Mark Streit

His resolute pursuit to NHL fame

Mark Streit is a former ice hockey player. He was the first Swiss field player to succeed in the NHL and to be named captain of an NHL team. In addition, he led the Swiss national team at several World Championships and the Olympic Games. Mark retired from professional sports in 2017. He is the co-founder of Norqain, a watch brand, a member of SCB’s board of governors and involved in the club’s youth development program. 

Even though Mark Streit was only 39, he was considered ‘old’ when he retired. When his career ended rather abruptly five years ago, it took him a while to transition into the next chapter in his life. A few years into his retirement, Mark is at ease with his chosen tasks and strikes a good balance integrating work and life. 

Mark is looking back at 22 successful years as a professional hockey player, the last 12 of which he played in the NHL (National Hockey League). He is the first Swiss field player who has achieved this and is therefore regarded as an NHL pioneer. 

Changing gears from a high-octane hockey pro lifestyle into a retired way of life can’t be easy. “I really missed the sport and the hustle and bustle around it. Your hockey career gives you a rigid structure – everything is planned for you. If that suddenly falls away, everything crumbles,” Mark recalls. It was clear for him and his young family to return to Switzerland after his career ended. He planned to take two years off before doing something new, but when the word spread that Mark was back in Bern, requests and offers for tempting engagements kept rolling in. He soon realized, though, that the various assignments pulled him in too many different directions and that he couldn’t enjoy his newly gained freedom of not being dictated by training- and game plans.

His focus now is solely on Norqain, a watch brand that he co-founded with a friend, and on helping develop new talents at his old hockey club, the SCB (Schlittschuh Club Bern), where he also sits on the board of governors. These tasks leave him enough time for his family and himself. It is important to him that he can pick his daughters up from Kindergarten or take them skiing for a week in winter, something that wasn’t possible when he was playing hockey.  

That’s also why we won’t see Mark shouting instructions from the coach’s bench anytime soon. "I was tied up with hockey and inflexible for 25 years. The price for me at this point is just too high. I value the freedom I have now too much”.

Shortly after coming back to his home country, he was approached by a publisher to write his biography. Mark says he always thought of writing it, especially during his last years overseas. His story to NHL fame is a fascinating tale that follows the twists and turns of a classical hero’s journey. Let’s look back to when it all began.

Mark is from a sporty family that loved winter sports – particularly skiing and ice skating. His grandfather and his parents were season card holders and would take little Mark to see games of the local hockey team, the SCB. Entering the arena, vibrating with the energy of 17,000 passionate fans, was always a thrilling spectacle.  “The mood and atmosphere in there are unique, and the club was playing really well at that time,” Mark remembers. “That left a big impact on me. I really wanted to be one of the players standing on the ice and being cheered on by so many people.”

Watching these games gave Mark the impetus to enter SCB’s youth clubs, where he trained and played throughout his childhood. He liked the fun to be had on the ice and the camaraderie attached to the sport. "At that age, every boy wants to become a pro hockey or soccer player." Mark meant it and followed his calling to nearby Fribourg, where he started as a pro player in Switzerland’s top league at the age of 17. 

While his friends turned nights into days, his tightly packed player’s agenda wouldn’t allow for anything more than an occasional cinema visit. “I never saw this as a sacrifice. I liked hockey so much I never felt I was missing out," Mark contemplates. “Of course, you do miss out on making certain experiences important for your personal development. But you make them another time and in another way.”

When he was 20, after four years of playing in the Swiss top league, Mark decided to try his luck in America, where he should quickly catch up with his non-hockey friends in having character-building experiences. Since his parents took him to an NHL game with the San Jose Sharks when he was 14, he knew he wanted to play in the NHL one day too. Saying goodbye to his parents and sister at the airport was emotional. But he went anyway. 

Landing in Salt Lake City – he was to play for the Utah Grizzlies (the former IHL) – he assumed someone from the team would be there to pick him up. That wasn’t the case. Nobody was waiting for him, not at the airport and not anywhere else there, for that matter. Not only did he have to deal with a massive culture shock, but it was also challenging at such a young age to suddenly have to fend for himself and find an apartment, buy a car, and have his documents registered. “I had to grow up very quickly,” Mark contemplates. 

Growing up in a tightly knit and loving family in a country with a high level of prosperity, it was the first time he was confronted with entirely different people and lifestyles. Many of his teammates led a hand-to-mouth existence; something Mark didn't know existed. Also, hockey-wise, it wasn’t a stroll in the park. The Grizzlies soon wanted to send him down to an even lower league and communicated this decision to him by placing his equipment, carelessly packed up into a bin bag, at the changing room entrance. Despite such adversities, he stuck to his chosen path. 

What was nice, though, was the friendships he made among his teammates, many of whom were other Europeans trying their luck equally unsuccessfully. "Knowing I was not alone gave me the strength to do it." What fascinated him was how much everybody looked out for each other. "I just had to get rid of some of my reservations and prejudices,” Mark reminisces. “I became much more uncomplicated during that time." A trait he has adopted and taken back with him to Switzerland. "I'm much more spontaneous and invite people over and make sure nobody is alone. Because I know how it feels when you are lonely." Luckily his wife doesn’t mind having additional last-minute guests over, either! 

Bouncing around clubs in the minor leagues for a year was enough for Mark. He was disappointed to realize that it wouldn’t work out. Back home, he signed with Zurich’s ZSC Lions and was determined to get better, stronger, bigger, and improve his overall game. Despite quickly rising to become a star defender in the Swiss National League and the national team, he wasn’t ready to bury his NHL dream just yet. After his fourth season in Zurich, the long-awaited call finally came from the Montréal Canadiens, who subsequently offered him a 1-year-contract. That was in 2004, and Mark was 26 at the time, an unusually old age for a player to be drafted. "That was a bit of an exception, to give a player a chance so late in his career. I knew this was the last possible chance I had." 

Going back to North America the second time, Mark was better prepared for the cultural differences off the ice. But he wasn’t ready for the culture shock on the rink. “The hockey played in the NHL differs greatly from that played in Switzerland. The rink is smaller, the game faster, more intense, and much, much harder.” It was challenging for Mark, and the pressure to perform was mentally taxing. Being a star player in Switzerland didn’t make a difference there. He was a rookie again and had to fight for playtime in every game. It took him nearly a year to feel relaxed on the ice and to be able to assertively say, “Yes, I belong here!” After that, his confidence began to show in his game too. He went on to spend three successful years in Montréal before joining the New York Islanders for five seasons, where Mark was made captain – also a Swiss first.

In North America, hockey has another significance than in Switzerland. Depending on where you are, in Montreal for example, hockey is a religion, and a good player has the status of a rock star. At the same time, as the first Swiss NHL star, he was also a sensation in his home country. Has the success and attention gotten to his head? “It felt strange that everybody could read how much I earned in the newspaper.” He admits that this changed other people’s perspective on him and his family, and that while many were happy for him, there were also enviers. ”It wasn't a big deal for me because I knew how much I had sacrificed and how much effort was behind these achievements. I can live with that.”  Mark kept his feet firmly on the ground and never lost sight of where he was coming from. His relatively modest upbringing and the values passed on by his parents have helped him with that, he believes.  

The next stops in his career were three and a half seasons in Philadelphia before transferring at the trade deadline to Pittsburgh, where he helped lift the Penguins to their second Stanley Cup in a row in 2017.  “Raising the cup was the best feeling in my whole career! To be able to experience something like that at 39 is fantastic! All the hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, and passion for the game finally paid off.” 

Mark is a role model for many young Swiss players to try and pursue their dream of playing in the NHL. “It is like climbing Mount Everest. Once the first one has done it, others see a way to do it, too,” Mark says. His story of persistence, hard work and patience, and of overcoming obstacles and pragmatically turning setbacks into learning opportunities, is an inspiration not only for aspiring young NHL players, but also for the rest of us.

This portrait appeared in the 2022/23 publication “Bonebridge goes America”.

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