Latvian Hockey News Report

This article(let’s be modest, this list) reveals approximately 70% of all the players, who will step on the ice for a Latvian league game next season. Today a list of roster applications was published in Sporta Avize. However, HK Ogre and Lithuanian Orakulas Vilnius have not submitted applications as of yet.

HK Ozolnieki/Monarhs

The team has not added a single player to the roster, the teams will still consist of veteran Latvian players, who have played for Ozolnieki/Monarhs (Vilki Riga, HK NIK’s Brih Riga) for many, many years. Naturally, team also includes several younger players, like Kristaps Stigis or Aldis Pizans.

HK Ozolnieki/Monarhs roster:

Metalurgs Liepaja-2

Metalurgs farm club has only a couple of minor additions, but most of the new faces on the Metalurgs Liepaja-2 roster will come from the Metalurgs U18 team.

Metalurgs Liepaja-2 roster:

DHK Latgale

DHK Latgale roster:

Zemgale

Zemgale roster:

SK LSPA/Riga

SK LSPA/Riga roster:

Prizma Riga

Prizma Riga roster:

Also Latvian league clubs are continuing their preparation for the upcoming season and DHK Latgale has announced that it has resigned 24-year-old forward Eduards Bullitis, who played for the club already last season, informs club’s homepage.

Last season he finished just behind Lithuanian teammate Egidijus Bauba, who collected 58 points and was the league top scorer. Bullitis finished with 56 points. By the way, also Bauba will play this season in DHK Latgale.

The team has also made several addition to their roster, which includes Lithuanian goalkeeper Arturas Kuzmicius, 18-year-old forward Rihards Grigors, who appeared in eight games for HK Ozolnieki/Monarhs last season, defender Edgars Apelis, who played for Dinamo-Juniors Riga last season. The club will also see the return of Aleksejs Matvejevs, who spent the last season with Bietigheim-Bissingen U20 of the German U20 league.

Although Latvian Hockey Federation’s meeting took place already August 11, the new press secretary of the federation decided that there was no need to inform the public about the conclusions made any earlier than five days later.

It was clarified that the league is going to start on September 11 and will have six rounds, which means that all seven(eight?) teams would have to play 36(42?) games. However, federation is still working on the calendar.

As of yet, participation of seven teams has been confirmed:

• Metalurgs Liepaja-2
• DHK Latgale
• HK Ogre
• HS Riga/LSPA
• Prizma Riga
• Zemgale
• HK Ozolnieki/Monarhs

During the meeting teams came to an agreement that the league will also include a Lithuanian team, who would play their home games at Vilnius’ Siemens Arena, which has the capacity of 8750. At this point I have something very important to make clear – even in the very brightest days of Latvian league(mid-1990′s) 5000-seat Rigas Sporta pils was almost never sold-out. In the past two seasons an attendance of 500 would have been considered a shockingly high one. Also, there is no clue, which is the Lithuanian team willing to play in Latvia. Is it ambitious Vetra Vilnius, who was never really established(without a single personnel/player signed) and failed to enter KHL this summer?

A few days ago it was also announced that on September 1-4 already the sixth Sergei Zholtok Memorial Cup will take place. It is an exhibition tournament, where usually four U20 national teams take part. This year the tournament will include Latvian, Belarusian, Danish U20 teams, as well as the Russian U18 team.