2025 Wjc Switzerland Roster Talk

[Manster]

Bayer is a scumbag and a bastard of the worst. There is really not one good word I have left for this prick. It is a shame that he is HC of GCK, the place where you are supposed to teach young men and prepare them for life, and not destroy their characters.

 

[Speyer]

Bayer is a scumbag and a bastard of the worst. There is really not one good word I have left for this prick. It is a shame that he is HC of GCK, the place where you are supposed to teach young men and prepare them for life, and not destroy their characters.

Bayer now promoted to interim ZSC coach as Crawford steps down. What a time to be alive…

 

[Manster]

Oh boy! Everytime you think it can’t get worse…

 

[Hinterland]

Oh boy! Everytime you think it can’t get worse…

Bayer can't win anything in this situation though. Even if he somehow wins the title it will always belong to Crawford. That's gonna be the public opinion at least. Crawford was just too successful. Bayer can only lose.

 

[Manster]

And that is exactly what he is: a loser.

 

[Speyer]

Bayer can't win anything in this situation though. Even if he somehow wins the title it will always belong to Crawford. That's gonna be the public opinion at least. Crawford was just too successful. Bayer can only lose.

I mean the regular season is one thing, the playoffs are a whole other animal. I would imagine he could get some credit if he (or rahter his players) could somehow pull a title win off no mather how much of an iconic figure Crawford was. Even if he holds on to Crawfords system. He might just fall into obscurity too though just as Leuenberger did after his title win in Bern. In any case I just can't imagine a scenario where this guy has sustained success as a pro hockey coach.

@Manster: do you know him personally? You seem to hold quite a grudge

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Anything worth watching in Kimo Gruber? Played in Oshawa two years ago.

Not a lot of points in men's play but in watching Switzerland's game with Sweden he seems willing to play in hard areas.

 

[Speyer]

Anything worth watching in Kimo Gruber? Played in Oshawa two years ago.

Not a lot of points in men's play but in watching Switzerland's game with Sweden he seems willing to play in hard areas.

Used to be a two way forward with above average talent for our standards up until age 16. After that his offensive game started to stagnate. A terrible campaign in the OHL certainly didn't help his development either in that regard. He was able to round out his defensive game there though and plays with quite a bit of grit now. Has not a bad frame for that style of play either. Still has some offensive tools too. Particularly his wrist shot is pretty good as shown in his PP goal in the game vs Sweden. Seems to have found his footing again to some degree in Zürich. 0.5 PPG isn't terrible for a 19 year old in the SL especially since he is trending upwards from last season. If you ask me if he has NHL upside as a bottom six player my answer would be most likely no at this point.

 

[Kuracmugger]

I didn‘t complain about coaches a lot before but i really think that it is partly the fault of jenni that the tournament has gone the way it has. The roster decisions are just bad. I can‘t get behind leaving ustinkov out and then playing Häfliger, Neuenschwander should be in Biel and leaving out steiner in the qf. Line combinations are bad and changing them every time is dumb. He‘s not responsible for bad goaltending but i would‘ve given huet atleast a look he played last year and didn‘t look that bad as far as i can remember. I think the roster would’ve been capable of beating slovakia and czechia if coached better. The 06 generation was highly touted and i am still optimistic about next year but the goalies need to step up. Paterlini would have been perfect or just anybody who can coach young men, i think a foreigner would even help since we don‘t seem to have a good swiss coach available. I find it funny that we are to arrogant to have foreign coaches for our junior NT when arguably all the best coaches in our league are foreigners we‘re just not there yet as a nation.

 

[jonas2244]

I'm also not the first one to criticize coaches but I agreee here, coaching staff was the worst part of the team.

There is certainly some potential in Kirsch and Neuenschwander, they should get their time to develop. Goalies sometime just need more time, there are plenty of examples. Don't think that there is an NHL-upside tough.

 

[PanniniClaus]

I'm also not the first one to criticize coaches but I agreee here, coaching staff was the worst part of the team.

There is certainly some potential in Kirsch and Neuenschwander, they should get their time to develop. Goalies sometime just need more time, there are plenty of examples. Don't think that there is an NHL-upside tough.

My take on these two:

1. Kirsch has size and athleticism.. He lacks some basic technique which perhaps he can solve while playing US College. If he can, he could be one of the best Swiss goaltenders. Emphasis on could.
2. Neunschwander - has size. Not athletic and has poor technique. Unless he becomes a JS Giguere blocking machine, with great defense and improves his technique... I see a goalie for the SL.. not NLA material.

 

[Kuracmugger]

My take on these two:

1. Kirsch has size and athleticism.. He lacks some basic technique which perhaps he can solve while playing US College. If he can, he could be one of the best Swiss goaltenders. Emphasis on could.
2. Neunschwander - has size. Not athletic and has poor technique. Unless he becomes a JS Giguere blocking machine, with great defense and improves his technique... I see a goalie for the SL.. not NLA material.

Kirsch seems more talented but i am no goalie expert

 

[Hinterland]

I didn‘t complain about coaches a lot before but i really think that it is partly the fault of jenni that the tournament has gone the way it has. The roster decisions are just bad. I can‘t get behind leaving ustinkov out and then playing Häfliger, Neuenschwander should be in Biel and leaving out steiner in the qf. Line combinations are bad and changing them every time is dumb. He‘s not responsible for bad goaltending but i would‘ve given huet atleast a look he played last year and didn‘t look that bad as far as i can remember. I think the roster would’ve been capable of beating slovakia and czechia if coached better. The 06 generation was highly touted and i am still optimistic about next year but the goalies need to step up. Paterlini would have been perfect or just anybody who can coach young men, i think a foreigner would even help since we don‘t seem to have a good swiss coach available. I find it funny that we are to arrogant to have foreign coaches for our junior NT when arguably all the best coaches in our league are foreigners we‘re just not there yet as a nation.

It's not partly Jenni's fault. It's all his fault.


- Neuenschwander should have played line 1 in Biel. His trip to Ottawa was a waste of time.
- I don't think the goalies were the problems at all but Santo Simmchen should have been on the roster. He's been solid for both Chur and Zug this season and he was standing on his head at the five nations in November I think it was. He earned a spot.
- Gian Meier should have been on the roster and Nic Balestra should have been given regular ice time. I'm not a fan of asking defensemen to play their off side. That may work against lesser competition but elite talent is gonna exploit that. Also, Balestra and Meier are better and more skilled than other defensemen on the roster.
- Muggli/Bünzli should have been benched and scratched midway through the Slovakia game the latest. If it was me coaching I probaby would have sent them home during the 2nd intermission. They were the weak links and they weren't even trying. Their effort level was mostly improved in the other games but otherwise it was just much of the same. They were the worst players of the team by a mile and Jenni kept on sending that pairing out there to play big minutes. There's no excuse for that.
- Scratching Steiner and starting Kirsch vs the US was dumb. Didn't matter though... because of the Muggli/Bünzli pairing they would have lost anyway.
- Ice times as dumb as it gets as well. There were just three players south of 10mins vs the US and we're talking about three of the most gifted forwards. Jonah Neuenschwander, Jan Dorthe and Rafael Meier. On the other side, plug Alain Graf played almost 17mins. There's no excuse for that. And it's just one example from one game. Ice times never made any sense.



We could probably hire some random dudes from the streets and we'd get better coaching...even if they never played or watched ice hockey before. That's how dumb Marcel Jenni is. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing. He's a grade a moron. If he doesn't get fired for that tournament then it's probably never gonna happen.

 

[Pieck]

I didn’t get to watch the quarterfinal but it definitely feels like this team underperformed and was capable of doing much better in every single game. I didn’t think much of all the coaching criticism in the past but it really seemed to have an effect this year

The returnees in net and on defense should be a good start for next year. Don’t know if it’s realistic to expect a forward group as deep as this one any time soon but maybe Steiner or even J. Neuenschwander take that next step and lead the way, which is apparently more important than depth in this tournament

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

From an outsider perspective, you guys had about your average tournament. And you did so without a lot of draft picks and also with a younger team. It should be better next year and probably even better the year after that. I wouldn’t be discouraged. It could’ve been a lot worse.

 

[Namejs]

Reber playing on the 4th line was a head scratcher. The kid has made it at a level most players at the WJC won't ever sniff in their careers. Over 0.50 ppg in SHL is a massive achievement for an 18 year old. Edstrom and Nilsson have the same numbers and they're playing on the Swedish top 6.

That seemed like blatant player mismanagement.

 

[Hinterland]

Reber playing on the 4th line was a head scratcher. The kid has made it at a level most players at the WJC won't ever sniff in their careers. Over 0.50 ppg in SHL is a massive achievement for an 18 year old. Edstrom and Nilsson have the same numbers and they're playing on the Swedish top 6.

That seemed like blatant player mismanagement.

Agreed. One of many though. The entire team was mismanaged.

From an outsider perspective, you guys had about your average tournament. And you did so without a lot of draft picks and also with a younger team. It should be better next year and probably even better the year after that. I wouldn’t be discouraged. It could’ve been a lot worse.

Couldn't have been any worse. I never coached hockey at any level but I couldn't possibly do any worse than Jenni even if I wanted to. He's that dumb. The problem is that other SIHF coaches aren't much better than Jenni...if at all. Therefore, nothing is gonna change. Even if they fire Jenni, some other dumbass is gonna take his place. SIHF house cleaning needed but with the most recent development that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

 

[Speyer]

Agreed. One of many though. The entire team was mismanaged.





Couldn't have been any worse. I never coached hockey at any level but I couldn't possibly do any worse than Jenni even if I wanted to. He's that dumb. The problem is that other SIHF coaches aren't much better than Jenni...if at all. Therefore, nothing is gonna change. Even if they fire Jenni, some other dumbass is gonna take his place. SIHF house cleaning needed but with the most recent development that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

Whats really weird with Jenni is that he seems to put way to much stake on "factors" such as players characters and "intangibles". Players that he likes for that reason (or because of some other bias) are given a more prominent spot in the line up over guys that are objectively more talented. The most blatant examples of this at the WJC were Graf and to a lesser extent Endo Meier. Graf is a decent fourth line center but putting him on the first line to generate offense is insane.

On the flip side you have the objectively most talented forwards in Reber and Steiner on the third or fourth line (or scratched). And Gian Meier who has made huge strides all season gets cut from the roster for someone like Häfliger. He also once left Kimo Gruber of the u18 team once for "character reasons", when he, Gruber, was still considered by far the best forward of the 05 class. And this is not something I am making up here. He actually admitted to this approach in several interviews he gave in the last couple of years.

This just reminds me of how Fischer handles the senior team with his esoteric mumbo jumbo and clear bias for (Ambühl) or against (Bichsel) certain players. A lot of parallels between the junior teams and the senior team in general which is clearly by design. Same skating based system that won't provide goals when it matters the most (unless NHL players or notable junior players like Dionicio are available). Same inability to find the right lines where players actually have chemistry together. Same tendency to shake up those lines because of that lack of chemistry just to make things even worse. Then a over complicated PP approach that should be streamlined to better accomodate the actual talent level of the team in question (sometimes works on the senior team if enough raw talent is awailable).

Paterlini had it figured. He wanted to adjust strategy, tactics and roster selection every year time anew to accomodate his players strenghts and weaknesses and get the best possible results. We all knew how that turned out for him. Every U20 coach since then has been a yes man to Weibel and Fischer and implimented the system and culture of the senior team.

If anybody still thinks those two aren't running the SIHF from top to bottom they really need to look again at how the Schärer "firing" went down. So I agree with Hinterland here. As long as there is no complete house cleaing in the federation I don't expect any significant improvement in the areas mentioned. But with the recent silver medal at the WC I expect the easily pleasable swiss fandom and press to give them a free ride until they reach retirement age. Or at least until the better part of our NHL players has fallen of and they can finally see the facts.

 

[jonas2244]

TBH I was also sceptical about Ambühl, but he delivered again.

Our offensive euro-core is in his 30-ies. Corvi, Haas, Andrighetto, Scherwey.

I can see Fischer retiring after the WC 2026 because he knows he'll have a hard time getting the results like this year with this players missing. On D we have quite a few promising players which can get to a level like Kukan or Glauser, but on Offense, I doubt that. Haas played NHL, Andrighetto did, Corvi maybe could have done so, those coming right now are nowhere near that.

But yeah, as long as Weibel is there, no way of any change.

 

[Nick25]

There’s new news about the Swiss U20 national team: Jenni has been demoted to assistant coach , and Jan Cadieux is now the head coach.
Sorry i only found the article in german.

News National Teams

Do you think it’s a good choice to hire Cadieux? I read somewhere that the SIHF where interviewing both Cadieux and Gianinazzi, but apparently Cadieux came out on top.

​

 

[Hinterland]

There’s new news about the Swiss U20 national team: Jenni has been demoted to assistant coach , and Jan Cadieux is now the head coach.
Sorry i only found the article in german.

News National Teams

Do you think it’s a good choice to hire Cadieux? I read somewhere that the SIHF where interviewing both Cadieux and Gianinazzi, but apparently Cadieux came out on top.

​

Everybody is better than Jenni, honestly. That fool shouldn't even be assistant coach.

I like both of those guys. Cadieux is a step in the right direction but as long as clowns like Weibel or Fischer are still with the SIHF I'm not sure a lot is gonna change. We'll see I guess.

 

[Speyer]

Everybody is better than Jenni, honestly. That fool shouldn't even be assistant coach.

I like both of those guys. Cadieux is a step in the right direction but as long as clowns like Weibel or Fischer are still with the SIHF I'm not sure a lot is gonna change. We'll see I guess.

Still weird that Jenni got demoted though. I mean the team underachieved in the last WJC but its not like this hasnt happened before. As long as you are good pals with Fischi and Lasse results didnt seem to matter much. This was noticeable in Bayers terrible tenure and in Paterlinis "firing". So maybe something happened between Jenni and the brass? Or maybe his lack of competence was even to much to handle for them. Whatever the reason was, I take it.