Lara Stalder and her EVZ teammates are miles ahead of their competition this season in SWHL-B.
Lara Stalder and her EVZ teammates are miles ahead of their competition this season in SWHL-B.
Lara Stalder chose to leave Sweden this year to help the growth of women's hockey in her home Switzerland.
The three-time SDHL Forward of the Year, and last year's SDHL scoring champion with Brynas chose to leave the league she'd called home since 2017 to return home and launch the new EVZ Women's Team.
“I’ve been abroad for 10 years now and I want to help grow the game at home,” Stalder told The Hockey News.
Switzerland's SWHL-A and SWHL-B are being backed by the nation's top men's professional league, with extra support pouring into the women's hockey system to help grow the game. As Switzerland's national team captain, Stalder returns to build those partnerships and continue the forward momentum.
“They really want to stand behind women’s hockey as well and build all structures from youth all the way to the top and be kind of like a lighthouse, it’s a dream coming true that I can still play at home and also work for the club and grow the game that way.”
Entering to the SWHL-B however, Switzerland's second tier league, Stalder and her teammates, are several steps above the competition.
EVZ's roster includes fellow SDHL departures Noemi Ryhner, who has spent considerable time with Switzerland's national team, and Annika Fazokas, a member of Austria's national team. The team also includes Swiss national team members Lena Lutz and Nadine Hofstetter, 2023 U-18 national team members Ivana Wey, Chiara Eggli, Jael Manetsch, Elena Gaberell, Naemi Herzig and Annic Buchi, and Austrian national team member Leonie Kutzer, as well as netminder Eveliina Makinen, a former member of Finland's national team who played in the PHF last season.
Naemi Herzig is perhaps the best prospect to rise from Switzerland since Stalder and Alina Muller.
It's a stacked roster of many of Switzerland's top players, competing in the nation's second tier league. The talent imbalance has resulted in lopsided scored with Stalder herself compiling 15 goals and 23 points in only three games, while the 16-year-old Herzig has 14 points in three games.
EVZ has also beat both teams in their group in the EWHL Supercup this season defeating Germany's ECDC Memmingen and Hungary's Budapest Jegkorong Akademia.
EVZ will certainly move to the SWHL-A in the near future, and will immediately be a dominant force in that league as well.