All eyes are on the O2 Arena in Prague: tomorrow, Friday, at 7pm, the imposing multifunctional stadium in the Czech capital hosts the match between the Buffalo Sabers and the New Jersey Devils of Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler, which will give the start of the new season of the National Hockey League. It will be the first of two matches scheduled in the Old Continent (the rematch between the same contenders, again in Prague, will take place tomorrow afternoon) which will act as an appetizer for the first day of a long season that will start on Tuesday in North America. «It is certainly not the first time that the NHL season opens in Europe, it has already happened in Sweden and Finland as well as in Czechia, but I don’t remember there ever being any Swiss on the track, and this time there are three: I would say it’s something sensational” explains Thomas Roost, the first (and so far only) Swiss scout active in the NHL, who on the occasion of the double challenge at the O2 Arena will take on the role of consultant for the broadcaster MySports. «And the fact that Lindy Ruff, the Buffalo coach, was the head coach of New Jersey until last year, will make the challenge even more exciting».
Roost has been doing this work for twenty-five years now. «I have always been passionate about the world of North American professional sports, with its trading system and drafts – says the sixty-four year old from Schaffhausen, who officially became an NHL scout in 1996 -. Then, when the Swiss juniors began to improve more and more, I started writing reports on the various international youth tournaments for the American scouting magazine, and among those who read those writings was my current boss, Göran Stubb, the father of current Finnish president, Alexander. Göran, who is now 89 years old and has been director of the NHL European Scouting Office for more than four decades, needed someone to take care of Switzerland, and he found what I wrote good: that’s how it all started. As often happens in life, a bit of luck is also needed: you have to be in the right place at the right time.”
How many games do you see in a season?
We should divide the question into two parts: before or after the advent of the internet? Once upon a time you were forced to go to the stadium: I’d say I watched around 150 games per season, I practically lived on the tracks. Now, however, everything has changed: we work much more on video, with different programs that allow you to study every single player, on this side as well as beyond the Urals, offering you an infinite amount of data that tells you what he does on the ice and how much is there: basically you only need twenty minutes to understand everything without having seen a match. However, I am of the opinion that you can’t just do ‘digital scouting’: you still have to go to the stadium, because in a match followed live you also notice other things. I’d say that today I watch around 150 games in front of a computer plus around ninety ‘live’: neither one nor the other, but both, in short.
Your work, however, is not limited to the NHL.
No. In Switzerland, for example, I do scouting for Biel, and two weeks ago I was also elected to the Olten board of directors. But I also offer consultancy for players who are looking for a second opinion regarding the development of their career, and I have also had international players among my clients, or for parents who ask for my analysis on their children’s skills. The requests are very varied: there are those who want to know if I know a good mental coach or a private coach able to help them progress in terms of technical ability, or they ask me for an opinion on what they should improve and how they should do it. . Or they want a list of potential advantages or disadvantages if they decide to change teams at some point.
It seems like a varied job.
It is. And thanks also to my experience as a personnel manager in the private sector, and the fifteen years spent on the board of directors of a company, I am able to provide post-career assistance, helping former players prepare to build a future work outside of sport, finding the type of training or further education best suited to them.
Compared to when you started, hockey has grown a lot in our country, however at the last Draft there were only four Swiss players chosen.
I expected it to be five or six, but the truth is that we cannot be happy with the development of our young people. A criticism that I would however direct to the higher ups. Then it may be true that Swiss hockey has developed a lot in the last 25-30 years, but if we look at the number of Swedes, Finns or Slovaks drafted we cannot be satisfied. The problem is the deficit in the level of education of young people compared to other large nations in the world. The excuse is always that in Finland and Sweden there are more kids, and this is actually the case, as Finnish juniors are double ours: however, at the NHL Draft Finland collects six times what we get, while Sweden has as many as fifteen times more players chosen in the Draft than Switzerland. Not to mention Slovakia, which has half of our young players but is ahead of us in terms of number of drafted players.
However, there are also those who are worse off, like Germany, which was left empty-handed at the end of June…
It’s true, after the exceptional years of Leon Draisaitl, Seider, Stützle, Peterka and Reichel, sadness has reigned again in Germany. In fact, the Germans have discovered that those so-called abnormal results cannot be confirmed in the long term. On the other hand, Sweden with 44 thousand juniors fired has produced 185 draft picks in the last 7 years, Finland 118 with 35 thousand and the Czech Republic 63 with 24 thousand. While Germany in the same period of time had just 14 draftees, i.e. the same as Switzerland which, however, can boast two thousand more registered players. In short, the performance should make you think.
The question, at this point, is: why do we produce less talent than the best nations?
It’s difficult for me to answer, given that I mainly follow what happens in Switzerland and Germany. For sure, I see a problem very similar to that of the Germans: there is a crisis underway, and very little has happened in the last two seasons. So I can’t be satisfied with what I see, there is a problem with the development of junior players in Switzerland, but – I repeat – mine is a criticism of the top management.
Is there a Swiss player at the Draft who surprised you?
I would say Basile Sansonnens, Friborg defender chosen by Vancouver in the seventh round. He had signed in Lausanne in the meantime, but then chose to immediately move to North America, to play for Qmjhl. Yes, it surprised me: I would have expected someone to choose Daniil Ustinkov (an enormously talented eighteen-year-old who ended up at Gck Lions after falling a bit out of favor in Zurich, for choosing to interrupt his apprenticeship, ed.): a year ago , some Scouts even saw him as a first choice, but his performances worsened month after month, and after failing to show off at the U18 World Championships, he ended up not being chosen at all.
Looking towards 2025, is there anyone on the right path?
I would mention Elijah Neuenschwander, who also has a very talented brother (Jan, ed.) who plays for Bienne, and probably in two years he will also be chosen by some NHL franchise. Then there is a boy from Davos who is already in North America, his name is Lars Steiner, and I believe that he too will find luck in the 2026 draft.
Are you surprised that a player like Dominik Kubalik hasn’t received a concrete offer from the NHL yet?
I think he’ll get a contract in the end anyway. Maybe he won’t want to sign for any amount of money, but moving to Europe has certainly put a certain amount of pressure on him, and Ambrì’s release clause is valid until mid-December. I give him a fifty percent chance of no longer being in Ticino at Christmas. His situation is not easy, because he is not a real star of the NHL: he is a player of average value, so he can be replaced by someone else, and the General managers are certainly not scared by the players’ agents… I think that Kubalik is a good player, he knows what it means to be in the NHL and as a scorer in North America he has some good seasons behind him, unfortunately not the last one. I believe that if any team is immediately faced with injuries, then Kubalik will have his cards to play.
After an excellent season in Lugano, and beyond, Calvin Thürkauf chose to stay in Ticino despite having an offer from North America. Do you think he would have his place in the NHL?
Difficult to answer. He had been to Columbus before and couldn’t make it. When I see him on the track I tell myself that he would really adapt, because that is his game: the problem if anything is that I don’t have the impression that he is fast enough to be able to snatch a place in the first two lines, and with potential to third or fourth line I don’t know if the game is worth it, because in the ‘bottom six’ you don’t earn much money there either. Not to mention that there is a risk of transfer to Ahl. He certainly has the quality to play in the NHL, but he knows he already has experience behind him: for him the opportunity in Lugano was excellent, and he rightly took it.
From Pauli Jaks onwards, 47 Swiss players have played at least one game in the NHL, and this year there should be 11 to start the season, after Akira Schimid was cut by the Golden Knights, who diverted him to Henderson, in Nevada.
It’s certainly a good thing, and the national team will certainly benefit from this, assuming they can come to the World Cup. I would say that for another three, maybe five years, with this group Switzerland will be able to continue playing at a high level, but what comes next will not be as pleasant, in my opinion. There is no new Josi, new Hischier or new Niederreiter on the horizon.
E Lian Bichsel?
Lian Bichsel does not have a permanent job at the moment. In the future it will be different, but right now he is the number four defenseman in the hierarchy, which means he will have less time on the ice, and this could be bad for his career. So it is possible that to give him more space at least temporarily they will place him in Ahl. In any case, Dallas is counting on him, because after what we saw last season the Stars need big and big defenders, and Bichsel is what they need. All he lacks is maturity.
Even Connor Hughes is certainly not at the top of the hierarchy in Montreal…
Indeed, if anything he is a true outsider, in fact almost no one knows him. At the beginning he will be number four, perhaps he could overtake the Czech Jakub Dobes, but even if the two starters (Montembeault and Primeau, ed.) are not authentic superstars it will be very difficult for him, even if in my opinion he is good and is coming off a great season in Lausanne. Be that as it may, in the medium term he will have to deal with the super-talented 19-year-old Jacob Fowler, who is the great hope of the future for Montreal. We’ll see.
