All 14 NL clubs have their coach: The Swedes are a discontinued model

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EHC Biel was the last team to announce its head coach. With the signing of Petri Matikainen (56) as successor to Antti Törmänen (52), the coaching field for the start of the 2023/24 National League season is complete. Blick made the comparison with the start of the pre-season in the fall of 2022.

Canada and Switzerland still have the largest number of Dutch coaches. They have again increased by one coaching job from four to five. From a Swiss point of view, this was possible because, in addition to Luca Gianinazzi (Lugano), who joined in the course of last season, Christian Wohlwend is now also back at work at Ajoie. The Swedes, on the other hand, are big losers. At the start of the 22/23 season, they had three coaches – after Rikard Grönborg (ZSC) and Johan Lundskog (Bern) were fired last season, only Stefan Hedlund (Lakers) remained.

Four coaches for the premiere

Only six of the 14 clubs start the championship with the same trainer as last season: Ambri (Cereda), Rappi (Hedlund), Zug (Tangnes), the SCL Tigers (Paterlini), Fribourg (Dubé) and champion Servette (Cadieux). Kloten and Biel would have continued with their previous coaches if Jeff Tomlinson and Törmänen had not been forced to retire for health reasons.

During the course of last winter, Gianinazzi (Lugano), Geoff Ward (Lausanne) and Marc Crawford (ZSC), who are still in office, were added. Five new coaches have been recruited for next season: Matikainen (Biel), Gerry Fleming (Kloten), Jussi Tapola (Bern), Josh Holden (Davos) and Wohlwend (Ajoie). The first four will work as head coach in the Netherlands for the first time.

Cereda the eldest

The longest-serving of the 14 NL coaches is Luca Cereda (41), who has been in charge of the Ambri gang since the summer of 2017. The oldest coach is Crawford at 62, the youngest Gianinazzi at 30.

There are 14 exciting, different personalities kicking off the new season in September. It remains to be seen how many of them will still be in office at the end of the season. A total of six NL coaches had to leave in 22/23: Lundskog (Bern), Chris McSorley (Lugano), Filip Pesan (Ajoie), Grönborg (ZSC), Wohlwend (Davos) and John Fust, who was promoted to sports director in Lausanne .

Source : Blick