WC: 2024 Team Latvia Roster Talk

[Dofs]

Punnenovs out, which is a little surprising but makes sense. Given his current form, he would clearly be only the third goalie.

 

[Vikz]

Punnenovs out, which is a little surprising but makes sense. Given his current form, he would clearly be only the third goalie.

Yeah, weird. Its not like NT is a professional team where salaries and cap spaces matter. Just go with three best goalies, even if the third one does not see ice.
Coaches said that Merzlikins is still our best option simply because he is an NHL starter, regardless of how successful his season was. By that same logic, Punenovs should be ahead of Vitols, just because he plays in a much better league.
I wonder if Ivars himself decided to skip this year, both because of the competition and his rough season. Might need some rest before active training in summer to get back in shape.

 

[Namejs]

Abols and Dzierkals are both joining the national team. Barring injuries, we should be fine.

Main issues with the current roster:
1. Lack of a 2nd line, we have 3 3rd lines
2. No puck-moving Ds
3. No elite goal scorers

We might actually struggle to score vs. France and Kazakhstan.

On that note, I've changed my mind on the idea of Vilmanis joining. He has been dominating the OHL play-offs, scoring more than Mesar and he is exactly the TYPE of a player we are currently sorely missing. He is prone of some defensive lapses still, so I'm not sure if they'll take the risk.

But if available, I would potentially use him in a sheltered top 6 role with more O-zone starts and see how he does against Poland/France.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Is Ansons coming?

 

[Namejs]

Is Ansons coming?

They're going to take a look at him in the exhibition games vs. Norway. He's very reliable defensively, so he might make the 4th line, but it's not like we're lacking shutdown forwards. He's not going to be a difference maker this year.

 

[Namejs]

Panthers inquired about Vilmanis and basically asked us if we are calling him up to the Worlds. Apparently they want to keep him in their orbit and invest some time in him during the off-season.

So we're not seeing Vilmanis, but that is a very good sign for the kid and his role in the next season. Being stuck in the bottom 6 of an AHL roster has put the brakes on a bunch of our leading prospects before.

Jaks has finally started practicing and Vitolins was barely holding in tears of joy. 'Our dumpster fire of a PP now finally looks somewhat decent' is what our head coach said although I might be paraphrasing.

Still no Abols, so the game vs. Poland is effectively going to be our final prep game.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Final roster

 

[Namejs]

So 8-0 vs. Norway after not being able to score for 2 straight games and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.

As mentioned before, Jaks was the main difference maker. He quarterbacked the PP and the transition game changed completely when he was on the ice. I still think he could be lower pairing D in the NHL. An absolute key player in the Worlds for us.

Looking at the roster, we potentially have 8 rookies and 4 NCAA players (@SoundAndFury). Pretty big change from the previous roster for Latvian standards.

We have left 3 roster spots open for Balinskis, Blueger and Silovs.

Oh, yeah, Ansons made the team since Dzerins just doesn't have the wheels anymore. And looking at the speed of Daugavins, I don't think he'll make it until the Olympics. This might be his last one.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Kinda weird to tag me when I said having NCAA players on the roster for Latvia is nothing out of the ordinary while you argued "you might as well cross most of them off the list". Not sure what you are trying to tell here.

 

[Namejs]

Kinda weird to tag me when I said having NCAA players on the roster for Latvia is nothing out of the ordinary while you argued "you might as well cross most of them off the list". Not sure what you are trying to tell here.

Cool beans

 

[Eye of Ra]

Cool beans

No. Magic beans.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Cool beans

Bergmanis and Locmelis are returnies, Gavars had a very strong finish to his season (he went around PPG since our initial discussion about NCAA players in February) and Lavins fills a specific need we also talked about (where the assumption at the time was Vitolins is ahead of him in the pecking order).

You were acting like a bigger NCAA contingent in the Latvian NT is near impossible and yet now you are trying to pretend how right you were? Cool beans indeed.

The same applies to the new players. Everyone and their mom knew Tralmaks and Egle are due, they are both 27. That Ansons is getting a look. That's news to nobody. And talking about nobodies, Komuls and Vitols are just weird selections pretty much nobody had on their radar and will likely forget about either immediately after or during the WC.

I also struggle to find who the 8th rookie even is. Vitols, Komuls, Egle, Tralmaks, Ansons, Gavars, Lavins and?

 

[Namejs]

Bergmanis and Locmelis are returnies, Gavars had a very strong finish to his season (he went around PPG since our initial discussion about NCAA players in February) and Lavins fills a specific need we also talked about (where the assumption at the time was Vitolins is ahead of him in the pecking order).

You were acting like a bigger NCAA contingent in the Latvian NT is near impossible and yet now you are trying to pretend how right you were? Cool beans indeed.

The same applies to the new players. Everyone and their mom knew Tralmaks and Egle are due, they are both 27. That Ansons is getting a look. That's news to nobody. And talking about nobodies, Komuls and Vitols are just weird selections pretty much nobody had on their radar and will likely forget about either immediately after or during the WC.

I also struggle to find who the 8th rookie even is. Vitols, Komuls, Egle, Tralmaks, Ansons, Gavars, Lavins and?

Glad we agree now

 

[SoundAndFury]

Easy to agree with someone who is always right.

 

[krutais23]

Interesting summer for these latvian young guns - excited to see where Hodass, A. Bergmanis, Gavars end up playing next season

 

[SoundAndFury]

Isn't there a 95% likelihood that Gavars simply continues playing in the NCAA?

 

[Namejs]

Interesting summer for these latvian young guns - excited to see where Hodass, A. Bergmanis, Gavars end up playing next season

I like how you casually slipped in Hodass there.

 

[krutais23]

I like how you casually slipped in Hodass there.

Because he is next in line, he has got to beat Cibulskis for a spot next year, hope he does

 

[Namejs]

Because he is next in line, he has got to beat Cibulskis for a spot next year, hope he does

Fenenko
Uljanskis
Bulans
all rank higher.

Hodass is not going to make the national team next year. It was a wasted down year for him and if he can make it in the pros next season without having to go to Cze2 or whatever, that's going to be enough for now. He has the size to be a depth player for the national team 2-3 years out though.

 

[Dofs]

Balinskis, Jaks, Zile, Rubins, Freibergs, Cukste, Mamcics, maybe even Bindulis - that's the projected lineup next year without Cibulskis.

It's not just Cibulskis that Hodass and other young players need to beat in order to get into the team next year.

 

[krutais23]

Balinskis, Jaks, Zile, Rubins, Freibergs, Cukste, Mamcics, maybe even Bindulis - that's the projected lineup next year without Cibulskis.

It's not just Cibulskis that Hodass and other young players need to beat in order to get into the team next year.

Next year I am definetly taking Fenenko over Bindulis, but not sure if Fenenko will be available

 

[VILPERI]

Any idea who is the starting goalie tomorrow vs Poland?

 

[Namejs]

Any idea who is the starting goalie tomorrow vs Poland?

Likely Elvis, but since it's a back-to-back, who knows.

We have only 18 players on the roster officially for some reason, by the way. It's a bit of a mystery to me what the coaches are doing since it does not look like the Florida/Vancouver series are going to be very short. And both Ansons and Locmelis are not on the roster yet. I think we only have 3 Cs in the lineup right now.

They might use the Poland game as a prep game and test some things out.

 

[ReinoPyy]

Likely Elvis, but since it's a back-to-back, who knows.

Any update on this? Who is going to start?

 

[ozo]

Any update on this? Who is going to start?

As expected it will be Merzlikins. Hopefully this game will help him gain confidence for the tournament.