ROCHESTER — A week into its stay in Rochester, the Switzerland hockey team is adjusting well to Minnesota, on and off the ice.
After picking up a shoot-out win over the Minnesota State University, Mankato men’s hockey team on Tuesday, the team has endured a few grueling practices in preparation for what’s to come in the next two weeks as it competes in the 2026 U20 World Junior Championship.
The players, coaches and staff have mixed in some downtime, which included Christmas shopping at Rochester’s Apache Mall and dinner at Sorellina’s Italian restaurant. The team will do a Secret Santa gift exchange as a way to celebrate the holidays while they are away from home.
“Of course, you want to spend time with your family, but I think World Juniors is not a bad excuse to not spend time at home,” 19-year-old Switzerland defenseman Leon Muggli said.
The Swiss team will head up to the Twin Cities after its game on Dec. 23 and will have Christmas Eve off before hitting the ice for practice on Christmas Day. WJC Preliminary games begin on Dec. 26. The tournament runs through Jan. 5, the day of the gold medal game.
This is Muggli’s third year playing in the U20 WJC with Switzerland. He wore an “A” on his jersey at the last tournament and is projected to be named captain of this year’s team. Muggli, a native of Cham, Switzerland, is in his second season with the Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals. He was selected by the Capitals in the second round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
Player development staff members with the Capitals make the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Washington, D.C. to Hershey a few times a month to meet with Muggli and other draft picks.
“You get some good exchanges there,” Muggli said. “So you’re kind of like more in the organization than (you would be) playing overseas. You see them quite a lot, which is good.”
The 6-foot-1, 176-pound Muggli leads the way for Switzerland’s blueliners, with defense and goaltending expected to be the team’s main assets.
“Our biggest strength, I think, is our team speed,” said Switzerland head coach Jan Cadieux, who has coached players of all ages for 10 years. “We have a lot of good skaters, and we can play fast. … I think we have a pretty solid D-Corps with four guys coming back from last year as well.
“… We have three goalies. We have two of them that already were at the world’s last year too. … A lot of players, they have the chance to play in the pro league in Switzerland already, so they have experience playing against really good players and at a high level.
Muggli played in two games with the Bears this season before an injury sidelined him in late October for 20 games, but he is back and ready to represent his country in the WJC.
Switzerland’s Ludvig Johnson during a practice Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, at the Rochester Recreation Center. The team is in Rochester to practice ahead of the 2026 World Junior Championship in Minneapolis, which starts the day after Christmas. Switzerland will play two pre-tournament games in Rochester. They play Denmark on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 7 p.m. and will play Sweden on Tuesday, Dec. 23, at 7 p.m.
Joe Ahlquist / Post Bulletin
“We got a good mix of guys who can move the puck, who can shut down their top line,” Muggli said. “Doing just the small things the right way, but also the forwards helping us getting back through the middle, and we got some good goalies, too, so that helps for sure. So it’s not only the D-men, it’s like the whole group (that) is pretty dialed in on defense.”
Other defenders to watch are 19-year-old Ludvig Johnson, a 2025 sixth-round Utah Mammoth draft pick, and 19-year-old Basile Sansonnens, who was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the seventh round in 2024.
“I stay in touch with a development guy like every week and every other week we have a Zoom call,” Johnson said of his contact with the Utah NHL Club. “So they watch my shifts, we speak together, and watch things I could do better and things I do well as well. So yeah, that’s great.”
Johnson, who plays for Fribourg-Gottéron, a professional hockey team out of Fribourg, Switzerland, is competing in his second WJC. Back home, Johnson’s teammates range in age from teens to 40s. While he is one of the youngest on his team in Switzerland, he is one of the older players on this year’s U20 WJC team.
“I can learn a lot from the older guys,” Johnson said. “How they have witnessed things in the past, what they would do, and it’s nice for me because I am relatively new in the league, so it helps me very much. And here, I just want to be a good teammate and help on the ice as (well) as I can.”
The Swiss
team will wrap up its time in Rochester
with pre-tournament games against Denmark at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 21 and versus Sweden at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 23. The players will do a Meet and Greet at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22. That event and the games will be held at the Rochester Recreation Center.
“(I’m looking forward to) spend(ing) time together with my teammates and with my friends,” Johnson said. “And play against the best players in the world in my age (group), that’s going to be very fun.”
WJC Pre-Tournament Game
What: World Junior Championship Pre-Tournament finale
Who: Switzerland vs. Sweden
When, where: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Rochester Recreation Center
Tickets: All seats are general admission, available at mnsportsandevents.org/2026-World-Juniors-Pre-Tournament-Series
First things first: Swedish forward Ivar Stenberg is in the conversation to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Switzerland center Jonah Neuenschwander is projected as a first-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.