EHC Kloten

EHC Kloten
City:	Kloten, Switzerland
League:	National League NL 1962–2018 2022–present SL 1947–1962 2018–2022 1. Liga 1946–1947 Serie B 1941-1946
Founded:	1934
Home Arena:	SWISS Arena
Franchise history
1934–2000 2016–present:	EHC Kloten
2000–2016:	Kloten Flyers

The Kloten Flyers are an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. They originated from the EHC Kloten. The team participates in the National League A and is known for its promotion of young players. It has one of the best Youth systems in Swiss Ice Hockey as its Youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 years.

EHC Kloten won four consecutive Swiss championships from 1993 to 1996.

History

EHC Kloten was founded by a group of seven members, led by Emil Hegner, on December 3, 1934. During the first few years, only exhibition matches were played. The home matches were played on the frozen Nägelimoos-Weiher.

When EHC Kloten began to participate in the championship, they had to start in the lowest league, as usual. In 1941, they were promoted into the Serie B and five years later into the Serie A. One year later, in 1947, the EHC Kloten was promoted into the Swiss League. In 1962, they joined the National League when the league expanded to 10 teams.

In 1967, they became the champions for the first time, headed by their Czech coach Vladimir Kobera.

For the 1998-99 season the former Russian ice hockey player Vladimir Yurzinov was asked to become the new coach. He introduced a new playing style and encouraged the development and promotion of young players. Even though many people liked this philosophy, the team remained unsuccessful. During the 2003-2004 season, the team missed the playoffs for the first time in their history.

In October 2004, Yurzinov was released as their coach. He took on a new role as a youth promoter until the end of the season. Yurzinov's successor was former EHC Kloten defenseman Anders Eldebrink and assistant Felix Hollenstein. The new coaching duo managed to get the team back to success and are still in charge of the team.

During the 2008-2009 season, the Flyers swept both HC Geneve-Servette and EV Zug in the playoffs before losing the playoff final against HC Davos in seven games. They finished the regular season in 3rd place.

The club has a well known junior program. There’s a partnership between the Kloten Flyers and the teams of Bülach, Dielsdorf-Niederhasli and Winterthur. Since the founding of the elite-junior league, the teams have won 19 titles, the latest being in the 2005-06 season.

The team's name was reverted from Kloten Flyers to EHC Kloten for the 2016–17 NLA season after the club had been taken over by businessman Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, who bought the organization from the owner group Avenir Sports Entertainment. Pekka Tirkkonen from Finland was appointed new head coach for the 2016–17 season after Sean Simpson had parted company with the club. The team had one of the worst attendances of the NL for the 2016–17 season, averaging only 5,229 spectators over their 25 regular season home games. It was also the only team which failed to sell out at least one game during the regular season.

On February 1, 2017, the team won the first Swiss Cup in club history, against Geneve-Servette HC, in a packed Swiss Arena.

The team won the Swiss League title in April 2022 against EHC Olten to gain automatic promotion to the NL.

Honors

Champions

• NL Championship (5): 1967, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996
• Swiss Cup (1): 2017
• Swiss League (1): 2022

Runners-up

• NL Championship (6): 1972, 1987, 1988, 2009, 2011, 2014

External links

• Official Website of the Kloten Flyers

References

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