Every year since the 2002/2003 season, PostFinance has invited all the Top Scorers in the National League to Berne between the end of the qualification round and the start of the play-offs. Here Hansruedi Köng, CEO of PostFinance, presents them with cheques for the amounts that they have accumulated with their scorer points for the young talent at their clubs. The aim is purely to promote young talent, but this is often forgotten due to the huge appeal of the Top Scorers.

This year, the objective of the initiative was highlighted in various ways. The award ceremony was held at the Bimano indoor play area in Berne, an absolute paradise for children and young people with climbing facilities, skateboard halfpipes and slides. SRF presenter Jann Billeter hosted the event on stage with SCB Piccolo Arjen Hänni. Games consoles were provided as gifts, and the Top Scorers were asked questions about their childhoods when the cheques were presented.

Some fascinating insights emerged. For example, Casey Wellman, Top Scorer at the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers, grew up in California as the son of a professional baseball player. Denis Hollenstein of the ZSC Lions and Tanner Richard of Genève-Servette enjoyed giving their little brothers a hard time in the sandpit. And Julien Sprunger, Top Scorer at Fribourg-Gottéron for the sixth time, revealed that he initially followed his elder sister into figure skating, before picking up an ice hockey stick.

There was the odd piece of valuable advice for the younger generation, too. The guests heard some inspiring stories – EV Zug Top Scorer Lino Martschini revealed how the disadvantages of his shorter stature made him stronger, and Toni Rajala, his counterpart from Bienne, emphasized that success is not just about strength, but also technique.

The star of the show was Dominik Kubalik, the Top Scorer at HC Ambrì-Piotta and the League’s leading points scorer. Not only did his 47 scorer points secure CHF 17,100 for his club’s junior section, but the fact that the Czech, who is just 23, was the youngest Top Scorer of all fitted the script perfectly. He has just started his career and is set to go far in the long term.

“Long-term” was also a description used by PostFinance CEO Hansruedi Köng in his speech. He called on the Top Scorers not to lose sight of long-term goals during difficult times. PostFinance’s commitment to Swiss ice hockey can also be seen in this light. The total of CHF 496,000 contributed to the coffers of clubs’ junior sections and Swiss Ice Hockey this season, and the CHF 6 million that PostFinance has paid out since the launch of the Top Scorer initiative speak volumes.

Top Scorer Kubalik on his childhood

Nobody collected more points during this qualification stage than Ambrì-Piotta’s PostFinance Top Scorer Dominik Kubalik. Something he could never have dreamt of during his childhood.

When I was young, I wanted to be like ...

... Cristiano Ronaldo.

When I was young, I wanted ...

... to win the Champions League. In football.

When I was young, I never wanted ...

... to be anything but a sportsperson.

When I was young, I never imagined ...

... that I’d play ice hockey in Switzerland one day.

When I was young, I wasn’t allowed ...

... to do lots of things. In fact, so many things that I can’t remember everything I wasn’t allowed to do.