BERN, Switzerland – SC Bern announced loan agreements of two former NHL players for the Champions Hockey League qualification tournament. SCB signed forward Lee Goren and defenceman Richard Jackman just prior to the September 4 transfer deadline for the qualifier.

The qualification tournament will be played  in Nuremberg, Germany, September 12-14 where Bern will play a three-team single round-robin tournament with the participation of Sinupret Ice Tigers, Nuremberg (GER) and HC Kosice (SVK).
   
Canadian forward Lee Goren, 30, played mostly in the AHL until 2007 but he also had 72 NHL games for Boston, Florida and Vancouver. He moved to Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Elitserien last year and signed a six-month contract with Färjestads BK one month ago. He will start his tenure with Färjestad in October.

Defenceman Richard Jackman, 30, is also Canadian and has played 283 NHL games for Dallas, Boston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Florida and Anaheim. During the lockout in 2004-2005, he played for Björklöven Umeå in the second-tier Swedish league Allsvenskan – a league he joined again last winter. After he had moved from Anaheim to Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian league for 2007-2008, he joined Leksands IF for the end of last season and re-signed in May.

As Goren, Jackman signed a so-called artist contract. This special contract, more and more used for hockey imports in Sweden in recent years, relieves the club from paying regular taxes, but is only valid for six months. Therefore, an artist contract usually begins in October, prompting players to sign contracts elsewhere for the first weeks of the season.

Both players will only suit up for Bern for the two games in Nuremberg and thus won’t count against the eight-player import contingent of the Swiss National League A.

Earlier, SC Bern signed Simon Züger as an additional goalkeeper for the Champions Hockey League Qualification. Züger hasn’t found a new club yet after he split last season between HC Lugano and EHC Basel.

Another qualifier, HC Kosice, earlier announced a short-term signing of defenceman Jan Homer from league rival Dukla Trencin.

MARTIN MERK