ticino team. Last spring, Lugano was only able to secure league survival in the relegation play-off against Ajoie.

Ajoie and the eternal red lantern

For the fourth time in a row, the National League is starting the season with the same 14 teams. Ajoie hopes to finally shed the red lantern. Since promotion in 2021, the Jura club has consistently finished in last place. Kloten has proven that things can be different. The Zurich lowlanders, who were promoted to the top division one year after Ajoie and completed the increase to 14 clubs, have since finished 9th, 13th and most recently 7th.

Despite this positive development, the team was significantly rebuilt for the new season. In addition to a number of young talents with great potential, five new foreigners have joined the squad. This is only topped by Servette. The Geneva team signed six new import players. They missed the playoffs twice in a row after their 2023 championship premiere.

NHL power in all parts of the country

While ZSC championship-winning forwards Juho Lammikko and Vinzenz Rohrer left Switzerland for the NHL, other players took the opposite route. Servette, for example, will be able to count on the services of Czech defenseman Jan Rutta – a two-time Stanley Cup winner. Lugano has also signed American forward Zach Sanford, a former winner of the most coveted team trophy in ice hockey.

Swiss champions since 2010

2010: SC Bern2011: HC Davos2012: ZSC Lions2013: SC Bern2014: ZSC Lions2015: HC Davos2016: SC Bern2017: SC Bern2018: ZSC Lions2019: SC Bern2021: EV Zug2022: EV Zug2023: Genève-Servette HC2024: ZSC Lions2025: ZSC Lions

Zug landed a real transfer coup with the signing of Tomas Tatar. The 34-year-old Slovakian played almost 1000 games in 14 NHL seasons and collected over 500 points. Lausanne’s signing of Austin Czarnik was probably the most sensational transfer in the league. The top scorer of the last qualifying campaign comes from SC Bern.

With Damien Brunner (Biel), Andres Ambühl and Marc Wieser (both Davos), Joël Genazzi (Lausanne), Arnaud Jacquemet (Servette) and Pascal Berger (SCL Tigers), several influential figures in Swiss ice hockey hung up their skates this spring. Record international Ambühl in particular leaves a big gap at the HCD.

Following the retirement of the 41-year-old Grisons native, Julien Sprunger is now the longest-serving player in the league. The former international, who will turn 40 in January, has never played for a team other than HC Fribourg-Gottéron in his entire career. He has led his colors as captain since 2014 – and was able to lift the first trophy with his beloved club last season by winning the Spengler Cup. Now only one question remains: will Sprunger fulfill his dream of winning his first championship title before the end of his career?

In the last qualifying campaign, 2.68 million spectators flocked to the 14 National League stadiums – more than ever before. This time there are 16 full rounds on the calendar, each with seven matches played in parallel.

In addition, 23 games will take place on Sunday afternoons under the motto “Family Games”. The aim is to attract children and families to the stadium. The success of the national team, which has recently reached the World Cup final twice, as well as the upcoming home World Cup could further fuel the spectator boom.

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