In the chase for locked out NHL players, first SC Bern in Switzerland landed the New York Islanders captain.

Now they've landed the franchise.

The Swiss club announced this morning that Islanders star John Tavares is joining the team [announcement here; Google Translate here, cheers to our Swiss reader Francesca for the FanShot tip]. That follows Bern previously landing Streit and fellow Swiss and current Predators defenseman Roman Josi [a previous version of this post listed Ducks defenseman Luca Sbisa, because apparently in matters regarding Tavares, the rest of the universe is interchangeable to me. Sbisa is actually with Lugano.]

As Francesca noted, Bern is regularly one of Europe's top attendance draws and their fans make themselves heard:

Should be fun for Tavares. And fun for Swiss hockey fans, as Bern's stars battle with stars like Joe Thornton and Rick Nash in Davos, along with a whole host of other locked out NHLers.

Tavares follows Streit, Lubomir Visnovsky, Jesse Joensuu and Frans Nielsen as other locked out Islanders finding work in Europe.

Meanwhile, as its star players flock to Europe, the NHL and NHLPA are actually bothering to meet this weekend, though on "non-core economic" issues.