Hischier Primed to Spotlight Swiss Hockey on Olympic Stage | FEATURE 

From his home in Switzerland, Devils captain Nico Hischier couldn’t hide his excitement.

This moment has been years in the making: the Devils' captain is officially headed to the Olympics.

He’s been named before, but never got the chance to play. In 2022, the dream was put on hold when NHL players were pulled from the Beijing Games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, that dream is alive again, and this time, it feels different. It feels real.

For Hischier, it’s more than just a tournament. It’s the honor of representing his country on the world’s biggest stage, something he’s long imagined, and he will finally get to live out.

“I was excited back then, but obviously even more excited now because it is one thing I haven’t done yet, haven’t been a part of and I think it’s something that I’m really going to enjoy," Hischier said from Switzerland. "For an athlete, that’s really special. The Olympic Games is worldwide, it is very special. I mean, it's every fourth year. It's totally different than, like, for example, our World Championship. I think the Olympic Games are for the world, it's pretty exciting. Everybody's watching. I think the fact that it's every four years makes it very special. And just the whole event, like with all the other athletes, it's just a big event for an athlete."

Though never in doubt, as one of the current top Swiss players and a cornerstone of their national team, the honor of being named one of the first six players to the roster is meaningful. Especially as his name appeared alongside two of his Devils teammates, Timo Meier and Jonas Siegenthaler, they'll seamlessly transition from Devils teammates to Olympians together when NHL players depart for Milan in February 2026.

"I try to be thankful, because I don't think it's very common, especially for Swiss guys, to have three Swiss guys in the same (NHL team) and we're all doing well with each other," Hischier said. "I'm just very thankful and it's going to be a very, very fun time, and I'll try to enjoy it as much as possible."

What Hischier is also looking forward to is yet another opportunity to showcase how far Swiss hockey has come, on a completely different world stage. And if Switzerland's previous two World Championship performances are any indication, Switzerland has a real opportunity to make some noise. But, as Hischier explained, this will be a whole other level of competition. Worlds are one beast, Olympic hockey is another force to be reckoned with. The entire Swiss hockey program has taken leaps and bounds in recent years, but they're no longer okay with just being a part of a tournament, they want to win and believe they can.

"From a team perspective in Switzerland, like there's never been a team ever that won a gold medal," he said. "At World Championships, we've been very close a couple times, and it's been always just missing the little things. But also, we definitely do know that in the Olympic Games, you're facing another type of U.S. team, another type of Team Canada, than we face in the World Championships. So it makes it, obviously, even tougher.

"But it's been good for us to be like, even in those World Championships, yeah, and those competitions that we were able to go to the final twice in a row and show the world that that we do have a good crew, and we're good, we do have a good team. And it doesn't necessarily need all players from the NHL. We've still got lots of lots of good players, and have our very own good leagues here in Switzerland. So it's been definitely good to prove that."

This is yet another opportunity for Hischier and his fellow Swiss teammates to showcase the growth of their team game. The Winter Olympics are always a big deal in a place like Switzerland, where winter sports reign supreme. Hischier says even in their most recent World Championship performances, they see the support from the Swiss fans continue to grow at an exponential pace. And with the proximity from most of Switzerland to Italy, you might expect the Swiss fans to come out in droves. Milan is just two hours from where Hischier grew up, he said, and just a half hour from Lugano.

"I think a lot of lot of people, a lot of Swiss fans, I'm sure they will come support us," Hischier noted. "They will come to support all the Swiss athletes, and it'll be definitely a fun event. It seems like, especially after those kind of World championships, you can see how many people you drag into hockey, how many people watch the games. And I enjoy it and having fun. And at the end of the day, that's the goal from us too: giving people joy watching us play."

When Switzerland opens its tournament on February 12, 2026, it will begin with the easiest matchup from its Group A games. They will face France, followed by matchups against Canada on the 13th and Czechia on the 15th.

It may be the toughest group in the tournament, but it doesn’t faze Hischier.

"Obviously not an easy group, definitely," he said, before delving into a mentality Hischier is well known for. "But if you want to win something in those (big) tournaments, you gotta beat the big teams and big names. It will be fun, and I think we're gonna have a very good mindset. We have a good crew, and we know it's gonna be a tough tournament, but we are going there to enjoy the whole event as much as we can, and try to give our best and see what comes out. That's all we can control."

The Swiss, with talent like the three Devils players, Roman Josi and Nino Niederreitter, already named to the team, and other Swiss players playing in the NHL like Kevin Fiala, Philipp Kurashev, Pius Suter, and J.J. Moser, along with their talented European league playing counterparts, the Swiss may not be the favorites at the 2026 Olympics, but they're certainly not to be taken likely.

The Swiss national team thrives with a team-first mentality, and that's exactly what Hischier expects when they suit up in February of 2026.

Until then, Hischier remains focused on preparing for the 2025-26 NHL season, just a few short months away. After getting injured at the World Championship and having to sit out the majority of the silver-medal winning run, Hischier says he's feeling good and began skating again last week as he readies for his ninth NHL season and a big year ahead, captaining the Devils and showcasing Swiss hockey at the Olympics.

But a day after watching the Florida Panthers hoist the Stanley Cup, the 26-year-old thought of just one thing:

"Seeing every year a team lifting up the Stanley Cup, it stings a bit, to be honest," he said. "But, it makes you excited that maybe someday it'll be your team. And that's the goal everybody's trying to work toward."