EHC Olten

Eishockey Club Olten (EHCO) is a hockey club based in Olten, Solothurn, Switzerland and are currently in National League B.

History
Founded on February 4th 1934, the hockey department of the ice club Olten was created; the newly created team joined the same year the Swiss Hockey Federation (Schweizerischer Eishockeyverband). The players of the club were allowed to train once a week and played their first match against a combined Zürich team, losing it 7 to nothing.

The club barely survived the two World Wars, but held on and joined the 2.Liga in 1946. On October 1st of that year, the team split itself from the Olten figure skating club to officially become EHCO. However, due to the difficulty to have access to an ice rink, the club had a hard time until 1960 to be granted playing licences.

However, in 1961, with the new artificial ice rink that opened its doors in Olten, ice hockey in the region of Olten experienced a quantitative and qualitative impetus. Indeed, it permitted for regular training times and for the team to improve, and EHCO began reaping some successes. Under player-coach Tino Catti, the team considerably improved. In 1966, EHCO promoted to the 1.Liga. Four years later, the team was 1.Liga champion and promoted to the NLB. Since then, EHCO has promoted for three short spans in the NLA, but has played below the NLB again.

The club established a record in 1976 with 9,000 people showing up for a local derby game against local rivals SC Langenthal.

Since 2000, EHC Olten is a joint-stock company.

EHC Olten players who played in the NHL

 * Ray Allison
 * Bobby Crawford
 * Evgeny Davydov
 * Bruce Eakin
 * Paul Gagne
 * Bill Lochead
 * Mike McEwen
 * Mark Morrison
 * Grigori Panteleev
 * Dan Ratushny
 * Mike Richard
 * Stephane Roy
 * Kent Ruhnke
 * Phil Russell
 * Ville Siren
 * Anton Stastny
 * Greg Theberge
 * Sylvain Turgeon

Other Players

 * Oliver Müller