Mathias Seger (born 17 December 1977) is a Swiss former 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 ...

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

who played for the

SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers The SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers are a professional ice hockey club from Rapperswil, Switzerland and are members of the National League. History The Lakers were founded in 1945 and were known as SC Rapperswil-Jona until 2005, when the club chan ...

and the

ZSC Lions The Zürcher Schlittschuh Club Lions (ZSC Lions) are a professional ice hockey team located in Zürich, Switzerland, playing in the National League (NL). Their home arena is the 12,000-seat Swiss Life Arena. The team was founded in 1930 and pla ...

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). Seger began his professional career with SC Rapperswil-Jona in 1996. He played three seasons with Rapperswil-Jona before joining the Lions in 1999. With the Swiss men's national team he won a silver medal at the 2013 World Championships. Seger also won the 2009 Champions League as well as six National League titles, all with the ZSC Lions. He will be inducted into the

IIHF Hall of Fame The IIHF Hall of Fame is a hall of fame operated by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was founded in 1997, and has resided at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto since 1998. Prior to 1997, the IIHF housed exhibits at the Origina ...

in 2020.

Playing career

Seger was selected to play for the

Switzerland men's national ice hockey team The Switzerland men's national ice hockey team (german: Schweizer Eishockeynationalmannschaft; french: Équipe de Suisse de hockey sur glace; it, Nazionale di hockey su ghiaccio della Svizzera) is a founding member of the International Ice Hock ...

at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May Doan Nancy GreeneWayne Gr ...

. He also represented Switzerland at the 1996 and 1997

IIHF World U20 Championship The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...

, and the 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014

Ice Hockey World Championship The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual ...

, and the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

and 2006 Winter Olympics. By playing his 16th World Championship in 2014, Seger set a record for most appearances. On 7 January 2014 Seger was named to Switzerland's official

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games (russian: XXII Олимпийские зимние игры, XXII Olimpiyskiye zimniye igry) and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (russian: Сочи 2014), was an international ...

roster, marking his fourth Olympic appearance. On 28 February 2017 Seger agreed to a one-year contract extension with the Lions for a reported worth of CHF 1.5 million. In the summer of 2017, Seger was stripped of Zurich captaincy for undisclosed reasons. Patrick Geering became the new captain of the team. After winning his sixth Swiss championship title with the ZSC Lions in 2018, he announced the end of his playing career. He played a total of 1167 games in the National League, as well as 327 games with the Swiss national team. On 4 February 2020 he was announced as an inductee into the player category of the

. The induction ceremony was scheduled during the

2020 IIHF World Championship The 2020 IIHF World Championship would have been hosted by Switzerland from 8 to 24 May 2020, as the IIHF announced on 15 May 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic. The tournament was cancelled on 21 March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Venues P ...

, but was delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. The IIHF Hall of Fame class of 2020/2022 was inducted during the

2022 IIHF World Championship The 2022 IIHF World Championship was hosted by Finland from 13 to 29 May 2022, as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced on 19 May 2017 in Cologne, Germany. The host cities of the World Championships were Tampere and Helsinki, ...

. In 2020 he was introduced in to the IIHF All-Time Switzerland Team.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seger, Mathias Living people 1977 births Olympic ice hockey players of Switzerland Swiss ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey players at the 2002 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2006 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers players ZSC Lions players Sportspeople from the canton of St. Gallen