Tobias Stephan (born 21 January 1984) is a Swiss former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) 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. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

who predominately played in the Swiss

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

(NL) from 2001 to 2023. He also played 11 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) for the

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The Stars ...

during the 2007–08 and 2008–9 seasons. Internationally he played for the Swiss national team at three

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

Playing career

Stephan was born in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. As a youth, he played in the 1997 and 1998

Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament () is an annual minor ice hockey event in Quebec City. The tournament was founded in 1960 to coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival, and give an opportunity for international competition to p ...

s with a team from Zürich. In 2001, he was named the best goaltender at U18 World Junior Championships. Stephan first played for

EHC Chur EHC Chur (formerly EHC Chur Sport AG) is a Switzerland, Swiss professional ice hockey team based in Chur, Switzerland. The club currently plays in the Swiss League (SL). Its home arena is the 6,500-seat Hallenstadion (Chur), Thomas Domenig Stadion ...

and then for the

Kloten Flyers EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

in Switzerland. In 2002, he was named the best rookie in the Swiss Hockey League. Stephan was drafted 34th overall in the second round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the

, and is the third highest Swiss drafted in history. He is the fourth Swiss goalie who has been drafted by an NHL team after

Pauli Jaks Pauli Jaks (born January 25, 1972) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender who played one game in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings during the 1994–95 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1989 to 2006, was mainly sp ...

David Aebischer David Aebischer (born February 7, 1978) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League with the Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens and the Phoenix Coyotes. He was a member of the 2001 Stanley Cup ...

and

Martin Gerber Martin Gerber (born 3 September 1974) is a Swiss former professional ice hockey goaltender. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft (232nd overall) by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He played in the National Hockey League ...

. Stephan made his first career NHL start on 13 October 2007 against the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (N ...

, since both of the Stars' goaltenders —

Marty Turco Marty Vincent Turco (born August 13, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). He played nine seasons with the Dallas Stars and one season each with the Chicago Blackha ...

and Mike Smith — were injured. Until the Blackhawks tied the game with two seconds remaining in regulation, Stephan had saved all 39 shots and was looking forward to a shutout in his first game. However, the Blackhawks scored again on their first shot in overtime and won the game 2–1. He would go back to the AHL after the game . Before the 08/09 season started, he would learn that he will be backing up Marty Turco. His first win was on 29 October against the

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Confer ...

— the Stars won 4–2. Stephan left the Stars on 31 July 2009 to sign for Genève-Servette in Switzerland. At the conclusion of the 2018–19 season, Stephan joined

Lausanne HC Lausanne Hockey Club is an ice hockey team based in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, which competes in the National League (NL). During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the HC Lausanne signed National Hockey League players Martin St. Louis and Andy Ro ...

on a three-year deal worth CHF 3 million. On 6 February 2023, during his fourth year with Lausanne HC, Stephan announced he would retire from professional hockey at the conclusion of the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season, following 22 professional seasons.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

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Statistics and Biography
1984 births Living people Dallas Stars draft picks Dallas Stars players EV Zug players Genève-Servette HC players Ice hockey people from Zurich Ice hockey players at the 2010 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2014 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players at the 2018 Winter Olympics Iowa Stars players EHC Kloten players Lausanne HC players Olympic ice hockey players for Switzerland Swiss ice hockey goaltenders {{Switzerland-icehockey-bio-stub