EVZ legend Reto Suri will be officially retired before today’s game. His number 26 will be the fifth retired number after Philipp Neuenschwander’s 20, Patrick Fischer’s 21, André Künzi’s 33 and Fabian Schnyder’s 57 and will be retired in a festive ceremony under the stadium roof. Reto Suri was a top performer, crowd favorite and ambassador for the EVZ for 10 seasons. In 17 professional seasons in the top league, he scored 197 goals, 240 assists and 437 points. He announced his retirement for health reasons before last season. The 89-time international won the Cup with EVZ in 2019 and became Swiss champion in 2022. He continues to work for Zug as assistant coach of the U20 Elite team and as a scout and player developer.

In the private duel between Dan Tangnes and his long-time assistant Josh Holden, the Zug head coach leads 3:2 thanks to the 4:1 victory in the preparation on September 13. In the championship, the duel between the two friends is tied 2:2. Both teams have won once at home and once away.

Last season, the record champions qualified directly for the playoffs. After leading the series 3:2 in the quarter-finals, they only lost to eventual finalists Lausanne in the 7th game at the Vaudoise aréna (3:0). This season, the HCD wants to finish among the top six in qualifying again. And then Josh Holden is aiming higher in his second Davos season: “Expectations are high. Of course we want to win the last game of the season and take the title. But there are 14 teams that can win every night!”

In order to achieve these goals, seven new players have been signed: Four foreigners and three Swiss, including longtime Zug players Luca Hollenstein and Nico Gross. In the foreign positions, defenseman Klas Dahlbeck and forwards Joakim Nordström and Matej Stransky already played in Davos last season. New faces are Finnish defenseman Julius Honka (28) from Bern, a former first-round draft pick of Dallas (2014), NHL-experienced Czech forward Filip Zadina (28) and Canadian forwards Adam Tambellini (29) and Simon Ryfors (27), who already played together in Rögle. Zadina was on the road in North America from 2017-24 and played 262 NHL games for Detroit and San Jose during that time. In the 2023-24 season, he played 72 games for San Jose and produced 23 points (13 goals/10 assists).

The Davos team had Friday night off and will be keen to increase their points tally this weekend from just three points after four games.