Romain Loeffel

Romain Loeffel (born March 10, 1991) is a Swiss professional ice hockey defenseman who is currently playing with HC Lugano of the National League (NL). He previously played for HC Fribourg-Gottéron and Genève-Servette HC.

Playing career
Loeffel made his professional debut with HC Fribourg-Gottéron in the 2008-09 National League (NL) season. He appeared in 3 games this season and spent most of the year playing in the Swiss League (SL) with Young-Sprinters HC. He played 36 games in the SL and put up 14 points, including 5 goals. In the 2009-10 NL season, Loeffel became a regular on Fribourg's team, appearing in 37 NL contests that year. He went on to play 4 years with the team in the NL before being traded to Genève-Servette HC on January 31, 2014 for John Fritsche and Jérémie Kamerzin. Loeffel then appeared in only 2 games with Geneva that season, scoring 1 goal.

On October 2, 2014, Loeffel was suspended for 7 games and fined CHF 10,000 for shoving a linesman in a game against Lausanne HC on September 26, 2014. Loeffel was trying to catch up Simon Fischer after a faceoff but bumped into Roger Bürgi, the linesman, and rose his stick to push him out of his way. Bürgi didn't report the incident at the end of the game, considering it as an accident. It was only Reto Steinmann, who was at the head of the referees supervision for the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation at the time, who watched the incident on tape and decided to open a procedure in order to suspend Loeffel. The case was highly mediatized in Switzerland.

On December 2, 2014, Loeffel was signed to a one-year contract extension by Geneva. He went on to score 4 points in 4 Spengler Cup games en route to the title with Geneva.

On December 2, 2015, Loeffel agreed to a two-year contract extension with Genève-Servette. At the end of the 2015–16 NL season, he was named to the NL Media Swiss All-Star Team.

On October 16, 2017, HC Lugano signed Loeffel to a four-year contract worth CHF 4.8 million. The contract will start for the 2018/19 season and run through the 2021/22 season.

International play
Loeffel was named to Switzerland's national under-18 team for the 2008 IIHF World U18 Championships in Russia. He tallied 1 assist in 6 games, with Switzerland finishing 8th in the tournament. Loeffel was again named to the team for the 2009 IIHF World U18 Championships in the United States where he put up 4 assists in 6 games, finishing again 8th in the tournament with Switzerland. That same year he was also named to Switzerland's under-20 team for the 2009 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships – Division I in Switzerland. He played 5 games to help Switzerland win the tournament and earn a promotion for the 2010 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in which he did not participate, but was selected to take part in the 2011 edition in the United States. Loeffel scored 1 goal, helping Switzerland finishing 5th in that tournament.

Loeffel made his debut with Switzerland men's team in 2011 but only made his World Championships debut in 2015 in the Czech Republic. He was originally cut after the exhibition games but was re-called as an injury replacement when he was on holiday in Dubai. He eventually played 2 games in the tournament as Switzerland finished 8th. Loeffel was then named to the team for the 2017 IIHF World Championship in France and played all 8 games, putting up 5 points, including 1 goal. Switzerland eventually finished 6th in the tournament, falling to Sweden in the quarter finals.

Loeffel represented Switzerland at the 2018 Winter Olympics. He appeared in 3 games, tallying 1 assist as Switzerland unexpectedly fell to Germany in the qualification game for the 1/4 finals.

Personal life
Loeffel was born and grew up in La Chaux-de-Fonds where he started playing hockey as a kid with youth local team, HC La Chaux-de-Fonds. At 15 years old, he moved to Fribourg to pursue his dream of becoming a professional hockey player.