From underdog to top goalkeeper at EHC Kloten

“It’s an impudence,” says Ludovic Waeber. The question was what it was like for the Florida Everblades, a team in the fabled third-tier East Coast Hockey League. The goalkeeper was deported there in March. «I arrived shortly before kick-off and didn’t have a single training session. It was absurd,” says Waeber.

It was the low point of an unexpected adventure that Waeber had set out on last fall. To everyone’s astonishment, the Florida Panthers said to themselves: Of all the goalies under contract in the National League, we would like to have the ZSC Lions number 2. Florida transferred the standard compensation of $260,000 to Zurich for the takeover. In order to convince Waeber to make the move, the management called up, among others, former superstar Roberto Luongo and the goalie whisperer François Allaire, who was hired as an advisor, in a video meeting – a now grizzled eminence who once played a major role in the Swiss goalkeepers’ stellar NHL careers David Aebischer, Martin Gerber and Jonas Hiller had.

The celebrity wouldn’t have been necessary: ​​it’s clear to Waeber that he doesn’t want to miss this opportunity. Especially since the alternative is to open the gate to the gang a bit behind number 1 Simon Hrubec at the ZSC.

Kloten chose Waeber over Servettien Gauthier Descloux – it seems to have been a wise decision

Financially, the adventure wasn’t worth it for him – his AHL salary was $85,000, almost half of which went to taxes and duties. And not much worked out in terms of sport either: 15 games with very mediocre statistics for Charlotte, then the interlude in the East Coast Hockey League and ultimately a move to the Pittsburgh organization, where the farm team also found little use for him. Waeber says: “It wasn’t an easy year mentally. But I learned a lot and became more mature.”

The beneficiary of this development is EHC Kloten. Kloten’s board spent a lot of energy trying to get Waeber away from local rivals ZSC, where he would have been under contract until 2025. The efforts were successful, also because Kloten cannot pose a serious threat to the people of Zurich in the near future. The clubs play in the same league, but they are worlds apart.

After promotion in 2022, Kloten relied on the Finn Juho Metsola for two years. But there are so many problem areas in the squad that over the months the conviction has developed that, if possible, no longer use a foreign license for the goalkeeper position. Kloten could have signed Gauthier Descloux, the Geneva/Servette goalkeeper. But when he hesitated to commit to the Kloten project, the club focused fully on Waeber. It may have been the right decision: Descloux is injured again.

Waeber has now won all of his first four games for Kloten and the defense rate is an impressive 95.04 percent. For comparison: In the mostly torturous 2023/2024 season, the Kloteners had to wait until the 13th round to win four games. This was already achieved on the second weekend. A mild autumn is currently on the horizon in Kloten.

It is also to Waeber’s credit that Kloten, along with the Lakers, is the positive surprise of the still very young season. It seems as if two people have found each other, both of whom draw strength and motivation from the fact that little is believed in them. This applies to Kloten, a club that has to build up goodwill again after very chaotic months with many sudden changes in direction. And it applies to Waeber, who was given little in his career, perhaps even: nothing.

At the ZSC Lions, Waeber exceeded all expectations – and was still only second choice

Waeber grew up in Freiburg, in the wake of Gottéron. He discovered the sport at the age of five while attending a match with his father, although the family was more inclined towards football: his grandfather Jean-Claude Waeber had once led FC Bulle to the National League A as a coach. But the grandson is immediately fascinated by the appearance of the goalies in ice hockey – namely the then Gottéron goalkeeper Gianluca Mona. Waeber says: “I was very enthusiastic about superheroes back then. Power Rangers, Spiderman, Batman, Hulk. And to me that’s exactly what the goalkeepers looked like with their equipment. So I wanted to become a goalie myself.”

He made his dream come true, but had to wait a long time for a club to actually bet on him. At Gottéron he was second choice at best for five winters and was often loaned out to the Swiss League. In Zurich he exceeded all expectations, but at the first opportunity he was put in front of Jakub Kovar and then Simon Hrubec. He is too well-bred a young man to complain about it: “I have a lot to thank the ZSC for,” he says.

Waeber has signed in Kloten for two years; It is the first time that he is the undisputed number 1 at a National League club. Some in the industry say these two winters are de facto a test run to see whether Waeber’s shoulders are broad enough to be able to carry a team long-term – Kloten into the play-in, for example. In any case, it is no secret that his development is being closely followed at Gottéron, his parent club, where, interestingly enough, the contract of national team goalie Reto Berra also ends in 2026.

He wastes “zero seconds” on such mental games, says Waeber. If ice hockey has taught him anything, it is that you have to live in the moment because everything turns out differently than you think anyway. And yet: In his current condition, Waeber is not just a stroke of luck for Kloten. But he could very soon become interesting again for the national team, for which he has only played four test matches so far.