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Latvia: Latvian prospects

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Helo said:
I mean our junior hockey system is almost non-existant,can we keep up the pace with say Denmark or Germany?
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That's not true. I mean sure it should be more organised, like setting standards to all hockey schools regarding what should be taught to young players at a certain age and certainly we need more good coaches (but that cannot be solved in a day, especially without any money) and there should be more top teams for the hockey school pyramids, not only Dinamo Rīga and Liepājas Metalurgs, ony opportunities to play serious adult hockey in Latvia... BUT it's not so bad as somebody wants to paint it. Many municipalities hep to cover costs so that parents do not have to pay large sums of money ech months for players to be able to learn hockey, there are all kinds of tournaments organized, younger players inherit equipment from older ones again to cut costs...

Sure the situation can be improved in many areas but there are 24 teams currently in the U10 chmapionship at the moment, and 21 in U12, and next to existing good schools that produce talents like Riga ones' HS Rīga, Pārdaugava, Prizma and Liepājas Metalurgs, Dinamo Rīga's own youngesters look promising in U12 and U10 groups and a serious job is done in Jelgava now. The problem is not as much with how many schools we have but with quality. If there were more hockey schools like Liepājas Metalurgs consequently all Latvian U 10,12, 14 etc. leagues would be better and players wouldn't have to play in Belarus or Russia and there would be more talents coming out...
 
Freibergs played his first college game and got his first point as well. Can we make argument, that he's our best D prospect 9over the age, say, of 18?
 
Helo said:
Porejs?
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I regard Jakovļevs as being better than our Dinamo ''wonderboy'', Å evčenko from the same year should be decent as well and Liepājas' kid Edgars Siksna (topped the stats for Latvia at this year's WJC and, in Tambijevs words, '' the only somewhat good defenseman on the roster'') certainly shows promise too.

But at the moment I'd go for Jakovļevs. But I don't know much about Freibergs, good luck for him at the NCAA.
 
Latgale_fan said:
I regard Jakovļevs as being better than our Dinamo ''wonderboy'', Å evčenko from the same year should be decent as well and Liepājas' kid Edgars Siksna (topped the stats for Latvia at this year's WJC and, in Tambijevs words, '' the only somewhat good defenseman on the roster'') certainly shows promise too.

But at the moment I'd go for Jakovļevs. But I don't know much about Freibergs, good luck for him at the NCAA.
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Basically our D prospects are nowhere near the level of our Offensive prospects,i`m affraid this could hurt us is the future.
 
Helo said:
Basically our D prospects are nowhere near the level of our Offensive prospects,i`m affraid this could hurt us is the future.
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Latvia does have some good young defensemen though. Kulda and Bartulis are both arguably NHL calibur defensemen. There's also Roskinskis in the WHL and Freibergs in NCAA.

Not a great group, but not bad by any means.
 
smitty10 said:
Latvia does have some good young defensemen though. Kulda and Bartulis are both arguably NHL calibur defensemen. There's also Roskinskis in the WHL and Freibergs in NCAA.

Not a great group, but not bad by any means.
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Actually, outside of Kulda and Bartulis, it's pretty damn bad tbh. :laugh:
 
smitty10 said:
Latvia does have some good young defensemen though. Kulda and Bartulis are both arguably NHL calibur defensemen. There's also Roskinskis in the WHL and Freibergs in NCAA.

Not a great group, but not bad by any means.
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Kulda and Bartulis are more veterans than prospects nowadays,i`m talking prospects like 16,17,18 year olds and besides 21 yeard old Porejs playing in Dinamo Riga,Edgars Siksna in Belorussian league,Rosinskis and Freibergs theres a huge gap.
 
Not so sure about putting Rosinskis and Siksna in our "premium" D prospect category. They were just as invisible as anybody in U20's. Probably Freibergs isn't anything special as well, but he really has that "playing in a decent foreign league" aura working for him (kinda like I'm 99% sure that Meija is a superiour player to Kenins).
 
ozo said:
Not so sure about putting Rosinskis and Siksna in our "premium" D prospect category. They were just as invisible as anybody in U20's. Probably Freibergs isn't anything special as well, but he really has that "playing in a decent foreign league" aura working for him (kinda like I'm 99% sure that Meija is a superiour player to Kenins).
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Well being invisible for a shutdown is actually a good thing,means you don`t make alot of glaring mistakes to be noted for.:laugh:
Also who else will ou put in our premium D prospect caregory? Do you know some guys that we havent heard about? :D
 
Helo said:
Well being invisible for a shutdown is actually a good thing,means you don`t make alot of glaring mistakes to be noted for.:laugh:
Also who else will ou put in our premium D prospect caregory? Do you know some guys that we havent heard about? :D
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Quite opposite. I'd say we have no premium talants at all. Certainly there's no gulf between any prospects on our D pipeline, they all are meh.

No doubt that some will make it as pro's and will eventually play for our NT, but they will have to work they work up from nowhere like Kolesnikovs have to. Even Porejs who some might argue is in front of everybody, when we look at it objectively, could be playing in Norway if Kolesnikovs didn't want to give NA a shot.
 
ozo said:
Quite opposite. I'd say we have no premium talants at all. Certainly there's no gulf between any prospects on our D pipeline, they all are meh.
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I agree, but if we look realistically Siksna probably has the best chances at playing high level pro hockey in the whole 1992-1994 group (among d-men that is).

If we look at 1995 the situation looks a bit more promising as regards defensemen, though time will tell and U18 championships this year probably too. But also the fact that there are no U18 defensemen in HK Riga on permanent basis is nothing good...
 
Latgale_fan said:
I agree, but if we look realistically Siksna probably has the best chances at playing high level pro hockey in the whole 1992-1994 group (among d-men that is).
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I'll disagree with you once. Siksna simply are spending his days in a warmer place than any of his counterparts. From pure statistics POV, I'd take Freibergs over all of them (yes, he's year older), and maybe because I hated Siksna's game in his first WJC because we tend to think about him as an offensive D, when he frankly looks lost on the attack and again has no shot from the point (I know, I know - no one really has it bar maybe our mystery man Freibergs).
 
ozo said:
I'll disagree with you once. Siksna simply are spending his days in a warmer place than any of his counterparts. From pure statistics POV, I'd take Freibergs over all of them (yes, he's year older), and maybe because I hated Siksna's game in his first WJC because we tend to think about him as an offensive D, when he frankly looks lost on the attack and again has no shot from the point (I know, I know - no one really has it bar maybe our mystery man Freibergs).
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Freibergs isn't really what I was talking about here (1992-1994). Sure 1994 guys are younger and still might show something but I don't see guys from 1992 or 1993 who would be at Siksna's level.

Haven't seen Freibergs but like all our North Americans he's probably overrated.
 
Latgale_fan said:
Haven't seen Freibergs but like all our North Americans he's probably overrated.
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Yeah, Girgensons sure is overrated in our hockey fan circles...

Still, about Freibergs. I already admitted that he is a year older, but basically I base my suspicions of his greatness on the fact that he participated in three WJC's (and the first one was top tier one, not the one we seem to dominate nowadays). Surely even in Latvia that should count for something, no? Cynic would find an easier solution why he was so popular amongst our junior team coaches, but hey, let me believe in this kid! :laugh:
 
I actually saw Freibergs play last weekend. He was a pretty prominent part of Bowling Green's powerplay and looked pretty decent for having sat out most of the season. I wouldn't consider him a strong pro prospect at this point but he could be a big contributor for BG down the line and perhaps gain some attention from pro teams if he develops well.
 
Latgale_fan said:
That's not true. I mean sure it should be more organised, like setting standards to all hockey schools regarding what should be taught to young players at a certain age and certainly we need more good coaches (but that cannot be solved in a day, especially without any money) and there should be more top teams for the hockey school pyramids, not only Dinamo Rīga and Liepājas Metalurgs, ony opportunities to play serious adult hockey in Latvia... BUT it's not so bad as somebody wants to paint it. Many municipalities hep to cover costs so that parents do not have to pay large sums of money ech months for players to be able to learn hockey, there are all kinds of tournaments organized, younger players inherit equipment from older ones again to cut costs...

Sure the situation can be improved in many areas but there are 24 teams currently in the U10 chmapionship at the moment, and 21 in U12, and next to existing good schools that produce talents like Riga ones' HS Rīga, Pārdaugava, Prizma and Liepājas Metalurgs, Dinamo Rīga's own youngesters look promising in U12 and U10 groups and a serious job is done in Jelgava now. The problem is not as much with how many schools we have but with quality. If there were more hockey schools like Liepājas Metalurgs consequently all Latvian U 10,12, 14 etc. leagues would be better and players wouldn't have to play in Belarus or Russia and there would be more talents coming out...
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What about Latgale? what kids improveing here?
 
preiliboy said:
Freibergs is already 21 the only hope fro latvian hockey is Roberts Lipsbergs who plays here in Seattle and I know him personally he has a chance to be a 3rd line forward in the NHL. The best Latvian Procpect is Josef Kuzmenko he is 14 years old and has the best chance of becoming an NHL star. He is born in the states to Latvian Parents . He is the youngest with the best oppurtunity very talented and very fast and very big he is like zemgus but younger
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Ehh..Rihards Bukarts,Haralds Egle,Teodors Blugers?- what about these guys? :laugh: I dont know how big your knowledge of latvian prospects is but i`m certainly not putting some Kuzmenko ahead of these guys before i have 1) seen him play 2)have a confirmation he is latvian citizen and willing to play for Latvia.
 
Yesterday no one knew him, but today Kuzmenko already is our hockey's only hope. Thank God for this saviour!!!
 
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