Kovalev, who played for Visp in the 2014-15 season, has signed a one-year contract with EHC Visp and will serve as their team manager. The 43-year-old Russian has played in almost 1500 NHL games.
Furthermore, Visp has signed Tobias Bucher to a three-year contract. He will join them from the SCL Tigers, the team he played for for the last six seasons. His contract will last until the end of the 2018-19 season. Moreover, Nicolas Thibaudeau will join them from EV Zug. He has agreed to a two-year deal and will thus stay until 2018.
Another new addition is Kris Schmidli, who joins Visp from the ZSC Lions organisation. He, too, has agreed to a two-year deal and will thus be in Visp until 2018. 22-year-old defenseman Nicolas Wyssen, on the other hand, will leave HC Red Ice and has signed a one-year contract with Visp. He is a product of their organisation.
As for Andy Furrer, who just finished his twelfth season for EHC Visp, he has signed a one-year extension. His contract will run through 2017. 19-year-old forward Joel Wyssen has received a one-year development contract, whereas 18-year-old Janis Djerrah has received a try-out development contract. The forward will be able to prove himself during Visp's preparation for the new season.
Julien Privet (on loan from SC Bern), Maxime Montandon and Robin Kuonen (end of professional career) will no longer be part of the team next season. Moreover, defenseman Marc Geiger will leave Visp in direction of the GCK Lions, as Visp also announces.
Furthermore, Visp also had over 40 players in try-out on Monday and Tuesday and will decide in the upcoming weeks, if one or more of them will receive a contract. They have also increased their budget (+CHF 200,000) for the next season, which also happens to be their 75th anniversary. The program for the celebrations can be found here. (mso)
