WJC: 2025 Team Latvia Roster Talk

[Namejs]

He isn't supposed to be impressive, he is a depth player for their team. If you wanted to discuss impressive you could have written about Sarkenov whose performance this year pretty much matches Mateiko (albeit on a deeper team) or Orazov who is well over PPG as a defenseman in the MHL to go with few minutes here and there in the KHL.

But anyway, this wasn't about the specifics. If they could beat the Czechs, they can definitely challenge Latvia.

I value your input, as I would have scouted their team only shortly before the WJC and it's nice to know that they have a deeper team than usual, but they will likely still get relegated.

Looking at Germany, actually, they're still very unimpressive as well and it looks like their prospects are on the younger side too. For some reason I expected them to be much deeper. A potential Griva match-up looming.

 

[Namejs]

We're playing Denmark, Norway and Austria in a 4 team tournament. Only Europe-based players are attending, so most of our key players are not there, except for Osmanis and Uljanskis.

It will be interesting to see how this affects player selection for the WJC. There's a bunch of depth players here with this being their last chance at cracking the roster.

Also, expecting Osmanis to light it up.

 

[Namejs]

A 4-1 win over Denmark, Osmanis with 1+1.

It's a bit too early to tell, but I actually liked Livsics. Expected more of Serkins.

Not sure why Ansons was on the top line, but he looked decent at least against the backdrop of Denmark. 2 goals today. Probably too slow for a top 6 role in the WJC though.

Fecers looked OK-ish, seemed to make some positional mistakes at times.

 

[Namejs]

I saw only parts of the game against Norway. We were 3-0 up and completely checked out mentally, 5 unanswered goals.

Maurins does not exude confidence. His stats are horrible in Sweden. Not sure why he's even here, maybe I'm missing something.

Livsics with a goal and another really good game, he's definitely earned at least the 3C spot.

Trying to think of possible line combos for the WJC and it's not very easy to do. Murnieks and Osmanis are definitely going to be on the top line, but they could plug in Flugins there in order to move Mateiko down and add some firepower to the 2nd unit. However, that 1st line would be a kindergarten line basically. They're all 16 and 17. I'm not even a 100% sure they're calling up Flugins.

Sieradzkis and Haritoncevs both played for Mora and were good at the U18s. Sieradzkis - Serkins - Haritoncevs could be the 3rd line.

Bulans and Uljanskis are definitely QBing PP1 and PP2 respectively.

Feldbergs will probably be the starting goalie.

A lot of unknowns still. I don't think we've ever had a team that deep. You have kids playing major junior hockey (Berzkalns, Flugins) or doing well in the Finnish/Swiss juniors (Trockis, Solomoncuks) and they might not even make the lineup. And it's not like all of these other depth players are globetrotters, they're just decent.

Which also means barely anyone's making the team from the Latvian men's league. Probably Ansons due to his frame, maybe Briedis as the 7th D, that's about it.

This really is a tough one for the coaches. Particularly when it comes down to Flugins, Berzkalns, Klaucans, Cjunskis, others. And what do you do with the whole NAHL squad?

I hope they're going to have some exhibition games in North America before the WJC.