A big THANK YOU to the hockey community!

Today in Switzerland we celebrate the first national Ice-Hockey-Day. This day offers me a great opportunity to look back to my so far hockey-life, to tell THANK YOU to the world of hockey!

THANK YOU to the NHL to allow me, as scout, being a tiny little piece of this world-greatest hockey-cake, the No.1-league in the world, the NHL. You can’t know how happy and proud I am.

THANK YOU to Tyler Seguin, Patrick Kane, Jason Spezza, Henrik Zetterberg, Rick Nash, Joe Thornton and Patrice Bergeron for showing up in our Swiss league. Your magic moments will be unforgettable, THANK YOU for your state of the art-hockey!

THANK YOU to Brooks Laich for showing our players that it’s possible to become a great hockey-player even without high-end classical talent but great attitude, work-ethic and a high-end personality

THANK YOU to all NHL-lockout-players in Switzerland to show our Swiss players and our hockey writers that there is still a (too) big gap between the best in the world and the best players in Switzerland. THANK YOU for flashing our eyes, brains and hockey-hearts! 

THANK YOU to all Swiss background people who managed to find the extra money for these great lockout-players with their priceless magic.

THANK YOU to Sidney Crosby for not only being the No.1-hockey-player in the world but also a great and bright personality. THANK YOU for being our great ambassador for the game of hockey!

THANK YOU to Hockey Canada for eating, breathing and drinking hockey all the time and everywhere, THANK YOU to Canada for being our all role model when it comes to hockey!

THANK YOU to the Russian hockey-culture for cultivating such a high-end artist-style of hockey, thank you Russia for „producing“ players like Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Kuznetsov, Vladimir Tarasenko and Nail Yakupov.

THANK YOU to Sweden and to the US-hockey development program for showing to the hockey-world that excellent programs and excellent educators lead to the top of the world.

THANK YOU to Finland to show us in Switzerland that also a small population country can become world class in hockey. THANK YOU to Finland for being a real hockey-country.

THANK YOU for Czech/Slovak great hockey-moments and hockey-brains, although they happened mostly in the past but I guess they will be back to the top again in a couple of years.

THANK YOU to all the Swiss hockey-guys who did manage to implement our junior-program what resulted in a stable Top10 world-ranking. THANK YOU to all Swiss hockey guys who will help to improve our hockey in the future.

THANK YOU to the German Hockey Federation to invite me for presentations about my „scouting-wisdoms“ and THANK YOU for the German Hockey Federation backoffice-people who are always very helpful!

THANK YOU for hockey-friendships all over the world, priceless!

THANK YOU for allowing me to learn about such great hockey-books as e.g.:

Finnie Walsh (it comes from the very deep soul of hockey).

Talent is overrated (a must read for every junior player who wants to become a pro)

Moneyball,  (ok, it’s baseball but still should be a bible for all hockey executives with small budgets).

Hockey Tough, another must read-book for hockeyplayers.

THANK YOU to Göran Stubb for offering me my first NHL-scouting-contract in 1996 and trusting me since then year after year. THANK YOU Göran for being such an honest, big hearted and smart gentleman, a real hockey-man with great experience and tons of funny anecdotes.

THANK YOU to the NHL, for creating such a great league with all the best hockey-players all over the world. THANK YOU to the great North American sports-culture for  running such clever ruled leagues with drafts, trades and salary-caps. Thank you for this wise contrast to the European Pro-Sport-Leagues where basically just money talks. THANK YOU  to the NHL, the most clever hockey-league in the world.

THANK YOU to the powerful SC Bern franchise for allowing me to be their consultant from 2008 - 2011 and celebrating their last championship with them in 2010.

THANK YOU to the EHC Biel franchise for allowing me to be their consultant from 2010 – 2013 and celebrating with them their first playoff-birth since 19 years in 2012. THANK YOU to Daniel Villard, Kevin Schläpfer, Sandro Wyssbrod and Martin „Stoney“ Steinegger, all of them: Really smart hockey-guys from Biel, everybody in it’s own way.

Last but not least: MY BIGGEST THANK YOU goes to the worldwide thousands of  Junior-Hockey-Coaches who spend endless hours in small rinks with teaching children to play hockey. They never sip from the glamour-spotlight and they get just very small money. They do this just for the love of the world’s greatest game, the game of hockey! Respect!