Winnipeg’s international man of mystery: Nino Niederreiter’s route to 1,000 NHL games – The Athletic
On Saturday night in Winnipeg, Nino Niederreiter will become the 416th player in NHL history — and first Swiss player ever — to play 1,000 regular-season games. That’s rare air in a league that’s seen 8,757 players play at least one game in the regular season or playoffs.
Niederreiter’s path to the milestone is even more unique.
The 33-year-old, described by his teammates as “an international man of mystery,” has one of the most diverse sets of interests you’ll find on any person — let alone a hockey player about to make history for his country.
“There was a video on Jets social media the other day and they were asking guys what they know the most about outside of hockey. Nino said something along the lines of, ‘I have a lot of different interests,’” Josh Morrissey told The Athletic. “I would corroborate that.”
Niederreiter’s extracurricular activities are legendary among his teammates. Social events with Roger Federer. Ski vacations in the Alps. Interest in wineries, visits with Formula 1 racing crews, and — yes — that time in 2015 when he took a flight, strapped to a chair on the wings of a 1940s open-cockpit Boeing Stearman biplane.
“Scared to death,” Niederreiter said to Michael Russo at the time.
The Niederreiter story — how he got from the Swiss mountain city of Chur to 1,000 games in the NHL — is one of the most unique routes a hockey player has taken to the milestone.
Describing his hometown of Chur, Switzerland to The Players Tribune in 2015, Niederreiter said, “Picture cobblestone roads, snow-covered rooftops, and two massive mountains on either side.”
It was an idyllic place from which to fall in love with hockey.
A group of Niederreiter’s friends took him to a local EHC Chur game in the Swiss B league, where he was struck by the play of Latvian centre Harijs Vitolins. He was on the ice himself the next day, learning to skate, Vitolins as his idol. Niederreiter’s father, Rene, was a steelworker, which meant a makeshift outdoor rink at the Niederreiter household — complete with a regulation net built out of iron piping.
“We came from a lower middle-class family, but nothing was missed in my childhood,” Niederreiter told The Athletic. “I remember my mom was always sad when my stick broke, so I never break a stick, even to this day, by being mad and frustrated. I know how much my mom had to suffer at home because she knew how expensive they were.”
Niederreiter’s mom, Ruth, worked as a midwife. Her brother was a weightlifter who got Niederreiter onto strength training early in life. By the time he was a teenager, Niederreiter starred for the EHC Chur youth team, an unstoppable offensive force. At 15, he scored a point per game for HC Davos in the Swiss elite Junior A program. It soon became clear the NHL was a possibility for Niederreiter, just like it had been for his idol, Vitolins, so he left his mom, dad, and two sisters to try playing WHL hockey for Portland.
Niederreiter was a great fit, scoring 77 goals over the course of 120 WHL games on a team that featured Ryan Johansen, Sven Baertschi, and Ty Rattie. But it was a World Juniors game in 2010 — Niederreiter’s first full season in North America — where he announced himself to the whole world. Niederreiter propelled the Swiss past a heavily favoured Russian team, tying the game with 32.3 seconds left and the Swiss net empty, then scoring the game-winning goal with 14.2 seconds left in overtime.
Niederreiter was drafted fifth by the New York Islanders in 2010. He played 64 of his NHL games with that organization before getting traded to Minnesota. He played 434 of his 1,000 games for the Wild, covered by Michael Russo — first, for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and then for The Athletic
It’s the 25th anniversary of the Minnesota Wild, so back in September before an exhibition game in Saint Paul, I went down to the locker room to chat with Niederreiter about the most exciting game I’ve covered in 31 years as an NHL beat writer and the second-biggest goal in Wild history. That was Game 7 in Colorado of the 2014 Western Conference quarterfinals when the Wild rallied from a one-goal deficit four different times – the last being Niederreiter winning a board battle to set up Jared Spurgeon’s overtime-forcing goal – before Niederreiter scored the series-clinching winner in OT with an incredible back-bar ringing wrister while streaking down the right wing at the Pepsi Center.
But I first caught up with Niederreiter on so many other fun things in his life, like his love of tennis and Roger Federer and the Swiss watchmaker Breitling’s “Transatlantic Flyers Club” – an exclusive group that Nino’s long belonged to. Nino’s done everything from sky diving to jumping on the front seat of a race plane to “Wing Walking.”
In the summer of 2015, Niederreiter was strapped to the upper wing of a 1940s open-cockpit Boeing Stearman biplane with 450-horsepower engines. Seated on a chair attached to a pole, he soared down the runway, took off and was exposed to the cold air while flying over the Alps at roughly 130 miles per hour at what he said was a “very high” altitude.
While he told me it wasn’t very comfortable, he swore to me it was “safe” in a 2015 profile I wrote on him in the Star Tribune. What Niederreiter and I laughed about in that September trip down memory lane is how my article actually got him in trouble.
“I still remember the phone call from (then-GM) Chuck Fletcher that said, ‘I think it’s better if you keep yourself on the ground, please!” Niederreiter said, laughing.
In my many years covering this incredible sport, Niederreiter has long been one of my favorites. Besides being a great hockey player, he’s a colorful figure, as nice as can be and one terrific human being.
Here’s one story that will always touch me and speaks to Niederreiter’s heart. In 2014, I watched on the news a sweet story about a 10-year-old named Nino Johnson from Maplewood, Minn., who saved the life of his grandfather, Pino, while he was drowning in a backyard pool. I thought it was cool that this kid was also named Nino, so I texted it to Niederreiter. Little did I know that Niederreiter was going to have somebody track down the boy so he could send him a note.
Here’s what Niederreiter wrote:
Dear Nino,
Though I am nearly 4,000 miles away in Switzerland, I saw a story on wcco.com last week about a 10-year old boy in Minnesota named Nino who rescued his grandfather in their backyard pool. I thought that was pretty cool, so I wanted to contact you directly to offer my congratulations. I’m sure your family is very proud of you.
I would like to congratulate you in person and am hoping you and your family will be my guest at training camp in September. I think it would be awesome to meet you after practice and give you an autographed jersey, from one Nino to another.
I’ll be in touch later this summer. Until then, enjoy your summer and I look forward to meeting you at Xcel Energy Center in September.
All the best,
Nino Niederreiter
What a gem of a person. Congrats, Nino, on 1,000 games. It was an honor and pleasure to cover a small part of your incredible career.
–Michael Russo, The Athletic
In some ways, Niederreiter’s 1,000th game is a full-circle moment. Before joining EHC Chur and inspiring Niederreiter to fall in love with hockey, Vitolins had made it all the way to the NHL, playing eight games for the 1993-94 Jets.
Vitolins, now the head coach of the Latvian men’s hockey team headed to the Olympics, said it’s a pleasant coincidence that Niederreiter plays for the only NHL team he played for.
“I feel truly honored that I was able to inspire Nino to play hockey, and I am very proud of him,” Vitolins said. “I believe the entire nation of Switzerland … is proud as well to see him reach the milestone.”
When the Jets acquired Niederreiter from Nashville for a second-round pick in 2023, it was part of one of the best runs of Kevin Cheveldayoff’s GM tenure. It also connected Niederreiter to the only NHL team his childhood idol played for.
Perhaps it was a sign of a contract extension to come. Maybe it was a normal thing for someone raised in the Swiss mountains to say.
But Niederreiter’s first impression of Winnipeg, speaking to Jets senior director of communications, Scott Brown, was that Winnipeg wasn’t all that cold.
Niederreiter has been a great on-ice fit in Winnipeg, adding a net-driving presence to Adam Lowry’s shutdown line. His commitment to backtracking, taking away lanes from teams who try to attack the Jets in transition, is the sign of a veteran who knows that hard work wins hockey games.
“He was a great teammate,” said Sam Gagner, the last player to reach 1,000 game milestone wearing a Jets jersey. “Very hardworking and committed. (He) has a ton of respect around the league because he works and plays honest.”
“Everyone’s taught to box out,” Rick Bowness said of Niederreiter when he was head coach. “Don’t let guys get to the net. Well, Nino’s strong enough when there is opposition to fight his way through that … Regardless of who he’s up against, he gets there.”
Off the ice, Niederreiter is appreciated by his teammates for his combination of worldliness and playfulness. He’s a noted prankster. Multiple teammates confided that they’ve found random avocados, airplane menus, or silverware in their gear as a result of Niederreiter’s silly streak.
3,454 metres above sea level 🇨🇭🗻
Nino Niederreiter, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Nico Hischier all took part in the World’s Highest Hockey Game at Jungfraujoch in Switzerland earlier this week – the highest accessible point in Europe!
📸: https://t.co/mEkOHqRL16 / Jonas… pic.twitter.com/VNmhjOLgKH
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) August 9, 2024
But they always take the conversation back to his unique extracurricular life. He’s been a brand ambassador for Porsche cars and Breitling watches. He’s cooked with three star Michelin chef Andreas Caminada, and is now a part-owner of EHC Chur. In 2024, he even played in the “World’s Highest Hockey Game,” 3,454 metres above sea level.
“He’s kind of an international man of mystery,” Morrissey said. “It’s like ‘Hey bubs, what are you doing?’ ‘Well I’m hanging out with Roger Federer this weekend. I’m sorry if I’m not getting back to you that quickly.’ Or next thing you know, we’re ordering wine at dinner the one night and he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got my own little winery going on.”
The last word belongs to Niederreiter.
The fact that he’s going to play his 1,000th game in Winnipeg took more than the Jets trading for him. It also took a contract extension, Niederreiter signed a three year, $4 million AAV contract extension on Dec. 4, 2023.
Well before he signed that contract, Niederreiter was getting involved in the community — first, as part of the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy, and then through the Winnipeg Humane Society.
The dog fostering comes from his partner Cecilia Schuler, who grew up with dogs at home. The couple understands that their lifestyle, full of travel as it is, doesn’t create a consistent home for dogs but they’ve connected with the Humane Society to promote fostering as a result.
Both are good initiatives, but the characterizing part is that Niederreiter committed to them as a pending free agent — before he had his contract finalized. It’s one more sign of a player who’s spent his life trying to make the most of every moment, from Game 1 through Game 1,000 — and ideally, beyond.
“I play for Winnipeg. I get paid by Winnipeg. That’s why it feels good to give something back.”
