Team owner: Schweizerische Bundesbahnen (Swiss Federal Railways – SBB) CEO is Andreas Meyer.

Farm Club: EHC Vaduz (Lichtenstein) 

GM: Paja Jansson (6th GM in team’s history)

Coach: Jim Montgomery (replaced Doug Weight after Sseason 10) (Weight replaced Mike Babcock after Season 9)

Last season: 14th overall; in playoffs, lost to Berlin

Ins and Outs (Season 10 to Season 11)

Out: Mats Zuccarello (waivers), Joonas Korpisalo (free agent), Brian Elliott (free agent), Ossi Vaananen (free agent), Charlie Coyle (free agent), Martin Hanzal (free agent), Ryan Gunderson (free agent), Roger Karrer (trade), Radek Faksa (trade)

In: John Carlson (trade), Andrey Bykov (trade), John Moore (free agent), Jakub Kindl (free agent), Adam Gaudette (free agent), Antti Niemi (free agent), Alex Turcotte (draft), Thomas Harley (draft), Phil Tomasino (draft)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 11)

John Carlson, D; Patrick Kane, RW; Andrey Bykov, LW; Derek Stepan, C; Sebastien Aho, RW; Mark Stone, RW; Nico Hischier, C; Mika Zibanejad, C

Three Questions

1. Those were two nice trades Bern pulled off. Are you going to tell us they aren’t as good as they seem? During the off season, Bern General Manager pulled off two trades that brought defenseman John Carlson and winger Andrey Bykov to Switzerland, but did they give up too much? We don’t think so. These look like great trades for the Interrail. For Carlson, a 4-time all-star and a starter in the game last year, they gave up a player they originally got on waivers (Radek Faksa) and a late second-round draft pick. Carlson, 31, has averaged 23 or more minutes per game for the last nine season. He’s the defenseman ever team wants. If he has a bad season with Bern, he’ll still have better-than-average stats. In acquiring Bykov, 29, they got a guy who has scored more than 30 goals in each of the last four seasons. He is a good all-around player and a two-time all-star but he will take dumb penalties, so the Interrail penalty killers will have to do some bailing out. They didn’t like parting with a young Swiss defenseman to get him, but it will be a few years before Roger Karrer starts to swing the balance of this trade in favor of Berlin, and it may never be considered an even swap.

2. How will the forward lines shake out? – Interrail fans are not happy about the way Coach Doug Weight used Nico Hischier last season. He’s Swiss! Doesn’t Weight know that? Well Weight is gone now, replaced by Jim Montgomery, and Hischier is still Swiss. But don’t expect Nico to center the top line just yet. Bern has a barrel of talented, flashy forwards and they could put together three forward lines capable of passing their way to good scoring opportunities. Everyone expected more from Patrick Kane than the 67 points he produced in Season 10, and the addition of Andrey Bykov’s speed and skill should help Kane on the top line. A big question for Coach Montgomery is who does he put between Kane and Bykov? Mika Zibanejad or Derek Stepan? Zibanejad produces more offense and should definitely center the top powerplay units, so will he be over-worked as the center on the top line? He IS making $8.5 million this season, so maybe he should be made to work harder for it. Stepan makes even more money, and he’s a great penalty killer, so he will also get a lot of special teams minutes. Either way, the second-line center will have quality on his wings in Mark Stone and James Van Riemsdyk, with Hischier moving up to the third line to center Sebastian Aho and Peter Mueller. Bern is going to score goals and they need to score a lot of them because they will give up plenty this season.

3. How good or bad will the defense be? The addition of John Carlson gives Bern a superb top defense duo with two-time all-star Dmitry Kulikov as his partner. Both have a lot of experience and Kulikov, although offensive-minded, is good enough defensively to be the stay at home guy in this pair. The second pair is the future first pair and Darnell Nurse and Rasmus Dahlin complement each other very well. Jake Dotchin and John Moore should struggle as the third pairing. While Dotchin is a smart passer, he takes himself out of position too much trying to make big hits, and Moore, 31, will do enough to stay in the lineup but just isn’t good enough to trigger possession and scoring chances for the team. Coach Montgomery and the Bern fans would love to have veteran Keith Yandle back in the lineup, but his $4 million salary will keep him out. When it’s all said and done – unless trades occur – the Bern defense will seem worse than they really are because the goaltending is very bad by EURO League standards. Antti Niemi is too old (38 and out of the league for the last 4 seasons) and Aussie Charles Smart is too young (22). Every Bern fan hopes we’re proven wrong, and it will be up to Niemi and Smart to provide the proof.

History

Season                 Place   PTS        PP %      PK %      SPG     SAPG     GPG     GAPG    PIM

Season 10           14        82       16.2      81.3    30.71    29.18   3.15 3.38    9.50

Season 9             24        56       18.6      80.3    27.35    31.32   3.02 4.00    10.74

Season 8             19       72        13.2      75.3    27.62    30.11   2.62   3.55   9.29

Season 7             24        62        12.8      80.1    27.77    32.23   2.67   3.56    10.20

Season 6             21        71        13.1     87.0       24.45   31.77     2.40    3.16     9.99

Season 5             22        59       13.2     81.3     26.00    32.29    2.45    3.46    10.66

Season 4             10         94        17.6     82.1      30.71    30.34      3.24    3.12   11.48

Season 3             14         86        18.0     82.6      29.88    30.78       3.2    3.37    11.43

Season 2              11        93        17.9     83.3      30.96    29.66       3.32    3.04    10.09

Season 1             2           119        25.2    83.1      31.87    28.82       3.88    2.73    7.52

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Claude Giroux, RW, currently age 33. GP 797; Pts 959; -47

Season 2: Scott Glennie, C, age 29.

Season 3: Dalton Prout, D, age 29. GP 460; Pts 116; +77

Season 4: Cam Talbot, G, age 33. GP 236, Save pct. 89.9

Season 5: Kjetil Martinsen, RW, age 27. GP 246, Points 72, +22

Season 6: Mark Stone, RW, age 27. GP 408, Points 267, -132

Season 7: Joonas Korpisalo, G, age 25. GP 245, Save Pct. 88.0

Season 8: Nico Hischier, C, age 20. GP 158, Pts 63, -23

Season 9: Roger Karrer, D, age 21. GP 144, Pts 38, -44

Season 10: Rasmus Dahlin, D, age 19. GP 65; Pts 17; +12

Season 11: Alex Turcotte, C, age 18.

Trade History

Season 1 (picks without years listed are from initial draft)

Traded Round 8 pick (used to draft Martin Erat) 2013 Round 1 (Weiyang Zhang) and 2013 Round 2 pick (Leonardo Genoni) to Bratislava for  Round 5 pick (used to draft Kimo Timonen)

Traded Claude Giroux to Frankfurt for Rd 3 pick (Brent Seabrook) and Rd 4 pick (Jason Spezza)

Traded Rd 2 pick (Derek Stepan) to Edinburgh for Rd 3 pick (Daniel Sedin) and Rd 5  pick (Ray Whitney)

Traded Daniel Sedin and Rd 12 pick (Max Talbot) to Oslo for Rd 4 pick (Radim Vrbata) and Rd 6  pick (Johan Franzen)

Traded Rd 10 pick (Devan Dubnyk) to Belfast for Rd 12 pick (Sami Salo)and Rd 24 pick (Douglas Murray)

Traded Rd 14 pick (Matt Cullen), Rd 25 pick (Daniel Paille) and 2013 Rd 3 pick (Nathan Beaulieu) to Minsk for Rd 12 pick (Dan Winnick)

Traded Rd 13 pick (Dmitri Orlov), Rd 19 pick (Carlo Colaiacovo) and 2014 Rd 1 pick (Jake Muzzin) to Paris for Adrian Aucoin

Traded Dan Winnick to Edinburgh for Rd 15 pick (Evgeny Kuznetsov)

Traded Rd 20 pick (Brandon Prust) and Rd 22 pick (Mark Visentin) to Madrid for Sammi Pahlsson

Traded Nicklas Backstrom (goalie) to Geneva for 2013 Rd 3 pick (Scott Glennie), 2014 Rd 3 pick (Tommy Wingels) and $1.5 million

Season 2 – None

Season 3 – None

Traded 2017 Round 3 pick (later traded to Lisbon and used to pick Henrik Borgstrom) to Minsk for Jon Merrill

Traded Dalton Prout and Mike Cammalleri to Stockholm for Shane Doan, Anton Babchuk and Corey Potter

Season 4

Season 5

Traded Cam Talbot to Belfast for 2017 Round 1 pick (Lawson Crouse)

After the start of Season 5

Signed Fredrik Norrena (free agent)

Traded Evgeny Kuznetsov and Mats Rosselli Olsen to Lisbon for Joe Thornton

Signed Matt Halischuk (free agent)

Traded 2018 Round 3 pick (later traded to Lisbon and used to pick Evgeny Svechnikov) to Copenhagen for Thomas Greiss

Season 6

Traded 2018 Round 2 pick (later traded to London and used to pick Joonas Donskoi) to Berlin for 2018 Round 2 pick (Tyler Benson) and Brian Flynn

Season 7 

After season started: signed Jared Boll (free agent), signed Luke Gazdic (free agent); bought out contracts for Johnny Boychuk and Matt Hunwick; claimed Ryan Spooner (waivers), claimed Radek Faksa (waivers)

Season 8

Claimed Shea Weber (waivers)

Traded Shea Weber to Berlin for 2020 Round 3 pick (later traded to Copenhagen (Luke Martin))

Traded 2020 Round 3 pick (Nikita Voles) and 2020 Round 3 pick (Luke Martin) to Copenhagen for 2020 Round 2 pick (Max Comtois)

Season 9

Traded Jamie McBain to Zurich for Charlie Coyle and Mark Pysyk

Traded Dmitry Orlov to St. Petersburg for Cam Atkinson and Darnell Nurse

Season 10

Season 11

Traded Gregory Beron to Bratislava for 2022 Round 2 pick (later traded to London (Alexander Khovanov))

Traded Roger Karrer to Berlin for Andrey Bykov

Traded Radek Faksa and 2022 Round 2 pick (Alexander Khovanov) to London for John Carlson