EC Red Bull Salzburg striker Thomas Raffl is facing an extraordinary milestone. The 39-year-old figurehead of the win2day ICE Hockey League will play his 1000th league game on Monday in Bolzano. After Thomas Koch, Raffl is only the second player in the history of the league to achieve this feat.
With a total of 1,163 league games, league legend Thomas Koch, who retired in 2023, remains the undisputed number one in terms of the number of games played. From Monday, however, the Klagenfurt native will have company in the exclusive “Club of 1000” for the first time – in the form of Thomas Raffl.
Raffl celebrated his debut in professional ice hockey on September 26, 2003. The then 17-year-old talent from Villach played for the EC VSV with the shirt number #2 against EC Feldkirch for the first time in the top division. His first points scorer didn’t take long to arrive either: on December 23rd – in his twelfth league game – Raffl scored both his first goal and his first assist against the Graz99ers.
Five more seasons in the Adler jersey followed and winning the championship title in the 2005/06 season. This phase was supplemented by guest stints in Canadian and US youth leagues. Raffl then demonstrated his skills in Sweden at Luleå HF. After a total of 234 professional games, the chapter at his home club in Villach ended.
After one and a half seasons in Sweden, Raffl started a new chapter in his career in November 2010 by moving to EC Red Bull Salzburg. He celebrated his second championship title in his first season in the Red Bulls jersey. What followed is Austrian ice hockey history: Raffl was crowned champion with Salzburg a total of seven times, scored the championship winning goal three times and was named playoff MVP of the win2day ICE Hockey League in the 2023/24 season.
By January 3, 2026, Raffl had played 765 games for EC Red Bull Salzburg and had made 999 appearances across the league. In his career so far he has 345 goals and 388 assists. On January 5th, Raffl reached the big milestone that only one player had achieved before him: he played his 1000th league game in the away game in Bolzano. On January 9th, Thomas Raffl will be officially honored by the win2day ICE Hockey League during the EC Red Bull Salzburg home game.
ice.hockey , Image: Gintare Karpaviciute – EC Red Bull Salzburg
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