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: Willie DesJardins (replaced Jim Montgomery after Season 11)(Montgomery replaced Doug Weight after Season 10) (Weight replaced Mike Babcock after Season 9)

Last season: 19th overall; (in playoffs, lost to Paris)

Ins and Outs (Season 11 to Season 12)

Out: Derek Stepan (free agent), Beau Bennett (free agent),

In: Nicklas Backstrom (free agent), Tuukka Rask (free agent), Simon Despres (free agent), Andrew Ladd (free agent)

In Place (Key players signed past Season 12)

Mika Zibanejad, C; Andrey Bykov, LW; Sebastien Aho, RW; Mark Stone, RW; Nico Hischier, C; Rasmus Dahlin, D

Three Questions

1. What are the Interrail good at in addition to train travel? Bern is good – very good – at getting shots off at opposing goals. Last season, only Helsinki, Copenhagen and Paris averaged more shots per game than did the Interrail, who averaged 32.46 shots per game. They weren’t quite as good at actually scoring goals – they placed 8th in the league at 3.40 per game – but that should tell you this team wants its games to turn into high-scoring track meets. They have the fast-skating players to succeed with such a game plan. Look at the top six forwards new coach Willie Desjardins has to send out there for 46 or so minutes every game: Mark Stone, Patrick Kane, Mika Zibanejad, Nicklas Backstrom, Andrey Bykov and Sebastien Aho. The coach could pick names out a hat and be right every time. That leaves Nico Hischier, James Van Riemsdyk and Peter Mueller to third line duty and they could all be 20-goal scorers this year. Fans in Switzerland love seeing Hischier on the ice but this year they join the rest of Europe in wondering if Backstrom, 35, and Kane, 34, will be able to rekindle any of the magic that brought them Cups in Minsk.

2. What is the biggest question mark on the team? All eyes will be on Tuukka Rask, the new Interrail goalie. What a career Rask has assembled already in the EURO League. He was the number guy in Paris from Season 1 to Season 10, winning a Cup along the way and compiling an 85-44-8 playoff record in that time. His lifetime goals against average is 2.87 and his save percentage is 90.0. Last season, Paris couldn’t afford all the players they wanted to keep and Rask was let go. He spent the entire season unemployed after posting one of his best-ever seasons. Everyone knew he would be expensive and by the time he was available, all other teams had moved on with their season plans. Bern got him cheaply this year. Rask for $4.2 million is a bargain. His age, 35, will surely scare Desjardins and GM Paja Jansson a little, but Rask is a piece of the puzzle that was missing last season and he will be the team’s most important player this season.

3. How will the defensemen be this year? They will be very similar to last year’s blueline corps. The Season 11 Bern blueline was unique in that all six players played all 82 games. The reserves never left the farm club in Lichtenstein. Not even once. This season, Jansson has made one change and that’s 31-year-old Simon Despres replacing 32-year-old American John Moore. Fans were much more excited about another Bern defenseman last year. In his second season, Rasmus Dahlin was impressive. He led the team’s blueline in scoring even though he played on the second pair and took 15-20 fewer shots than Dmitry Kulikov and John Carlson, the next highest scorers. Carlson has been an all-star four times and Kulikov has skated in two all-star games. Dahlin looks like he has a lot of ASGs in his future. Jake Dotchin probably won’t make it to the all-star game in his career, but Bern fans aren’t complaining about his game. He likes to hit and he was by far the plus/minus leader on defense last season at +15. Dotchin and Darnell Nurse bring the physical game that every goalie needs in front of him. All in all, Bern has an intelligent, mobile defense corps that will continue to be among the reasons the team averages so many shots per game.

History

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

Season 1             2           119        25.2    83.1      31.87    28.82       3.88    2.73    7.52

Season 2              11        93        17.9     83.3      30.96    29.66       3.32    3.04    10.09

Season 3             14         86        18.0     82.6      29.88    30.78       3.2    3.37    11.43

Season 4             10         94        17.6     82.1      30.71    30.34      3.24    3.12   11.48

Season 5             22        59       13.2     81.3     26.00    32.29    2.45    3.46    10.66

Season 6             21        71        13.1     87.0       24.45   31.77     2.40    3.16     9.99

Season 7             24        62        12.8      80.1    27.77    32.23   2.67   3.56    10.20

Season 8             19       72        13.2      75.3    27.62    30.11   2.62   3.55   9.29

Season 9             24        56       18.6      80.3    27.35    31.32   3.02 4.00    10.74

Season 10           14        82       16.2      81.3    30.71    29.18   3.15 3.38    9.50

Season 11           19       72       17.7      80.4    32.46    27.91   3.40 3.62    9.45

Top Draft picks

Season 1: Claude Giroux, RW, currently age 34. GP 879; Pts 1,052; -29

Season 2: Scott Glennie, C, age 30.

Season 3: Dalton Prout, D, age 31. GP 464; Pts 117; +80

Season 4: Cam Talbot, G, age 34. GP 236, Save pct. 89.9

Season 5: Kjetil Martinsen, RW, age 28. GP 328, Points 135, +30

Season 6: Mark Stone, RW, age 28. GP 490, Points 347, -125

Season 7: Joonas Korpisalo, G, age 26. GP 316 Save Pct. 88.1

Season 8: Nico Hischier, C, age 21. GP 240, Pts 100, -12

Season 9: Roger Karrer, D, age 22. GP 214, Pts 48, -37

Season 10: Rasmus Dahlin, D, age 20. GP 147; Pts 59; +9

Season 11: Alex Turcotte, C, age 19.

Season 12: Jack Quinn, RW, 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

Season 12