Young Fribourg-Gotteron defenceman Yannick Rathgeb is tearing up the NLA and CHL with his offensive ability, but he'd be happier if his scoring touch resulted in more wins for his team. 

by Alain Hauert

FRIBOURG – Next Tuesday, Fribourg-Gotteron travel to Ostrava, Czech Republic to take on Vitkovice in the CHL Quarter-Finals. The Swiss club is among Europe's final eight for the first time, but this success on the international stage has not been matched by domestic success. The team started poorly in the NLA and currently sit 11th in the 12-team league. 

Yannick Rathgeb has been one of the bright spots on the team. As a rookie last season, he led all Fribourg defenceman in scoring with 27 points in 50 regular-season games. This season, the 21-year-old is on pace to better that mark with 16 points (7+9) in 22 games. In the CHL, his 9 points (2+7) in 8 games not only leads all defenceman in the competition, but is second among all players behind only Martin Thornberg, whose HV71 Jonkoping team was eliminated last round. 

At the end of the season, Rathgeb becomes a free agent, and there's already a lot of interest from other clubs in the Langenthal native. Right now, however, his focus is on Fribourg in the NLA and CHL.

Yannick, the first leg oft the CHL Quarter-Finals against Vitkovice Ridera Ostrava is coming up soon. How much do you know about them? 

“Actually, we haven't talked a lot about Vitkovice, as we've had important games in our national league where we are fighting to get a playoff spot. We are close to the other teams but we need to be consistent and get our points to finish in the top eight teams at the end of the regular season. But I think we will get more information about Vitkovice soon from the coaching staff. 

“What I do know is that it's a Czech team. In general, teams from eastern Europe play different than Scandinavian teams. Pucks are chipped in the zone more often and they forecheck constantly, which means we will have to play hard and physical, but our goal for sure is to win this round and move on to the Semi-Finals.” 

You are among the top scorers in the CHL – in fact, you lead all defencemen in the CHL in points. You're also scoring a lot in the NLA. How much do you pay attention to that? 

“To be honest, I don't really look at the individual stats. I just feel happy to be able to contribute with my goals and assists to our success in the last few weeks – especially on the power play, where we've made huge progress in recent games.”

If we look a little closer at the power play, it seems like you and Roman Cervenka know where each other are on the ice and the passing is kind of automatic.  

“I think Roman is a very special player. He is extremely talented and has a lot of experience. I needed some time to get used to play beside him, but now we know where to go. He finds me really often with perfect passes and that’s working really well. On the other hand, if we're having an off game, there are still other players like Julien Sprunger, Greg Mauldin or Michal Birner who are always dangerous for the other teams. This means we have many options and I hope that our power play will continue to pay off.” 

In general this season has not easy so far for Fribourg-Gotteron. While playing very strong in CHL, the start into the NLA season was difficult. After a really bad start and having changed the coach, you've been able to fight back and now you are still in the battle for a playoff spot. How important was the coaching change from Gerd Zanhausern to Larry Huras for the team? 

“I think the most important fact for the team was that something happened. We've lost too many games because of stupid mistakes – which still happens to this day. We have lost so many games in which we could have taken the points but we found ways to beat ourselves. We're making too many bad decisions, including myself, which result in goals against us, but these are points we can work on. The coaching attitude changed a lot from Zenhausern to Huras and I think in our situation, Huras is a good fit for our team.” 

Let's come back once again to your personal situation. Your strong play is also leading to rumours about next season. Your contract is ending and other teams seem to be interested in signing Yannick Rathgeb. How much does this influence your game and – importantly for the fans – do you have an idea yet where you're going to play next season? 

“These rumours are just rumours for the moment. I have had some discussions so far and this will go on the next few weeks. I will try to see what possibilities are there, but no decision has been made so far. The most important factor is what's best for me from a hockey standpoint. I am still young and I would like to improve my game from year to year, and I think the situation has not had a big influence on my game so far. 

“I was surprised myself that it hasn’t affected me more, because I always thought that it would be difficult to put these contract discussions aside at the moment, but if you look at the last few weeks, I don’t think it's changed me a lot. Maybe it helps that I was raised in a hockey family with my uncle (Noel Guyaz) who also played. I think he gives me a lot of good advice on how to manage these situations.”