The chaos that has surrounded Martin Reway’s future became clearer today when he signed for Fribourg-Gottéron in the Swiss National Liga A (NLA). There is no doubt that he will benefit from a step up in quality.
Reway has always been able to rise to the challenge, as when he was asked to play centre for the Slovakian World Junior Championship team with next to no experience, driving them to a surprising bronze medal.
It is not clear where Reway will fit in Fribourg-Gottérons line up, but coaches will undoubtedly give him the chance to drive the power play and build up his more even play time and different zone starts.
The Swiss league should benefit Reway in the way that he can lead the team much as he did for Slovakia in WJC. He will be one of the focal points. It will still be close to family and friends in Slovakia, but also farther from the Czech and Slovakian media.
The league in itself is a step up in quality and Reway takes a step forward. A step also taken by Arturri Lehkonen when moving to Sweden, preparing himself for a future move to a bigger club and bigger league.
The NLA also has a stable economy and hopefully Reway can provide for his family as that seems to have been another thing that has always been important for him and something that does speak positive of his character values.
Fribourg-Gottéron currently resides on top of the league standings in Switzerland, shadowed by Auston Matthews’ Zurich Lions. The NLA was ranked as the fourth best league in Europe by a wide margin when we looked into the quality of the leagues in Europe . Fribourg-Gottéron was knocked out of the Champions Hockey League, after finishing last in the group consisting of last years winners Luleå and Finnish heavyweights Lukko Rauma.
Table taken from www.sihf.ch
Official statement from Fribourg-Gotteron.
Official statement from Sparta Prague.
Twitter statement from Reway’s agent Michal Sivek:
Martin Reway bude pokracovat ve svycarske NLA, kde se dohodl s HC Fribourg-Gotteron na smlouve do konce letosni sezony
— Michal Sivek (@michalsivek) November 18, 2015
The contract runs until the end of the year, leaving room for speculation where Reway will go after the season is finished. It will be interesting to see how Reway adapts to a new league and a new culture.
