Hockey: Mason MCTAVISH, this NHL star who grew up in Switzerland

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Ice hockeyMCTAVISH, this NHL star who grew up in Switzerland
Anaheim Ducks striker, the Canadian Mason MCTAVISH spent the first eight years of his life in our country. Memories.
Mason MCTAVISH scored 13 goals in 46 games played with Anaheim since the start of the 2024-2025 NHL season.
IMAGO/Imagn ImagesMason MCTAVISH (22), one of the hockey players on which the Anaheim Ducks count to reconnect with the NHL success, has a strong link with Switzerland. Even if he is no longer able to express himself in German and Switzerland-German, the skillful attacker of 99 kg for 1.85 my still memories of his years spent in the German-style part of countries. He gladly opened up after a match lost against the Montreal Canadiens in the Bell Center locker room.
He was born in Zurich
When we showed up on him after an NHL championship match in Montreal, in December 2024, Mason MCTAVISH greeted us in Switzerland-German. “I unfortunately forgot the other words, apart from” Danke “, he explains. It’s a shame because I did not speak too much in this language in my childhood. ” From 2003 to 2010, he spent the first eight years of his life in Switzerland because his dad, Dale, was a formidable striker of Rapperswil, Zurich and Zug.
His dad, Dale, in 2005-2006 with the ZSC Lions.
He has a Swiss license
No. 23 of Anaheim Ducks skates with a Swiss game license because he had played his first matches in the junior ranks of Zug. He is therefore not considered a foreign hockey in Switzerland. In 2020-2021, in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic, he had also joined HC Olten, in Swiss League.
With Olten in February 2021.
imago images/Sergio Brunetti“I will never say thank you enough to the people who welcomed me in this club. It is thanks to this adventure, my first with a team of adults, that I was able to be drafted in a good position in NHL. ” In 2021, he was the third universal choice of the draft.
He trained in Lugano
“I have only good memories of Switzerland,” he says sincerely. Whether at school or in the rinks. “When I was 17, HC Lugano had taken care of me and allowed me to train with its first team in August.” Nor has he forgot the hot atmospheres of the stands. “Speaking of stands, I still have those of Sierre, all in red and yellow, well in mind,” he laughs. We don’t see that elsewhere. “
He wants the white cross passport
Mason MCTAVISH travels with Canadian documents and has often worn the country’s jersey to the maple leaf in international tournaments. In 2022, for example, he won the gold medal at the M20 World Cup, a tournament of which he had been the top scorer (8), the best pointer (17) and the best player (MVP).
M20 world champion in 2022.
IMAGO/ZUMA Press“I don’t have the Swiss passport, but I can get it. I will also take the administrative procedures soon. ”
He can’t wait to win
In Anaheim, where he is playing his third season in the North American professional league, Mason MCTAVISH produced an average of 0.6 point per game with a reconstruction team. A club that develops young people and that does not yet have the fabric to compete with the best on a regular basis. “It’s a long process,” he said. Sometimes I get impatient and want to win right away. ” The Ducks are 27th in a general classification which includes 32 teams.