NHL players come from a lot of different leagues. A fair percentage develop, but the larger number don’t. When I saw the development path of Vinzenz Rohrer, I was confused. Why would he leave the OHL to play in the Swiss Elite League?
The word out there is he wanted to be able to get physically stronger by playing fewer games each week and there’s a coach who works well with young players at the ZSC Lions. When Rohrer was drafted he was 5’10” and around 160 pounds. He seems to be over 170 currently. So that’s progress.
Rohrer was on the Austrian team trying to qualify for the Olympics but they got eliminated and he didn’t light it up. That was a good experience for him for sure.
The two big NHL names who played in the Swiss League are New Jersey Devils captain, Nico Hischier, and Los Angeles Kings forward, Kevin Fiala. There are more but the list isn’t lengthy. Rohrer was drafted 75th overall in 2022, so there are some expectations and that’s why I find this all very interesting.
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In two seasons with the Ottawa 67s, he was just under 50 points in both. There’s some success there but you might expect bigger numbers in the second season.
There are former NHLers on his team including, last season, Rohrer scored 19 points in 49 games. He’s outpacing that with 13 in 26 so far. The team’s leading scorer is Derek Grant. Denis Malgin is second. These are good players to learn from but they weren’t big-time NHL scorers and that’s where I wonder how much this will help Rohrer before he comes back to North America.
There’s a lot of space on the ice, it is bigger and there isn’t a ton of contact. Rohrer can skate, pass, and shoot well and he is willing to go to the dirty areas to score. All of that is great, I just think he needs to get to the AHL next year and play there for the next few seasons and then we shall see.
