WC: Latvia Roster Talk 2023

[GX]

Another take on a home tournament for Latvia. Unlike the pandemic in 2021, this year it is the ticket prices that will leave many seats empty at Arena Riga.

Roster:
Goalies:
Arturs Silovs (NHL/AHL)
Ivars Punnenovs (Swiss)
Kristers Gudlevskis (Sweden2)

Defenders:
Uvis Balinskis (Czech)
Janis Jaks (Czech)
Kristaps Zile (Czech)
Oskars Cibulskis (Czech)
Ralfs Freibergs (Czech)
Karlis Cukste (Czech)
Roberts Mamcics (Slovakia)
Arvils Bergmanis (NCAA)

Forwards:
Rudolfs Balcers (NHL/AHL)
Rodrigo Abols (Sweden)
Kaspars Daugavins (Germany)
Miks Indrasis (Germany)
Roberts Bukarts (Czech)
Martins Dzierkals (Czech)
Rihards Bukarts (Austria)
Renars Krastenbergs (Sweden2)
Ronalds Kenins (Swiss)
Deniss Smirnovs (Swiss)
Oskars Batna (Finland)
Andris Dzerins (Denmark)
Dans Locmelis (Sweden U20)
Toms Andersons (Swiss2)

May join if PO run is over
Teddy Blueger (NHL)
Kristians Rubins (AHL)

Notable players unavailable:
Elvis Merzlikins (NHL)
Zemgus Girgensons (NHL)
Kristaps Sotnieks (Czech) - recently retired from NT
Rihards Marenis (Sweden) - injured during camp
Arturs Kulda (Austria) - recently retired from NT
Janis Kalnins (KHL) - indefinitely banned by national law
Eduards Tralmaks (AHL) - wasn't invited

Exhibition game schedule:
Latvia 3:5 Poland (April 6) Goals: Lapinskis, Melnalksnis, Jaks
Latvia 2:0 Poland (April 7) Goals: Dzierkals, Locmelis
United Kingdom 3:2 OT Latvia (April 22) Goals: Krastenbergs, Indrasis
United Kingdom 3:6 Latvia (April 23) Goals: Ri.Bukarts, Batna, Andersons, Kenins, Dzierkals, Indrasis
Latvia 3:5 Swiss (April 28) Goals: Kenins, Buncis, Daugavins
Latvia 5:1 Swiss (April 29) Goals: Andersons, Abols, Locmelis, Tumanovs, Dzierkals
Denmark 3:6 Latvia (May 4) Goals: Daugavins x3, Cukste, Dzierkals, Abols

Click to read more...

 

[Play]

Rubins will surprise a lot of people.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Ansons is a massive add. 3 points in AHL.

 

[kudla]

Ansons is a massive add. 3 points in AHL.

God damn, what is happening to him ?

 

[Vikz]

Yeah, I was surprised to see the news that Ansons "agreed" to join the team. Never played a single game for adult Latvian team, is in transition in to professional hockey. He will be invited to the training camp, but I dont see him making the team. There probably wont be a lot of guys rejecting to play on home ice, and best case scenario, he is a year or two away from making the bottom lines.
Although, he might be one of the back-up forwards. Hell, Nauris Sejejs somehow made our Olympic team from the second Swiss league.

 

[Namejs]

This is likely going to be one of the years with more fresh faces than usual. I don't expect any drop in quality, though.

Tralmaks would have been an upgrade over any of our 4th line Cs in the previous years. Egle was recently called up to NL and can be a very nice addition to our 3rd/4th line wing. There are a few of these under the radar players who have not made the national team previously due to a number of reasons. Toms Andersons has been blowing up the Swiss 2nd division with 77 points so far and could easily make the cut.

We have the depth to be sure of beating the likes of Slovenia, but what we're lacking is offensive firepower. Balcers, Blueger (and Daugavins too) are some of the key players we sorely need to have a more realistic chance of beating Switzerland/Slovakia.

As for defense, both Sotnieks and Kulda were pretty marginal, old school defensemen and if we're being honest, they're not going to be missed.

As for Ansons, he's going through the exact same path as Blueger did. Look at his stats when he played in the AHL as a rookie. Very limited minutes.

So overall, nothing particularly new or too interesting. Some guys are underperforming, some are overperforming.

Key players needed:
Blueger
Balcers
Girgensons
And 1 of Merzlikins/Silovs

 

[SoundAndFury]

God damn, what is happening to him ?

Rookie season in a pro league. Could have gone better but not exactly unexpected. The fact he didn't get sent down to the ECHL is a positive in itself.

 

[Dofs]

Hope Daugavinsh will agree to come because the team might be sorely lacking in firepower otherwise. It's really not the greatest year for Latvian forwards unfortunately.

 

[wmupreds]

Surprised Girgensons is going as a UFA.

 

[Lartsaman]

Surprised Girgensons is going as a UFA.

Home tournament might have something to do with that.

 

[Namejs]

Daugavins will join the team, so the top 6 is shaping up nicely. One of Blueger/Girgensons is needed and hoping for Balcers to show up at some point as well.

 

[Dofs]

Daugavins will join the team, so the top 6 is shaping up nicely. One of Blueger/Girgensons is needed and hoping for Balcers to show up at some point as well.

Daugavins being back is very good news. Out of the other 3 I don't expect neither Bluger, nor Balcers. Due to Tuch's injury, chances of Girgensons coming greatly increase though.

 

[Lartsaman]

Anyone with the roster projections? I would love to make one, but I dont have that much knowledge about latvian hockey. So the NHL-players most probably coming, are Merzlikins and Girgensons. Blueger will go far with the Vegas and Balcers is out of contract. Rubins is an ahl:er but he will likely come. Any chance for the young guys like Zabusovs, Veinbergs nd Svanenbergs?

 

[Namejs]

Anyone with the roster projections? I would love to make one, but I dont have that much knowledge about latvian hockey. So the NHL-players most probably coming, are Merzlikins and Girgensons. Blueger will go far with the Vegas and Balcers is out of contract. Rubins is an ahl:er but he will likely come. Any chance for the young guys like Zabusovs, Veinbergs nd Svanenbergs?

It's very hard to project the roster in terms of actual matching lines, because there are a number of new players coming in and some of the more experienced househould names have been underperforming. Exhibition games will likely cause a number of changes in the pecking order.

There's a large number of potential bottom 6 players. It's like 15+ guys competing for those 6 spots.

Any one of Locmelis, Tralmaks, Ansons, Egle, Skvorcovs, Golovkovs, Marenis, Krastenbergs, Lapinskis, Melnalksnis, Smirnovs, Andersons, Zabusovs or Buncis could crack the roster. And then you have the North American junior prospects like Veinbergs or Marcinkevics from NCAA or whoever.

What is very clear is that without Blueger Abols is going to be the 1C, but since we lack a 2C without Blueger, it's possible that one of our wingers (Daugavins/Indrasis/Dzierkals) will get moved to C or one of the rookies will take over that role. Vitolins might prefer the Swiss-based Smirnovs or a number of other guys.

And there are many other puzzles to be solved in our forward corps. So this is a very tough year for making roster projections.

Defense is a lot more straightforward.

Jaks - Rubins
Balinskis - Cukste
Freibergs - Zile
+ Swiss/NA prospects

Goalies are obvious. Merzlikins and Silovs. And one of Punnenovs or Gudlevskis as the 2nd/3rd goalie, depending on whether Elvis/Silovs are both available or not.

 

[Chainshot]

Girgensons committed to playing? Is there a link to that or something because usually he's some combination of free agent or broken at the end of a season, or just vibing in Pittsburgh, that he never goes.

 

[Namejs]

Girgensons committed to playing? Is there a link to that or something because usually he's some combination of free agent or broken at the end of a season, or just vibing in Pittsburgh, that he never goes.

Yes, he's coming over as long as the Sabres don't make the play-offs, which is the way things are going right now.

 

[Chainshot]

Yes, he's coming over as long as the Sabres don't make the play-offs, which is the way things are going right now.

It's funny, but he's one of the few guys in this last stretch who has seemed to dig deeper to give the Sabres more. Which would mean he'd be finding a way to circumvent going on his own...

Love Gus, hope whatever works out works out in his favor.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Daugavins being back is very good news. Out of the other 3 I don't expect neither Bluger, nor Balcers.

Balcers is out of contract.

At this point in his career, I wouldn't put it past Balcers playing to showcase himself. Otherwise, his NHL career is pretty much over anyway so it would both give him a marginal chance to save it and showcase himself to the European suitors.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

This is likely going to be one of the years with more fresh faces than usual. I don't expect any drop in quality, though.

Tralmaks would have been an upgrade over any of our 4th line Cs in the previous years. Egle was recently called up to NL and can be a very nice addition to our 3rd/4th line wing. There are a few of these under the radar players who have not made the national team previously due to a number of reasons. Toms Andersons has been blowing up the Swiss 2nd division with 77 points so far and could easily make the cut.

We have the depth to be sure of beating the likes of Slovenia, but what we're lacking is offensive firepower. Balcers, Blueger (and Daugavins too) are some of the key players we sorely need to have a more realistic chance of beating Switzerland/Slovakia.

As for defense, both Sotnieks and Kulda were pretty marginal, old school defensemen and if we're being honest, they're not going to be missed.

As for Ansons, he's going through the exact same path as Blueger did. Look at his stats when he played in the AHL as a rookie. Very limited minutes.

So overall, nothing particularly new or too interesting. Some guys are underperforming, some are overperforming.

Key players needed:
Blueger
Balcers
Girgensons
And 1 of Merzlikins/Silovs

I'm rather have Silovs. Elvis is not right. Something is off.

 

[Dofs]

At this point in his career, I wouldn't put it past Balcers playing to showcase himself. Otherwise, his NHL career is pretty much over anyway so it would both give him a marginal chance to save it and showcase himself to the European suitors.

I hope you are right, but there is also the Tampa angle who might not want to let him go during play-offs.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I hope you are right, but there is also the Tampa angle who might not want to let him go during play-offs.

Tampa is Tampa but a first-round exit is not unlikely. They have gotten older, objectively worse via cap crunch, and just generally very vulnerable this year.

 

[Namejs]

I'm rather have Silovs. Elvis is not right. Something is off.

There's nothing off about him, he's bounced back in 2023 and is being a 0.900+ SVS% guy behind a dumpster fire of a team.

Silovs has been extremely mediocre in the AHL and please do not make the silly mistake of making any far reaching conclusions about a goalie prospect based on 4 or 5 games im the NHL. I hoped we learned something from the whole Gudlevskis saga.

Merzikins is the No. 1, but they should share playing time and avoid back-to-back starts.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

There's nothing off about him, he's bounced back in 2023 and is being a 0.900+ SVS% guy behind a dumpster fire of a team.

Silovs has been extremely mediocre in the AHL and please do not make the silly mistake of making any far reaching conclusions about a goalie prospect based on 4 or 5 games im the NHL. I hoped we learned something from the whole Gudlevskis saga.

Merzikins is the No. 1, but they should share playing time and avoid back-to-back starts.

Visited NHL recently? He's one of the worst goalies in the NHL this season. .880 SV% .45ft in the league. Worst of all goalies for GAA with 4.10. If that is bounced back, good luck.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Visited NHL recently? He's one of the worst goalies in the NHL this season. .880 SV% .45ft in the league. Worst of all goalies for GAA with 4.10. If that is bounced back, good luck.

Also when Canucks entertained the idea of trading Demko it was built around their trust in Silovs, at least according to the media. But you know, arguing with Namejs is no easy task. Only look at stats and large sample size when talking about Silovs, ignore the bigger sample size or stats altogether when talking about Elvis... Business as usual here.

This brings me back to the reason why I visited this thread today in the first place. Some of you might remember we had a fairly heated discussion about the state of Latvian defense last year. Litvinov and their 3 Latvian Ds finished their season today. Very conveniently, most of the relevant Latvian Ds all play in the Czech league this year as well.

As it stands now:

The KHL star, according to the resident NHLe expert, Janis Jaks: 19.25 TOI, 28 points in 50 games.
Some guy he doesn't really know since doesn't actually watch KHL and Jaks' teammate Kristaps Zile: 21.26 TOI (2 minutes more than Jaks, leads the team), 18 points in 53 games.
Actually best Latvian D but really bad NHLe numbers before this season (I cry every time) Uvis Janis Balinskis: 22.09 TOI, 38 points in 53 games and his season is actually ongoing since he is a #1D for a better team.

So I'm not gonna say Namejs doesn't have a clue what he's talking about most of the time, I am going to say he doesn't have a clue around half a time. On a less personal note, I think the circumstances this season really created a pretty firm pecking order with regard to who stands where in terms of Latvian Ds.

 

[SoundAndFury]

There's nothing off about him, he's bounced back in 2023 and is being a 0.900+ SVS% guy behind a dumpster fire of a team.

Same team Korpisalo, not exactly Vezina material himself, managed to have .913 Sv% and .500 record with? Elvis is a huge part of what makes that team a dumpster fire.

Also in 2023, he has allowed 49 goals on 462 shots for a .893 Sv% so even in your cherry-picked time frame your statement is still false and his play has improved marginally, at best.