When the 2026 IIHF World Championship gold-medal game went into overtime, Andres Ambühl left the stands and headed down to ice level, a vantage point he knows better than most.
After all, Ambuhl has played more World Championship games than any player in the nearly 100-year history of play, at 151. His 20 World Championship tournaments are also a record that may never be broken.
He was downstairs, getting ready for the post-game ceremonies, but he also desperately wanted to see his Switzerland finally win the gold. Earlier that same morning in Zurich, he was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
Ambuhl knew what it was like to play in the WM final, and lose it. He was on three Swiss teams that won silver at the Worlds. He was also on the Swiss team that won the nation’s only medal at the under-18 World Championship, a silver in 2001.
“For a Swiss player of my generation, playing at the IIHF World Championships was the only chance to play against the best and measure ourselves against them. Then in 2013, we won a silver,” Ambuhl said.
“I thought it was unreal to get the chance to experience something like that. That it was a once in a lifetime moment,” he added.
It was not.
By the end of his career, Switzerland had taken a big leap — after the 2026 Worlds, they stand atop the IIHF men’s ranking — and losing Switzerland’s fourth IIHF World Championship final felt different.
“Twelve years later, in my last game, we are in the final again. In Stockholm, again. And we lost—again. That time, it felt like we lost the gold,” he added.
Ambuhl retired in 2025, but the IIHF Historical Committee took the unusual step to waive the two-year waiting period for a player so richly deserving of honour. If not for the 41-year-old who more than a decade epitomized the Worlds, then who?
For Ambuhl, the honor came unexpectedly. As humble a player as you'll find, he wasn’t thinking about the IIHF Hall of Fame, and definitely not that he’d get in without a wait.
“I was really surprised, and then, proud and honored. Then again, when I look next to me and see Triple Gold Club members Niklas Kronwall and Patrice Bergeron, well, next to those guys, I feel small,” he said with a smile.
For the Swiss, though, the diminutive forward is, and will always be, one of the giants of the game. It was obvious before the Worlds semifinal between Switzerland and Norway when Ambuhl was at hand to do the legendary Swiss bell ringing ceremony.
It’s not every day the crowd’s cheers overtake the cow bells.
That day, it did.
“Oh, that was amazing,” Ambuhl said.
“I retired a year ago and the crowd was still cheering me on like that, and going crazy. That was really wonderful.”
After all, Ambuhl has played more World Championship games than any player in the nearly 100-year history of play, at 151. His 20 World Championship tournaments are also a record that may never be broken.
He was downstairs, getting ready for the post-game ceremonies, but he also desperately wanted to see his Switzerland finally win the gold. Earlier that same morning in Zurich, he was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
Ambuhl knew what it was like to play in the WM final, and lose it. He was on three Swiss teams that won silver at the Worlds. He was also on the Swiss team that won the nation’s only medal at the under-18 World Championship, a silver in 2001.
“For a Swiss player of my generation, playing at the IIHF World Championships was the only chance to play against the best and measure ourselves against them. Then in 2013, we won a silver,” Ambuhl said.
“I thought it was unreal to get the chance to experience something like that. That it was a once in a lifetime moment,” he added.
It was not.
By the end of his career, Switzerland had taken a big leap — after the 2026 Worlds, they stand atop the IIHF men’s ranking — and losing Switzerland’s fourth IIHF World Championship final felt different.
“Twelve years later, in my last game, we are in the final again. In Stockholm, again. And we lost—again. That time, it felt like we lost the gold,” he added.
Ambuhl retired in 2025, but the IIHF Historical Committee took the unusual step to waive the two-year waiting period for a player so richly deserving of honour. If not for the 41-year-old who more than a decade epitomized the Worlds, then who?
For Ambuhl, the honor came unexpectedly. As humble a player as you'll find, he wasn’t thinking about the IIHF Hall of Fame, and definitely not that he’d get in without a wait.
“I was really surprised, and then, proud and honored. Then again, when I look next to me and see Triple Gold Club members Niklas Kronwall and Patrice Bergeron, well, next to those guys, I feel small,” he said with a smile.
For the Swiss, though, the diminutive forward is, and will always be, one of the giants of the game. It was obvious before the Worlds semifinal between Switzerland and Norway when Ambuhl was at hand to do the legendary Swiss bell ringing ceremony.
It’s not every day the crowd’s cheers overtake the cow bells.
That day, it did.
“Oh, that was amazing,” Ambuhl said.
“I retired a year ago and the crowd was still cheering me on like that, and going crazy. That was really wonderful.”
Even if he’s no longer scoring goals for the club, Ambuhl still works at HC Davos, and you can still buy Ambuhl sweaters in the club’s fan store. The former captain who played 1,322 games in the Swiss top league— a record— and most of them for Davos, will not be forgotten.
“Hockey was always my happy place and that's where I felt really free. It gave me so many beautiful memories and friendships,” he said.
Having said that, Ambuhl is ready for the next chapter.
“So far, retirement’s been good. I kind of lost my big love, hockey, but now I have more time for my real love, my family,” he said.
“It's interesting to learn new stuff, and to see things from a different angle.”
And he hopes the angle will be from the stands when Switzerland finally wins gold.
“Hockey was always my happy place and that's where I felt really free. It gave me so many beautiful memories and friendships,” he said.
Having said that, Ambuhl is ready for the next chapter.
“So far, retirement’s been good. I kind of lost my big love, hockey, but now I have more time for my real love, my family,” he said.
“It's interesting to learn new stuff, and to see things from a different angle.”
And he hopes the angle will be from the stands when Switzerland finally wins gold.