Swiss Ice Hockey

SWISS ICE HOCKEY - Following an invitation of SIHF director Ueli Schwarz, the nine NLB-teams met last night in Ittigen to discuss possible scenarios for the future of the NLB. As Le Matin reports, they ended up with three different solutions.

Photo Swiss Hockey News

Two of the three scenarios had been already reported previous to the meeting yesterday, The first solution would see no changes to the system, as they would continue to have twelve NLA and twelve NLB-teams. However, the lack of candiates from the first league to fill the spots in the NLB makes this rather difficult.

A second scenario would see a system that consists out of ten NLA-teams, ten NLB-teams and ten teams in a "super first league" with an automatic promotion and relegation between the three leagues. This solution has the most support from the NLB-teams, but - as reported previously - it is unlikely to find much love from the NLA-teams.

A third solution, which was brought to the table by the first league, would be an extension of the NLB to twelve to 16 teams. Each team would only be allowed to have one import-player and two lines would need to consist entirely out of players under the age of 23 in order to keep costs low. Furthermore, the league would be divided in two divisions.