Glen Metropolit: Hard worker in the Team Canada

He’s the man who sticks out among the players of a rather well-balanced and uniform Canadian team: Glen Metropolit. Time and again he shows his magic in Switzerland’s hockey stadiums when he breaks away for a brilliant solo or plays a spectacular and precise pass to one of his teammates. He’s the player who’s supposed to save Team Canada from another disappointing Spengler Cup appearance; otherwise, 2011 will be the fourth year in a row where the Canadians cannot win the trophy in Davos.

Back in the 2005/2006 season when he first played for HC Lugano in the Swiss national league, he was extremely praised and the media spoke very highly of him: “Too good for Switzerland,” was one of the headlines on Swiss national TV. With 65 scorer points in 44 games, he even exceeded all expectations and didn’t disappoint his fans or the club who’d hired him. During the same season, Metropolit won the Swiss national championship with HC Lugano, or the “Bianconeri as their supporters call them. It has been the last national title for the team from Ticino until today.

Comeback in the NHL

It was nothing more than logical that Metropolit would return to the NHL after this very impressive season in Switzerland. Back in North America, he first joined the organization of the Atlanta Trashers, with whom he finished his first season back in the NHL with a +/- rating of +9. His scoring record was also quite decent: 28 points in 57 games.

But Metropolit still had to leave the club after just one season: the Thrashers traded him for the US hockey star Keith Tkachuk from the St. Louis Blues. When his contract with this new club wasn’t extended either, Metropolit got transferred to the Boston Bruins.

Finally: Breakthrough in Montreal

But Boston wasn’t his final destination yet: His journey continued and he joined the Philadelphia Flyers, for whom he scored just 14 points in 55 games. No wonder that his employers weren’t satisfied with his performance and that he had to leave the club again.

In 2009, Metropolit moved on to the Montreal Canadiens, where he had his most successful season (2009/2010) in North America and where he managed to convince everyone. So it was quite surprising that he decided to return to Switzerland at the end of the season.

Aiming for the Championship Win with EV Zug

Swiss national league team EV Zug signed the Canadian playmaker. Metropolit has been a very important player and has been showing his qualities and capabilities on the ice from the very first games for the club. Both during the last and the current season, Metropolit has scored more than one point per game (53 points in 47 games last season; 29 points in 29 games so far this season). EV Zug, the club from central Switzerland, is now dreaming of winning the championship; and Metropolit‘s qualities and performances will be very important in making this dream come true.

It’s also quite extraordinary how the 37-year-old Canadian himself sees his role on the ice: When a Swiss TV reporter asked him before the start of the current season what the audience could expect of him for the games to come, he didn’t say that he planned to show some extraordinary moves or take on a leading role on the ice, he just said: “hard work.”