Pat Payton
Sports Editor

KLOTEN, Switzerland - From one Flyers team to another … all in a span of a week.
Mark Bell’s hockey path took another turn recently when he signed with Kloten Flyers of the Swiss National ‘A’ League. It all happened just days after an unsuccessful free agent tryout with the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers.

And the 29-year-old St. Pauls native is off to a flying start with his new Swiss team, helping Flyers post three consecutive shootout victories. In one of those games, the big forward made his first appearance on home ice at Kolping Arena and was named player-of-the-game after clicking for a goal and an assist.

This past Sunday, Flyers were 8-0-4 in the Swiss League. They currently sit in sixth place in the 12-team group, seven points behind front-running SC Bern. Some other familiar teams are Davos, Zurich and Geneva.

“Kloten had already played seven games before Mark got his deal,” his dad John told the Gazette last week. “It all happened very fast.
“And Mark’s impressed with the hockey. It’s a pretty good league; it’s fast and it’s wide open on the

big ice surfaces over there.”

Bell, ironically, is living in the same apartment that former NHLer Curtis Brown and his family lived in last season. Brown played in Chicago and San Jose with Bell, and with Kloten last season, but his contract was not renewed this season by the Swiss team.

Bell, who wears jersey No. 16, is the only North American-born player on the Flyers’ 2009-10 roster. The majority of the team is comprised of Swiss players, with three from Finland and another from the Czech Republic.

Notes:
• Kloten is a city smaller than Stratford, with a population of 15,000 to 20,000. It’s just 10 or 15 minutes outside of Zurich.

• Kolping Arena in Kloten seats 7,561.

• Flyers’ general manager is Alpo Suhonen, who once briefly coached the Chicago Blackhawks. Head coach is Anders Eldebrink, a former Kloten player who once played 43 games with the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks.

• Last season, the third-place Flyers reached the league playoff final against HC Davos, losing four games to three.

• Some former Kloten players include: Patrice Brisebois, Rod Brind’Amour, Jeff Halpern, Olli Jokinen and Marko Kiprusoff.

• Mark Bell played six seasons in the NHL, with Chicago, San Jose and Toronto, and spent all of last season in the American League with Toronto and Hartford.

In 445 NHL games, Bell had 87 goals, 95 assists, 182 points and 597 penalty minutes. His best season was 2005-06 with the Blackhawks when he had 25 goals, 48 points and 107 penalty minutes in 82 games.

After playing minor hockey in St. Marys, Bell played with Stratford Cullitons as a 15 year old in 1995-96, then was drafted in the first round by the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67s.