F Jonah Neuenschwander - Biel-Bienne, U15-Elit (2027 Draft)

[Hinterland]

Made his debut for EHC Biel-Bienne mens team, playing 2nd line RW. Very impressive for a 15 year old. Assisted on the first goal of the game.

Biel's social media crew has a strange way to list the lines. The official lineup card has them in the correct order.

Neuenschwander played with Sallinen and Heponiemi. That's Biel's topline all day every day. Sallinen and Heponiemi are the forwards playing the heaviest minutes.

 

[Kuracmugger]

He‘s only the 5th u16 Player to play in the NL ever. Let‘s see how he develops…

 

[Hinterland]

He‘s only the 5th u16 Player to play in the NL ever. Let‘s see how he develops…

...and he wasn't just in the lineup. He played 14 minutes with the two imports relied upon to play the toughest shifts. Not against any team but against Lausanne...a team playing for 1st place. Neuenschwander was part of the 2nd PP unit that scored the all important 1st goal as well. Neuenschwander doesn't look like a 15yo either. He's a pretty big kid already.

Hope he gets into more games. He certainly earned more looks.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Swiss might have a first rounder in 2026 and 2027?

 

[BKarchitect]

Does Neuenschwander typically play on the right wing as a left shot (I'm assuming EP is correct there)?

Lots of these very young, high-end Swiss talents seem more like wingers than centers...are the top center prospects like Schenk and Bouvard?

 

[Hinterland]

Does Neuenschwander typically play on the right wing as a left shot (I'm assuming EP is correct there)?

Lots of these very young, high-end Swiss talents seem more like wingers than centers...are the top center prospects like Schenk and Bouvard?

Neuenschwander is very much a Center. He beat out Noé Tarchini, one of the top Swiss 06 born Centers, for the 1C spot on the U20 elite team. Tarchini is a natural Center who's playing C in international games, including last season's WJC18, as well. Tarchini started the season as 1C but was moved to the wing to make space for Neuenschwander.

No team in Europe's top leagues is gonna play a 15yo at Center. I don't know if that ever happened. Surely not in the 1st game. Topline and 2nd PP unit like Neuenschwander is already quite rare for pro debut at the highest level of a 15 yo. I'll be shocked if he gets to play Center in the NL this season. U18 players hardly ever get to play Center at the highest level in Europe. Those aren't development leagues and hockey is a business.

 

[BKarchitect]

Neuenschwander is very much a Center. He beat out Noé Tarchini, one of the top Swiss 06 born Centers, for the 1C spot on the U20 elite team. Tarchini is a natural Center who's playing C in international games, including last season's WJC18, as well. Tarchini started the season as 1C but was moved to the wing to make space for Neuenschwander.

No team in Europe's top leagues is gonna play a 15yo at Center. I don't know if that ever happened. Surely not in the 1st game. Topline and 2nd PP unit like Neuenschwander is already quite rare for pro debut at the highest level of a 15 yo. I'll be shocked if he gets to play Center in the NL this season. U18 players hardly ever get to play Center at the highest level in Europe. Those aren't development leagues and hockey is a business.

Awesome, yeah that makes sense.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Will he be at the World U18’s?

 

[Hinterland]

Will he be at the World U18’s?

I mean he absolutely should. Lars Steiner most certainly won't be there because the Huskies are far too strong this season. Florian Schenk should be there but I'm not sure if it's a given. Besides those two the Swiss 07 forward group is very weak, especially compared to the 06 kids but the 08/09 kids as well.

With Steiner unavailable, Neuenschwander, Domenichelli and the most talented 08 born forwards should all make the WJC18 team.

If previous selections are an indication it's totally not gonna happen though. Head Coach Fabio Schumacher didn't select a single underager for the Hlinka Gretzky and just Clemens Troxler and Fabrice Bouvard for the five nations in Czechia.

 

[Hinterland]

Played 14mins with Heponiemi and Sallinen on the topline again yesterday.

Biel has another game today but I doubt they're gonna play Neuenschwander back to back. Especially since Coach Filander said it's top6 or nothing for Neuenschwander. They're not gonna play him in the bottom six anytime soon. They think he's good/refined enough to play top6 and they don't wanna waste his time by calling him up to play bottom six.

 

[Hinterland]

I was wrong. He's in.

 

[Hinterland]

He didn't score but that was by far his best game. He was head coach Filander's go to guy both on the PP and during the 6vs5 late in the 3rd. Played 18mins and got the best player award back to back away in Davos which is actually one of the longer bus rides for Swiss standards. He's impressive.

 

[frontsfan67]

Playing for Switzerland in the world juniors as a 6’3 181 15 year old

 

[Hinterland]

Playing for Switzerland in the world juniors as a 6’3 181 15 year old

Classic SIHF. As stupid as it gets. They invite 28 players to a camp, plus 11 on the extended roster. Almost 40 players. Still, they later add another player because they watched him play a few NL games.

Don't get me wrong. Neuenschwander is a huge talent. But you can't leave a kid off a 39 man camp roster for a 23 man tournament roster and then add him because of a handful of NL games. Either you think he's good enough or you don't. To top it off the SIHF hasn't even updated the camp roster. It's just Biel announcing Neuenschwander joining the roster. Pathetic. The SIHF is a bad clown show with Mickey Mouse "coaches".

Either way that's a stupid decision. When you have that much depth, this many quality players available for a tournament you have to take into account the club situations. Neuenschwander is playing topline on Biel's NL team. Plus PP. 14mins or more per game. Why would you take him out of that very good situation he's in? Biel is eventually gonna get healthy. Now is Neuenschwander's chance to get his feet wet at the highest level of European pro hockey. That chance probably won't be there anymore once he's back from Ottawa. Similar story for the goalies. They don't select Santo Simmchen who practiced with Zug's NL team all season long. He barely played but when he did he was rock solid. He was standing on his head at the 5 nations during the most recent international break as well. Instead they select Christian Kirsch who has to get his USHL gig back but can't do so while he's playing the WJC20 and they select Ewan Huet who won't be able to beat out Kelton Pyne while he's at the WJC20 either.

It's possible that Neuenschwander can help a team lacking elite talent but if they wanted to add a forward to camp roster then players with big roles in the CHL like Körbler or Bosson would have been better choices. The same goes for Neuenschwander's teammate Nolan Cattin who has more experience playing at a higher level.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If he and Steiner both make it the Swiss will have a team people want to watch.

 

[Kuracmugger]

If he and Steiner both make it the Swiss will have a team people want to watch.

I don‘t think he‘ll be there. We have many experienced 05 and 06 guys who played even more pro hockey than him, however we lack the elite offensive skill so maybe they take him as 13th forward for the PP but i would be surprised if he‘s there. He can still play in 4 wjc‘s and is 15 years old after all.

 

[Hinterland]

I don‘t think he‘ll be there. We have many experienced 05 and 06 guys who played even more pro hockey than him, however we lack the elite offensive skill so maybe they take him as 13th forward for the PP but i would be surprised if he‘s there. He can still play in 4 wjc‘s and is 15 years old after all.

Well. Now he's in camp he has to be on the team. Taking away his opportunity to hold onto his NL 1st line spot by asking him to play a WJC20 aged 15 is dumb enough but doing it just for him to attend a camp would be beyond outrageous. Unacceptable. He's gonna be there. Should he be there? Absolutely not. Swiss forward depth is insane and he's not better than other players available. If it wasn't for him holding down an NL topline spot I'd say you could justify playing him in the upcoming WJC20. He has the talent and is mature enough to make an impact at that level despite being just 15 years of age. Do I think he's gonna be a standout and play heavy minutes? Absolutely not. Like I said, overall he's currently not better than his competition for forward slots. Which is why he should be playing NL, not the WJC20. As you said, he's gonna play plenty of WJC's anyway.

 

[Kuracmugger]

Well. Now he's in camp he has to be on the team. Taking away his opportunity to hold onto his NL 1st line spot by asking him to play a WJC20 aged 15 is dumb enough but doing it just for him to attend a camp would be beyond outrageous. Unacceptable. He's gonna be there. Should he be there? Absolutely not. Swiss forward depth is insane and he's not better than other players available. If it wasn't for him holding down an NL topline spot I'd say you could justify playing him in the upcoming WJC20. He has the talent and is mature enough to make an impact at that level despite being just 15 years of age. Do I think he's gonna be a standout and play heavy minutes? Absolutely not. Like I said, overall he's currently not better than his competition for forward slots. Which is why he should be playing NL, not the WJC20. As you said, he's gonna play plenty of WJC's anyway.

Agree that he shouldn‘t be there simply because of the pressure this is gonna put on his shoulders if he‘s the youngest swiss WJC Player ever. I don‘t know if he‘s gonna make the final cut, he would‘ve probably lost the 1st line spot sooner or later when players return but i agree he would be better off staying with Biel. They‘re gonna cut him IMO but we‘ll see…

 

[Speyer]

Well. Now he's in camp he has to be on the team. Taking away his opportunity to hold onto his NL 1st line spot by asking him to play a WJC20 aged 15 is dumb enough but doing it just for him to attend a camp would be beyond outrageous. Unacceptable. He's gonna be there. Should he be there? Absolutely not. Swiss forward depth is insane and he's not better than other players available. If it wasn't for him holding down an NL topline spot I'd say you could justify playing him in the upcoming WJC20. He has the talent and is mature enough to make an impact at that level despite being just 15 years of age. Do I think he's gonna be a standout and play heavy minutes? Absolutely not. Like I said, overall he's currently not better than his competition for forward slots. Which is why he should be playing NL, not the WJC20. As you said, he's gonna play plenty of WJC's anyway.

I completely agree with this. It doesn't make any sense to take Neuenschwander to the tournament just to let him play very limited minutes. Players his age wont contriubute much to the overall team performance anyway no matter how talented they are. You could see this with Hischiers first WJC where he was even over a year older than Neuenschwander is now.

All you do is taking a very young player out of his enviroment and take unnecessary strain on him with jetlag etc. Just so that fans and TSN can hype him up a little? Or maybe the federation wants to brush over their miserable work from the last few years by pointing out that we have legit prospects again in the forseeable future. All this is gonna do is Neuenschwander potentially losing his spot on Biels first team. Just like it happened with Nussbaumer when he made the WJC as a 16 year old. Soon after he seriously started to stagnete. Not saying losing his spot was the only reason for that. But it certainly didn't help either.

 

[Hinterland]

I completely agree with this. It doesn't make any sense to take Neuenschwander to the tournament just to let him play very limited minutes. Players his age wont contriubute much to the overall team performance anyway no matter how talented they are. You could see this with Hischiers first WJC where he was even over a year older than Neuenschwander is now.

All you do is taking a very young player out of his enviroment and take unnecessary strain on him with jetlag etc. Just so that fans and TSN can hype him up a little? Or maybe the federation wants to brush over their miserable work from the last few years by pointing out that we have legit prospects again in the forseeable future. All this is gonna do is Neuenschwander potentially losing his spot on Biels first team. Just like it happened with Nussbaumer when he made the WJC as a 16 year old. Soon after he seriously started to stagnete. Not saying losing his spot was the only reason for that. But it certainly didn't help either.

100%. Whenever you have depth, lots of players of similar quality, you have to take the players club situation into consideration. I'm not saying that he's not good enough to play but with the current situation, selecting Jonah Neuenschwander is a mistake. The same goes for other players selected like Kirsch or Huet. As a national federation you have to understand which players you're gonna help by selecting them and which players should be left alone.

 

[Speyer]

100%. Whenever you have depth, lots of players of similar quality, you have to take the players club situation into consideration. I'm not saying that he's not good enough to play but with the current situation, selecting Jonah Neuenschwander is a mistake. The same goes for other players selected like Kirsch or Huet. As a national federation you have to understand which players you're gonna help by selecting them and which players should be left alone.

The thing is the federation/coaches only care about looking good in tournaments and not about helping their players develop. This has been shown time and time again with the whole "scandals" around Fiala, Malgin and especially Bichsel. That kinda sucks but its just the way it is.

 

[Hinterland]

The thing is the federation/coaches only care about looking good in tournaments and not about helping their players develop. This has been shown time and time again with the whole "scandals" around Fiala, Malgin and especially Bichsel. That kinda sucks but its just the way it is.

You have to select the best team possible. But when you have options you gotta understand what's best for the players and select accordingly. The SIHF doesn't do that. Like at all. Which is a shame.

 

[Hinterland]

They were never gonna let a 15yo fly all the way to Ottawa just to attend a camp.

 

[kudla]

They were never gonna let a 15yo fly all the way to Ottawa just to attend a camp.

Well, that's crazy. What is the point of this

 

[Hinterland]

Well, that's crazy. What is the point of this

I do think he can help the team. And be it only in a limited role plus PP. The problem I have with it is that the coaches had enormous depth to choose from among 05/06 born kids. Many of them have extensive experience in pro leagues and they all could have helped the team as well. I don't see Neuenschwander have a big role in this tournament and he should be playing NL in Biel where they really need him. They keep on losing bodies and he was logging big minutes on the topline. Logging these minutes right now at the highest lvl of European pro hockey would be very important for him.