Benjamin Conz (born September 13, 1991) is a Swiss professional

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

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

who currently plays for

HC Ambrì-Piotta Hockey Club Ambrì-Piotta is a Swiss professional ice hockey club and a member of the National League (NL). The club was founded September 19, 1937, and is also known as "Bianco-Blu" (English: white and blues). Though they have never won the leagu ...

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 ...

(NL). He was eligible for the

2009 NHL Entry Draft The 2009 NHL Entry Draft was the 47th Entry Draft. It was held on June 26–27, 2009, at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec. The Draft was part of the Montreal Canadiens' centennial celebrations. National Hockey League teams took turns selec ...

and

2010 NHL Entry Draft The 2010 NHL Entry Draft was the 48th NHL Entry Draft, held on June 25–26, 2010 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, home arena of the Los Angeles Kings. This was the first time Los Angeles hosted the NHL Entry Draft. An unofficial r ...

, but went undrafted, being drafted 185th overall in the

2010 KHL Junior Draft The 2010 KHL Junior Draft was the second entry draft held by the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), taking place on June 4, 2010. Ice hockey players from around the world aged between 17 and 21 years of age were selected. Players eligible to take p ...

by SKA St. Petersburg instead.

Playing career

Benjamin started his career in the 2007–08 with the Swiss U20 team, which competed in the

Swiss League The Swiss League is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League. The winners of the league each season plays a best-of-seven series against the bottom team of the NL, and if they win, t ...

(SL). After moderate showing in the SL, he signed his first professional contract with

Genève-Servette HC The Genève-Servette HC (also called Servette or GSHC) is a professional ice hockey club based in Geneva, Switzerland and competing in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. The team plays their home games at th ...

of the

(NL). He posted a 2.50 GAA in 21 games played with Servette. For the 2009–2010 season, he was on loan to 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 ...

, also in the NL, located in

Langnau im Emmental Langnau im Emmental is a municipality in the administrative district of Emmental in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is situated in the upper Emmental between Bern and Lucerne. It has about 9,000 inhabitants and is the most important ...

. He was ranked as the fourth best international goaltender by the

NHL Central Scouting Bureau The NHL Central Scouting Services (CSS) is a department within the National Hockey League that ranks prospects for the NHL Entry Draft at specific times during the hockey season. Players are ranked based on how well they will translate to the prof ...

in 2010, and entered into the 2010 NHL Entry Draft but he still went undrafted. TSN's hockey analysts

Pierre McGuire Regis Pierre McGuire (born August 8, 1961) is an American-Canadian ice hockey executive who last served as senior vice-president of player development for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously worked as a televi ...

and Gord Miller both compared Conz favourably to

Conn Smythe Constantine Falkland Cary Smythe, MC (; February 1, 1895 – November 18, 1980) was a Canadian businessman, soldier and sportsman in ice hockey and horse racing. He is best known as the principal owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Nationa ...

winner and Stanley Cup champion

Jean-Sébastien Giguère Jean-Sébastien Giguère (; born May 16, 1977) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey goaltender. He played with the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), where he was drafted 13th overall by the Hartford W ...

. On June 21, 2017, Conz was shipped to

despite one year remaining on his contract with Fribourg. He was signed to a one-year contract by Ambri with an option for a second year. Ambri-Piotta exercised his option on February 1, 2018. On November 11, 2018, Conz was signed to an early two-year contract extension by Ambri-Piotta through the 2020/21 season. With a nagging hip injury following the 2018-19 season, Conz had to undergo surgery on May 20, 2019. He was sidelined for 5 months and returned to game action on October 27, 2019 on a rehab assignment with the HCB Ticino Rockets of the

. He eventually returned to play with Ambri-Piotta but sustained an adductor injury on December 8, 2019, forcing him to sit out a month of competition, including the 2019 Spengler Cup in which Ambri-Piotta was invited.

International play

At the 2010 IIHF World U20 Championships, Conz led the Swiss team to impressive fourth place finish. He managed an upset of the

Slovaks The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak. In Slovakia, 4.4 ...

by stopping 39 shots in a 4–1 victory. This victory advanced Switzerland to the knockout round to face the highly favoured

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

squad. Against the Russian, Conz had another impressive match where he made 50 saves on 52 shots, as the Swiss advanced 3–2. After losing to the Canadians 6–1 and Swedes 11–4 and out of the medals, Conz finished the tournament with a 4.76 GAA and an 89.31% save percentage, an impressive feat due to the workload the over-matched Swiss defence allowed on Conz. He faced more than 300 shots on goal, making him the tournament's busiest goalie, and his 284 saves in seven games were tournament best. Despite allowing the second most goals in the tournament at 34, he was selected to the tournament all-star team and named the best goaltender.

Awards

* 2010 IIHF World Juniors all-star team. *IIHF Best

Award -

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

World Juniors. *

Spengler Cup The Spengler Cup is an annual invitational ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss t ...

Champion -

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

(

)

Career statistics

As of the end of the 2008–09 season.

International

As of the end of the 2009–10 season.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Conz, Benjamin 1991 births Living people HC Ambrì-Piotta players HC Lugano players People from Porrentruy HC Fribourg-Gottéron players Genève-Servette HC players SCL Tigers players Swiss ice hockey goaltenders Sportspeople from the canton of Jura