Jan Daron reached the next milestone in his young career at the U18 World Championship in Poland. With the Swiss national team, the EVZ forward made it straight back into the top division. Switzerland won all five games: 6:1 against Poland, 10:2 against Slovenia, 5:1 against Hungary, 3:2 against Kazakhstan and 6:5 against Ukraine. Jan Daron played in the first forward line with Jonah Neuenschwander (EHC Biel-Bienne) and Tim Münger (SC Bern) and set up three goals. The expectations at the World Championship were clear: Switzerland should return to the top flight as quickly as possible. He was therefore delighted that the team had achieved this goal.
It was the Zug native’s second international success in a short space of time: in 2025, he was part of the Swiss gold team at the European Youth Olympic Festival. He also gained valuable experience at club level last season. With the EVZ U21 Elite team, he only lost in the play-off quarter-finals to the favourites GCK Lions after five games. In total, the talented forward played almost 80 games in the 2025-16 season, including nine appearances in the National League team, in which he scored one goal. Jan Daron is not only performance-orientated on the ice: He is also doing his commercial apprenticeship in the EVZ programme The Hockey Academy.
The long season was very demanding for him. He has learnt a lot, especially mentally, explains the 17-year-old. He had to deal with pressure at National League level. “I was very nervous before the games at first,” explains Jan Daron. The atmosphere also distracted him at first, but that subsided over time. Now he is focussing on recovery. Although he will go to school as normal, he will start his summer training two weeks later than the others. He wants to spend his free time with people close to him. Jan Daron is particularly looking forward to playing tennis with his father again. He is not yet thinking about next season. He knows his path: “I’m taking it one step at a time.”
