Most 26-year-old hockey players who’ve scraped together 52 NHL games would be grinding for one more shot at the big league or heading home to the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) to become a hometown hero. Not Olle Lycksell.
Lycksell Has Decided to Play in Switzerland
The Swedish winger was drafted in the sixth round by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017, bounced around the American Hockey League (AHL), and signed with the Ottawa Senators last summer. He’s now lighting it up in Belleville while getting spot duty with the Senators. But he just dropped a bit of a bomb.
According to fresh reports from Sweden (Expressen via Pro Hockey Rumours), he’s turning down offers from back home in the SHL and has zero interest in re-signing with Ottawa or chasing another NHL deal. Instead, he’s set on moving to Switzerland’s National League next season. He’s basically saying, “thanks but no thanks” to the North American hockey grind and heading for the Alps.
Why Would Lycksell Make That Decision?
It’s not like he’s washed up. He’s still putting up good numbers in the AHL and has shown flashes in the NHL. But at this point, with under 80 NHL games on his résumé, he hits Group VI UFA status again this summer and can go wherever he wants. And he wants Switzerland.
Here’s the part that actually makes sense. The Swiss NL is one of those leagues where hockey is still played well and seriously. It’s fast, skilled, and physical. That said, the lifestyle feels like a vacation mode compared to the NHL or even the SHL.
The Swiss league only has about 50 regular-season games, not the endless 82 you get in the NHL. Most of ’em are on Tuesday, Friday, or Saturday, so you actually get real weekends to yourself. And travel? The whole country’s tiny—like the size of New Jersey—so you’re driving or jumping on a quick train to the next arena, then sleeping in your own bed that night. No ten-day road swings, no crossing time zones and feeling tired all the time, no living out of a suitcase for weeks on end.
Switzerland Is a Beautiful Place to Live and Work
And the towns? Tiny, gorgeous, low-key. Lugano (lake + mountains + Italian food vibe), Lausanne, Davos, Ambri-Piotta. As a hockey player, you become a local celebrity in a chill sort of way. Fans love you, but you can grab a coffee or hit the slopes without getting mobbed.
Salaries for a player like Lycksell should land him comfortably in the 400k–700k CHF (Swiss franc) range, plus housing and car perks. That’s good money in Switzerland. You live extremely well, taxes aren’t brutal in the right canton, and you actually get to enjoy it. If a player signs in Switzerland for 400k–700k CHF, that’s essentially the same as making $400k–$700k USD, because the Swiss franc is almost one-to-one with the U.S. dollar. In Canadian dollars, it’s even higher — roughly $540k–$945k CAD, depending on the exchange rate that week.
Getting Paid for Having Fun: A Pretty Decent Life
So when you hear numbers like that, you’re talking about earnings that sit in the range of high-end AHL money or the lower tier of NHL salaries, but in a league with fewer games, lighter travel, and a much easier day-to-day lifestyle. For many players, that combination makes Switzerland an appealing place to land.
Ex-NHL and SHL players who’ve made the jump say the same thing: you still compete at a high level, but you remember why you fell in love with the game. There’s no media circus, no “win-now-or-else” pressure every night, no fans dumping garbage on your lawn (think Mitch Marner in Toronto). Just good hockey in one of the most beautiful countries on earth.
So, Lycksell might be passing up his last chance in the NHL. But he’s cashing in on something a lot of players secretly dream about: playing pro hockey without it completely owning your life. It seems like a pretty smart idea. Having worked in Switzerland, I’d probably do the same.
Related: Whatever Happened to Mikko Koskinen, That Huge Oilers Goalie?
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