Confirmed: Ronalds Kenins To SC Bern On Try-Out Contract

Latvian winger Ronalds Ķēniņš, 33, has signed a try-out contract with SC Bern, the Swiss National League club announced on Thursday. The contract runs until Dec. 22, with an option to extend it until the end of the season.

The announcement was made less than 24 hours after Ķēniņš and his previous club, Lausanne HC, parted ways by mutual agreement.

“Ronalds has already proven his qualities as a power forward many times,” said Bern GM Patrik Bärtschi. “With him, we are not only gaining an experienced player but also valuable depth in our squad.”

Bern has been down a top-six winger since Dominik Kahun suffered a hand injury in late September. However, he is expected to return to the lineup by the end of this month. More likely, Bern is considering Ķēniņš for a bottom-six role and would like to see if he can still play at the National League level.

Ķēniņš has not played in a National League game yet this season. He was loaned to HC Sierre in the second-tier Swiss League and recorded two points in seven games. Over the past two seasons with Lausanne, Ķēniņš had four goals and nine assists in 97 National League games.

Ķēniņš had four goals and eight assists in 38 NHL regular-season games with the Vancouver Canucks between 2014 and 2016 and also had a goal and an assist in five playoff games in 2015.

Internationally, Ķēniņš was a regular member of the Latvian national team from 2010 to 2023, playing in 11 IIHF World Championships and two Winter Olympics. In his last international tournament to date, he was a member of Latvia’s surprising bronze-medal team in 2023 in Riga and Tampere.

Bern currently sits fourth in the 14-team National League with 33 points in 20 games. Other than Kahun, notable names on the team’s roster include Swedish defensemen Patrik Nemeth and Anton Lindholm, American forward Austin Czarnik, Finnish right winger Waltteri Merelä, Austrian center Benjamin Baumgartner and Swiss national team veterans Simon Moser, Romain Loeffel, Tristan Scherway, Romain Untersander and Joël Vermin.