On Saturday night in Winnipeg, Nino Niederreiter will become the 416th player in NHL history \u2014 and first Swiss player ever \u2014 to play 1,000 regular-season games. That\u2019s rare air in a league that\u2019s seen 8,757 players play at least one game in the regular season or playoffs.<\/p>\n
Niederreiter\u2019s path to the milestone is even more unique.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old, described by his teammates as \u201can international man of mystery,\u201d has one of the most diverse sets of interests you\u2019ll find on any person \u2014 let alone a hockey player about to make history for his country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a video on Jets social media the other day and they were asking guys what they know the most about outside of hockey. Nino said something along the lines of, \u2018I have a lot of different interests,’\u201d Josh Morrissey told The Athletic.\u00a0\u201cI would corroborate that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niederreiter\u2019s extracurricular activities are legendary among his teammates. Social events with Roger Federer. Ski vacations in the Alps. Interest in wineries, visits with Formula 1 racing crews, and \u2014 yes \u2014 that time in 2015 when he took a flight, strapped to a chair<\/a> on the wings of a 1940s open-cockpit Boeing Stearman biplane.<\/p>\n \u201cScared to death,\u201d Niederreiter said to Michael Russo at the time.<\/p>\n The Niederreiter story \u2014 how he got from the Swiss mountain city of Chur to 1,000 games in the NHL \u2014 is one of the most unique routes a hockey player has taken to the milestone.<\/p>\n Describing his hometown of Chur, Switzerland to The Players Tribune in 2015, Niederreiter said, \u201cPicture cobblestone roads, snow-covered rooftops, and two massive mountains on either side.\u201d<\/p>\n It was an idyllic place from which to fall in love with hockey.<\/p>\n A group of Niederreiter\u2019s friends took him to a local EHC Chur game in the Swiss B league, where he was struck by the play of Latvian centre Harijs Vitolins. He was on the ice himself the next day, learning to skate, Vitolins as his idol. Niederreiter\u2019s father, Rene, was a steelworker, which meant a makeshift outdoor rink at the Niederreiter household \u2014 complete with a regulation net built out of iron piping.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came from a lower middle-class family, but nothing was missed in my childhood,\u201d Niederreiter told The Athletic. \u201cI remember my mom was always sad when my stick broke, so I never break a stick, even to this day, by being mad and frustrated. I know how much my mom had to suffer at home because she knew how expensive they were.\u201d<\/p>\n Niederreiter\u2019s mom, Ruth, worked as a midwife. Her brother was a weightlifter who got Niederreiter onto strength training early in life. By the time he was a teenager, Niederreiter starred for the EHC Chur youth team, an unstoppable offensive force. At 15, he scored a point per game for HC Davos in the Swiss elite Junior A program. It soon became clear the NHL was a possibility for Niederreiter, just like it had been for his idol, Vitolins, so he left his mom, dad, and two sisters to try playing WHL hockey for Portland.<\/p>\n Niederreiter was a great fit, scoring 77 goals over the course of 120 WHL games on a team that featured Ryan Johansen, Sven Baertschi, and Ty Rattie. But it was a World Juniors game in 2010 \u2014 Niederreiter\u2019s first full season in North America \u2014 where he announced himself to the whole world. Niederreiter propelled the Swiss past a heavily favoured Russian team, tying the game with 32.3 seconds left and the Swiss net empty, then scoring the game-winning goal with 14.2 seconds left in overtime.<\/p>\n Niederreiter was drafted fifth by the New York Islanders in 2010. He played 64 of his NHL games with that organization before getting traded to Minnesota. He played 434 of his 1,000 games for the Wild, covered by Michael Russo \u2014 first, for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and then for The Athletic<\/p>\n It\u2019s the 25th anniversary of the Minnesota Wild, so back in September before an exhibition game in Saint Paul, I went down to the locker room to chat with Niederreiter about the most exciting game I\u2019ve covered in 31 years as an NHL beat writer and the second-biggest goal in Wild history. That was Game 7 in Colorado of the 2014 Western Conference quarterfinals when the Wild rallied from a one-goal deficit four different times \u2013 the last being Niederreiter winning a board battle to set up Jared Spurgeon\u2019s overtime-forcing goal \u2013 before Niederreiter scored the series-clinching winner in OT with an incredible back-bar ringing wrister while streaking down the right wing at the Pepsi Center.<\/p>\n But I first caught up with Niederreiter on so many other fun things in his life, like his love of tennis and Roger Federer and the Swiss watchmaker Breitling\u2019s \u201cTransatlantic Flyers Club\u201d \u2013 an exclusive group that Nino\u2019s long belonged to. Nino\u2019s done everything from sky diving to jumping on the front seat of a race plane to \u201cWing Walking.\u201d<\/p>\n In the summer of 2015, Niederreiter was strapped to the upper wing of a 1940s open-cockpit Boeing Stearman biplane with 450-horsepower engines. Seated on a chair attached to a pole, he soared down the runway, took off and was exposed to the cold air while flying over the Alps at roughly 130 miles per hour at what he said was a \u201cvery high\u201d altitude.<\/p>\n While he told me it wasn\u2019t very comfortable, he swore to me it was \u201csafe\u201d in a 2015 profile I wrote on him in the Star Tribune. What Niederreiter and I laughed about in that September trip down memory lane is how my article actually got him in trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cI still remember the phone call from (then-GM) Chuck Fletcher that said, \u2018I think it\u2019s better if you keep yourself on the ground, please!\u201d Niederreiter said, laughing.<\/p>\n In my many years covering this incredible sport, Niederreiter has long been one of my favorites. Besides being a great hockey player, he\u2019s a colorful figure, as nice as can be and one terrific human being.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one story that will always touch me and speaks to Niederreiter\u2019s heart. In 2014, I watched on the news a sweet story about a 10-year-old named Nino Johnson from Maplewood, Minn., who saved the life of his grandfather, Pino, while he was drowning in a backyard pool. I thought it was cool that this kid was also named Nino, so I texted it to Niederreiter. Little did I know that Niederreiter was going to have somebody track down the boy so he could send him a note.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what Niederreiter wrote:<\/p>\n Dear Nino,<\/p>\n Though I am nearly 4,000 miles away in Switzerland, I saw a story on\u00a0wcco.com\u00a0last week about a 10-year old boy in Minnesota named Nino who rescued his grandfather in their backyard pool. I thought\u00a0that was pretty cool, so I wanted to contact you directly to offer my congratulations. I\u2019m sure your family is very proud of you.<\/p>\n I\u00a0would like to congratulate you in person and am hoping you and your family will be my guest at training camp in September. I think it would be awesome to meet you after practice and give you an autographed jersey, from one Nino to another.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll be in touch later this summer. Until then, enjoy your summer and I look forward to meeting you at Xcel Energy Center in September.<\/p>\n All the best,<\/p>\n Nino Niederreiter<\/p>\n What a gem of a person. Congrats, Nino, on 1,000 games. It was an honor and pleasure to cover a small part of your incredible career.<\/p>\n \u2013Michael Russo, The Athletic<\/p>\n In some ways, Niederreiter\u2019s 1,000th game is a full-circle moment. Before joining EHC Chur and inspiring Niederreiter to fall in love with hockey, Vitolins had made it all the way to the NHL, playing eight games for the 1993-94 Jets.<\/p>\n Vitolins, now the head coach of the Latvian men\u2019s hockey team headed to the Olympics, said it\u2019s a pleasant coincidence that Niederreiter plays for the only NHL team he played for.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel truly honored that I was able to inspire Nino to play hockey, and I am very proud of him,\u201d Vitolins said. \u201cI believe the entire nation of Switzerland \u2026 is proud as well to see him reach the milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Jets acquired Niederreiter from Nashville for a second-round pick in 2023, it was part of one of the best runs of Kevin Cheveldayoff\u2019s GM tenure. It also connected Niederreiter to the only NHL team his childhood idol played for.<\/p>\n Perhaps it was a sign of a contract extension to come. Maybe it was a normal thing for someone raised in the Swiss mountains to say.<\/p>\n But Niederreiter\u2019s first impression of Winnipeg, speaking to Jets senior director of communications, Scott Brown, was that Winnipeg wasn\u2019t all that cold.<\/p>\n Niederreiter has been a great on-ice fit in Winnipeg, adding a net-driving presence to Adam Lowry\u2019s shutdown line. His commitment to backtracking, taking away lanes from teams who try to attack the Jets in transition, is the sign of a veteran who knows that hard work wins hockey games.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a great teammate,\u201d said Sam Gagner, the last player to reach 1,000 game milestone wearing a Jets jersey. \u201cVery hardworking and committed. (He) has a ton of respect around the league because he works and plays honest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone\u2019s taught to box out,\u201d Rick Bowness said of Niederreiter when he was head coach. \u201cDon\u2019t let guys get to the net. Well, Nino\u2019s strong enough when there is opposition to fight his way through that \u2026 Regardless of who he\u2019s up against, he gets there.\u201d<\/p>\n Off the ice, Niederreiter is appreciated by his teammates for his combination of worldliness and playfulness. He\u2019s a noted prankster. Multiple teammates confided that they\u2019ve found random avocados, airplane menus, or silverware in their gear as a result of Niederreiter\u2019s silly streak.<\/p>\n 3,454 metres above sea level \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udded\ud83d\uddfb
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Nino Niederreiter, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Nico Hischier all took part in the World\u2019s Highest Hockey Game at Jungfraujoch in Switzerland earlier this week \u2013 the highest accessible point in Europe!
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\ud83d\udcf8: https:\/\/t.co\/mEkOHqRL16<\/a> \/ Jonas\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/VNmhjOLgKH<\/a><\/p>\n