The Swiss League begins on Wednesday with the game between Visp and the GCK Lions. La Chaux-de-Fonds is aiming for its third championship title in a row in the second-highest league.
La Chaux-de-Fonds appears to be even stronger on offense than last season and should once again be the team to beat. Due to the outdated infrastructure in their ice arena, the team from Neuchâtel were not allowed to compete in a league qualifier this year. However, a new arena is to be built by 2028 and their ambitions are correspondingly high.
Visp already has good conditions as far as the ice rink is concerned and coach Heinz Ehlers knows what it takes to survive in the top league. The experienced Dane successfully coached Lausanne and the SCL Tigers. In his first season at Visp, however, he was unable to meet the high expectations. The team from Upper Valais only qualified for the play-offs on the last matchday, but at least made it through to the quarter-finals. Now Ehlers has to deliver.
Basel finished last season's qualifiers in a surprising 2nd place, but then fell to Visp in the quarter-finals. Now the team put together by sporting director Kevin Schläpfer is aiming to take the next step. Nevertheless, the Basel team is not applying for promotion. Olten has lost some experience, but benefits from the new partnership with EHC Biel. The GCK Lions, cleverly coached by Marco Bayer, can also be expected to do well again after reaching the final in the spring.
The Bellinzona Snakes (previously the Rockets) appear to be back in last place. In the last qualifying campaign, the Ticino side finished 23 points lower than second-bottom HCV Martigny, who withdrew from the Swiss League. Due to Chur's promotion, however, the league still consists of ten teams. The team from Graubünden, with its prominent coaches Reto and Jan von Arx, wants to make the playoffs with a young team and no foreigners. To do so, they will probably have to leave one of the trio of Sierre, Thurgau and Winterthur behind them.
