Yannick Rathgeb (born October 24, 1995) is a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

who is currently playing with

EHC Biel EHC Biel-Bienne is a professional ice hockey club based in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, Switzerland and plays in the National League (NL). Since the city of Biel is completely bilingual, alongside the German name EHC Biel (Abbr: EHCB) the tea ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL). He previously played with

HC Fribourg-Gottéron HC Fribourg-Gottéron is a professional ice hockey team based in Fribourg, Switzerland, which competes in the National League (NL). The team is the sixth most attended team in Switzerland for the 2015/16 season with 6,156 spectators. History The ...

in the NL and with the

Bridgeport Sound Tigers The Bridgeport Islanders (previously known as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers) are a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League (AHL). They are the AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, who own the f ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

(AHL).

Playing career

Junior

Rathgeb started playing hockey in his hometown of

Langenthal Langenthal is a town and a municipality in the district of Oberaargau in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2010 the municipality of Untersteckholz merged into the Langenthal. On 1 January 2021 the former municipality of Obersteckhol ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

before joining the

SCL Tigers SC Langnau Tigers are a professional ice hockey team from Langnau im Emmental, Switzerland. They play in the National League (NL). The team plays its home games in the 6,000-seat Ilfis Stadium, which is currently one of the smallest arenas in the N ...

to play with their U20 team in the Elite Junior A league. He spent the majority of the 2011-12 season with the U17 team, playing only 8 games (3 points) with the U20. He became a regular with the U20 team the next year in 2012-13, appearing in 35 regular season games and putting up 31 points, including 15 goals. He added 3 assists in 4 post-season contests. Rathgeb joined the

Plymouth Whalers The Plymouth Whalers were a major junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. They played out of Compuware Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, USA, a suburb of Detroit until 2015 when they were relocated to Flint, Michigan. History The Whalers ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

(OHL) for the 2013-14 season as the #113 overall pick in the 2013

CHL Import Draft The CHL Import Draft is an annual event in which every team in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) may select the rights to eligible import players. An import is classified as a player who does not have residency status in either Canada or the U ...

. He played a second season with the Whalers in 2014-15 and appeared in 91 regular season games (37 points) and 1 playoffs game over 2 seasons. During the 2014 OHL playoffs, Rathgeb was suspended 10 games for hitting

Guelph Storm The Guelph Storm are a major junior ice hockey team based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. They have played in the OHL since the 1991–92 season. The team plays home games at the Sleeman Centre. History The franchise started as the Toronto Marlb ...

forward

Robby Fabbri Robert Fabbri (born January 22, 1996) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the first round, 21st overall, of the 2014 NHL Entry Dra ...

from behind.

Professional

HC Fribourg-Gottéron

On March 19, 2015, at the conclusion of his junior career, he returned to Switzerland and joined

of the

(NL). He made his NL debut during the 2015-16 season, playing a full season of 50 games and racking up an impressive 27 points. At the conclusion of the season, Rathgeb received the NL best rookie award. In his second season with Fribourg, Rathgeb agreed to a two-year contract extension with an NHL-out clause on December 12, 2016. He went on to play a total of 133 regular season games (89 points) with Fribourg over 3 seasons.

New York Islanders

On April 6, 2018, Rathgeb agreed to a two-year entry level contract with the

New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ( ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL). Rathgeb was assigned to the

of the

(AHL) to begin the 2018-19 season. He was limited to 32 regular season games in his first year with the Islanders organization and he was released at the end of the season.

EHC Biel

On May 20, 2019, Rathgeb joined

of the NL on a three-year deal. He finished the 2019-20 season, his first in Biel, as the team's third point scorer and first among defensemen with 32 points (10 goals) in 49 regular season games.

International play

Rathgeb served as captain of Switzerland's national junior team at the 2015 World Junior Championships. Rathgeb made his debut with Switzerland men's national team in February 2016.

Personal life

Rathgeb was born in

and played most of his junior hockey with

SC Langenthal Schlittschuh Club Langenthal known as SC Langenthal is a Swiss professional ice hockey team. They have played since the 2001–02 season in the Swiss League, the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the Na ...

's various junior teams before moving to North America in 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rathgeb, Yannick 1995 births Living people EHC Biel players Plymouth Whalers players HC Fribourg-Gottéron players Ice hockey people from the canton of Bern Swiss ice hockey defencemen