The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2022–23 season, the league had an average of 9,931 spectators per game which is the highest among European leagues (ahead of the KHL with 9,396 and the DEL with 7,781). The capital city's club SC Bern has been ranked first of all European clubs for 18 seasons and had an average attendance of 16,290 after the regular season. The ZSC Lions are another club in the top ten of European ice hockey attendance, ranking seventh with 9,694 spectators.

Teams from the NL participate in the IIHF's annual Champions Hockey League (CHL), competing for the European Trophy. Participation is based on the strength of the various leagues in Europe (excluding the European/Asian Kontinental Hockey League). Going into the 2022–23 CHL season, the NL was ranked the No. 2 league in Europe, allowing it to send its top five teams to compete in the CHL.

Season structure During the regular season, each of the 14 teams play 52 games. The top eight teams after the regular season qualify for the playoffs to determine the Swiss champion in best-of-seven series. The bottom four teams in the standings play a relegation tournament, called playouts, in which each team retains their regular season points and play an additional six matches. Following those matches, the two bottom ranked teams will play each other in a best-of-seven series, with the loser then playing the winner of the Swiss League playoffs in a best-of-seven series for a spot in the successive NL season.

Current teams TeamLocationArenaCapacityFoundedJoined league City Canton HC Ajoie Porrentruy Raiffeisen Arena 5,178 1973 2021 HC Ambrì-Piotta Ambrì Gottardo Arena 6,775 1937 1985 SC Bern Bern PostFinance Arena 17,031 1931 1986 EHC Biel Biel/Bienne Tissot Arena 6,562 1939 2008 HC Davos Davos zondacrypto Arena 6,547 1921 1993 Fribourg-Gottéron Fribourg BCF Arena 9,262 1938 1980 Genève-Servette HC Geneva Patinoire des Vernets 7,135 1905 2001 EHC Kloten Kloten SWISS Arena 7,600 1934 2022 Lausanne HC Lausanne Vaudoise Aréna 9,600 1922 2013 HC Lugano Lugano Cornèr Arena 7,800 1941 1981 SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers Rapperswil-Jona St. Galler Kantonalbank Arena6,100 1945 2018 SCL Tigers Langnau im Emmental Emmental Versicherung Arena 6,000 1946 2015 ZSC Lions Zürich Swiss Life Arena 12,000 1930 1989 EV Zug Zug OYM Hall 7,800 1967 1987

Import players The current gentlemen's agreement allows teams to dress a maximum of six non-Swiss players for each game. There is no official rule as it would be against Swiss laws to limit foreign workers in a given enterprise. This agreement is not directly related to Swiss citizenship as players with different nationalities but with Swiss player-licenses are considered Swiss players, thus they do not count as import players. Some current examples of this scenario are Josh Jooris with Genève-Servette HC and Floran Douay with HC Ambrì-Piotta. They all play with Swiss player-licenses as they have spent a good majority of their childhoods playing hockey with junior teams in Switzerland yet they do not possess Swiss citizenships. Such players would not be able to play in the NL if it was not for their Swiss player-licenses as they would not be considered good enough to use an import player spot on any team. Those spots are usually reserved for players who have had good NHL careers or players with great stats and performances in the AHL, SHL, KHL or Liiga.

The subject of import players has been and still is a huge subject of debates among team owners and GMs. Some of them wish to allow more import players per game in order to reduce the salaries of star Swiss players and the others want to keep that limit lower to allow more Swiss players to play on special units and have top roles on their teams.

Media coverage NL games are only available in Switzerland and MySports is the league's official broadcaster, airing all regular season and playoffs games. MySports pays CHF 35 million per year to broadcast NL games. Games are available with German, French and Italian commentaries.

Starting with the 2022/23 season, selected games are regularly broadcast on free-to-air local channels in all three linguistic regions.

The SRG SSR lost all broadcasting rights as of the 2024-25 season.

Past champions

1938 – HC Davos 1939 – HC Davos 1940 – no winner 1941 – HC Davos 1942 – HC Davos 1943 – HC Davos 1944 – HC Davos 1945 – HC Davos 1946 – HC Davos 1947 – HC Davos 1948 – HC Davos 1949 – Zürcher SC 1950 – HC Davos 1951 – EHC Arosa 1952 – EHC Arosa 1953 – EHC Arosa 1954 – EHC Arosa 1955 – EHC Arosa 1956 – EHC Arosa 1957 – EHC Arosa 1958 – HC Davos 1959 – SC Bern 1960 – HC Davos 1961 – Zürcher SC 1962 – EHC Visp 1963 – HC Villars 1964 – HC Villars 1965 – SC Bern 1966 – Grasshopper-Club Zürich 1967 – EHC Kloten 1968 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1969 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1970 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1971 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1972 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1973 – HC La Chaux-de-Fonds 1974 – SC Bern 1975 – SC Bern 1976 – SC Langnau 1977 – SC Bern 1978 – EHC Biel 1979 – SC Bern 1980 – EHC Arosa 1981 – EHC Biel 1982 – EHC Arosa 1983 – EHC Biel 1984 – HC Davos 1985 – HC Davos 1986 – HC Lugano 1987 – HC Lugano 1988 – HC Lugano 1989 – SC Bern 1990 – HC Lugano 1991 – SC Bern 1992 – SC Bern 1993 – EHC Kloten 1994 – EHC Kloten 1995 – EHC Kloten 1996 – EHC Kloten 1997 – SC Bern 1998 – EV Zug 1999 – HC Lugano 2000 – ZSC Lions 2001 – ZSC Lions 2002 – HC Davos 2003 – HC Lugano 2004 – SC Bern 2005 – HC Davos 2006 – HC Lugano 2007 – HC Davos 2008 – ZSC Lions 2009 – HC Davos 2010 – SC Bern 2011 – HC Davos 2012 – ZSC Lions 2013 – SC Bern 2014 – ZSC Lions 2015 – HC Davos 2016 – SC Bern 2017 – SC Bern 2018 – ZSC Lions 2019 – SC Bern 2020 – no winner 2021 – EV Zug 2022 – EV Zug 2023 – Genève-Servette HC 2024 – ZSC Lions 2025 – ZSC Lions 2026 – HC Fribourg-Gottéron

Swiss National Championship Serie A (1909–1937)

1909: HC Bellerive Vevey 1910: HC La Villa Lausanne 1911: Club des patineurs de Lausanne 1912: HC Les Avants 1913: HC Les Avants 1914: not played 1915: not played 1916: HC Bern 1917: HC Bern 1918: HC Bern 1919: HC Bellerive Vevey 1920: HC Bellerive Vevey 1921: HC Rosey-Gstaad 1922: EHC St. Moritz 1923: EHC St. Moritz 1924: HC Château-d'Œx 1925: HC Rosey-Gstaad 1926: HC Davos 1927: HC Davos 1928: EHC St. Moritz 1929: HC Davos 1930: HC Davos 1931: HC Davos 1932: HC Davos 1933: HC Davos 1934: HC Davos 1935: HC Davos 1936: Zürcher SC 1937: HC Davos

Titles by club Club Winners Winning years HC Davos31 1926, 1927, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1958, 1960, 1984, 1985, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 SC Bern16 1959, 1965, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1979, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2004, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2019 ZSC Lions11 1936, 1949, 1961, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2024, 2025 EHC Arosa9 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1980, 1982 HC Lugano7 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1999, 2003, 2006 HC La Chaux-de-Fonds6 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 EHC Kloten5 1967, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 HC Bellerive Vevey3 1909, 1919, 1920 HC Bern3 1916, 1917, 1918 EHC St. Moritz3 1922, 1923, 1928 EHC Biel3 1978, 1981, 1983 EV Zug3 1998, 2021, 2022 HC Les Avants2 1912, 1913 HC Rosey-Gstaad2 1921, 1925 HC Villars2 1963, 1964 HC La Villa Lausanne1 1910 Club des patineurs de Lausanne1 1911 HC Château-d’Œx1 1924 EHC Visp1 1962 Grasshopper-Club Zürich1 1966 SC Langnau1 1976 Genève-Servette HC1 2023 HC Fribourg-Gottéron1 2026

See also Swiss League PostFinance Top Scorer

References

External links

Results of Swiss Ice Hockey – in , French, German and An Analysis Of The Swiss NLA All-time standings 1909–2008