With just three weeks until the 2022 Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament gets underway, rosters are being finalized by all the participating countries. Latvia is the latest to reveal who will represent their country in Beijing next month, though their group won’t be quite as familiar to NHL fans. In fact, there’s only four players with any NHL experience at all.
The full roster:
G Kristers Gudlevskis
G Janis Kalnins
G Ivars Punnenovs
D Uvis Janis Balinskis
D Oskars Cibulskis
D Karlis Cukste
D Ralfs Freibergs
D Janis Jaks
D Arturs Kulda
D Patriks Ozols
D Kristaps Zile
F Rodrigo Abols
F Oskars Batna
F Rihards Bukarts
F Roberts Bukarts
F Lauris Darzins
F Kaspars Daugavins
F Andris Dzerins
F Martins Dzierkals
F Miks Indrasis
F Nikolajs Jelisejevs
F Martins Karsums
F Ronalds Kenins
F Renars Krastenbergs
F Deniss Smirnovs
Like many of the other countries, it’s a veteran group for the Latvians without any real dynamic NHL prospects. Dzierkals, 24, was a third-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs and is technically still on the Vegas Golden Knights reserve list, though his last season in North America came with the ECHL’s Orlando Solar Bears in 2017-18. He ended up on the Vegas list in the Robin Lehner trade, which included Toronto playing middle man for salary cap purposes.