Swiss Club Extends Two Ex-NHLers

SC Bern has signed two ex-NHL players to contract extensions, the
National League club announced on its website on Wednesday.

Finnish right winger
Waltteri Merelä, 29, has signed for two more years, while Swedish
defenseman Anton Lindholm, 30, has signed for one.

For both players, the 2024-25 season was their first in Bern. Merelä had 51 points in 59
regular-season and playoff games. Injuries limited Lindholm to 20
games, in which he recorded five points and 10 penalty minutes.
Through the team’s first four games this season, they each have
three points.

“Waltteri is an
absolute leader of our team,” Bern GM Diego Piceci said about
Merelä. “With his goal-scoring ability and his commitment, he is
of great importance to us.”

About Lindholm,
Piceci said, “We are very pleased with Anton’s commitment. With
his skills and leadership, he is a very important part of our team.” 

Merelä played in Finland until he was 24, developing into a
good-sized, reasonably productive winger first with the Lahti
Pelicans, then with Tappara Tampere. After never representing Finland
in any youth age category, he made the national team for the 2023
IIHF World Championship, held at home in Tampere, and scored a goal in his
only game.

Finn Waltteri Merelä moves from Tampa Bay to Bern
After one season in North America, split between the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning and the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, 25-year-old right winger Waltteri Merelä has signed a one-year contract with National League club SC Bern. Merelä is yet another name to the list of Finns who have chosen to play in Switzerland over other European options.

In the 2023-24 season, Merelä had one goal in 19 games with the
Tampa Bay
Lightning and
34 points in 55 regular-season games with the AHL’s
Syracuse Crunch. He also scored three goals in eight AHL playoff
games.

Lindholm, who is a product of Skelleftea AIK, was chosen in the
fifth round, 144th overall, by the Colorado
Avalanche in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Between 2016 and 2021, he
recorded five points and 16 penalty minutes in 55 NHL games for the
Avalanche, and 28 points in 84 AHL games for the Colorado Eagles.

Since that time, Lindholm has played in the KHL for Dinamo Minsk
and back in Sweden for Leksands IF before joining Bern.
Internationally, he has represented Sweden at three World
Championships.

Bern’s roster also includes ex-NHLers
Emil Bemström, Joël
Vermin and Simon Moser.

Emil Bemström Signs In Switzerland

Swedish forward Emil Bemström,
26, has signed a one-year contract with SC Bern, the National
League club announced on Friday.