The 10 greatest Italian hockey stars of all time

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The custodian of Fribourg’s lower town is the Leonardo Genoni of the 1960s and 1970s and the support of the two French master dynasties. With Villars he rose in 1962 and won the title twice in the following years. He then scored five times in goal for the great HC La Chaux-de-Fonds (68-72) before moving to EV Zug, with whom he was promoted to the NLB. Not only his 7 championship titles make him a legend, but also his achievements in the national team. Especially the one at the B-WM 1971 in Bern against the GDR (3:1), when he continued his exploits (68 saves) in the final phase, even without a helmet and with blood streaming down his face after being hit by a skate from was a German attacker. And Switzerland promoted to Group A.

The man from Neuchâtel was one of the brains behind SC Bern’s great successes in the nineties. The center was a three-time champion under Bill Gilligan and later Bryan Lefley with the SCB (91, 92 and 97). With 10 goals in 10 games, he was the playoff top scorer in the last title. He is the Romand with the most NL games (1065 including playoffs) and scorer points (859). He also brought it to 118 international matches.

At the age of 53, the gifted striker played a few more matches with his home club Ponts-de-Martel NE in the 2nd division, where he was a coach. His heyday was some 25 years earlier, when he was the Swiss figurehead on the team of Canadian player-coach Gaston Pelletier and series champion HC La Chaux-de-Fonds. After the six titles with the HCC (1968-73), he also became champion in 1978 with Biel. He was also the NLA top scorer four times and played 115 caps, scoring twice in the legendary 3-1 victory over East Germany in 1971.

The goalkeeper, who is only 1.66 meters tall, won the championship three times against EHC Biel, to whom he always remained faithful despite offers from the competition: 1978, 1981 and 1983. The native of Vaud is still huge today popular in Zealand. “If some young people still know me, it makes me a little proud,” he says. In 1988, he made four appearances at the Calgary Olympics.

The Jurassic has 210 caps, won world championship silver in Stockholm 2013 and was voted into the all-star team. The defender was also the first Romand to play in the NHL. In 2003/04, however, it remained in sole use for the Ottawa Senators. Before and after his two-year journey to North America, he was champion with Lugano in 1999 and 2006 and was also one of the influential personalities in the Ticino team before ending his career in 2020.

The Neuchâtel player, fast and shooting well, joined the youth division of Ambri as a 15-year-old and celebrated his successes in German-speaking Switzerland: in 2015 he took part in the last Davos title under Arno Del Curto and played in 2021 and 2022 he has a role in EV’s Triumphs Train. In between, the winger tried his hand at the NHL, but broke off the adventure with the Columbus Blue Jackets after 24 games. With the Nati he won World Cup silver in Copenhagen in 2018.

Despite a handy size of 1.72 meters, the Neuchâtel striker was very strong and also scored goals when the going got tough. Fuchs was also part of a championship team four times: he scored 13 points in 13 title playoff games with SCB in 1997 and in the first of his three triumphs with Lugano (1999, 2003, 06) he came in the knockout stages. out. Even phase to 9 goals and assists in 16 games. At the end of his career he played with Jason at regular club La Chaux-de-Fonds in the NLB.

The captain of EHC Biel has already celebrated a championship title. He won it in 2019 with SC Bern. The year before, the fast and defensively reliable center had been a key part of the World Cup silver squad under Patrick Fischer after being overpowered on his World Cup debut in 2016. Thanks to his development, the man from Biel made the jump to the NHL. But because he wasn’t productive enough offensively, he didn’t get further than a spot in the 4th line with the Edmonton Oilers (or vice versa). No Romand has played more NHL games than Haas (95).

Like Vauclair and Fuchs, Neuchâtel belonged to the last champion team from Latin Switzerland. He was also one of the best players at HC Lugano in 2006 and was the top Swiss scorer in the championship with 19 points. For the center it was the second title with the Ticino team after 2003. He moved to German-speaking Switzerland at the age of 19, where he first played for ZSC and then for Davos. Jeannin is the record player of the national team with 236 caps.

The uncrowned. It is the fate of a player who has stood for Gottéron all his career and will also end it in Friborg that it has never been enough (yet) to take a championship title. There should also be room in this list for someone who is still waiting for a title. Especially since the 1.94 meter long striker has been extremely productive for years. The man from Fribourg already has 746 NL scorer points (including play-offs) on his account.

Source : Blick