WC: Team Latvia 2025 Roster Talk

[Namejs]

Nice time loop we are having here. You didn't comment anything about him as a 20-minute TOI 4th liner in the playoffs though, totally by accident, I'm sure.

Also from a person so prudent in numbers, I thought you were aware enough Batna isn't 8th but 7th when it comes to the lineup since Estephan only played 10 games and Bunnaman replaced him, they were never in the same lineup. But yes, how dare I call the forward that is 7th in TOI and trailing the 6th one by a whole ONE SECOND a middle-six forward. "Russia-tier truth-spinning," I tell ya

Players tend to have more ice time when their team plays OT and the GWG is scored in the 72nd minute. Why are you doubling down on your mistake and posting his ice time without any context?

Serious Olympic tier mental gymnastics. A guy plays on the 3rd line. It shows up in the game sheet. It aligns with his ice time. He's a 3rd liner.

Yet somehow, for some reason he's actually a 2nd liner, because he only played a minute less than the actual 2C.

How can you actually consider that a valid argument?

Who is the 2C? Does he become the 1C? And is the 1C now in a quantum state of superposition?

 

[ozo]

Players tend to have more ice time when their team plays OT and the GWG is scored in the 72nd minute. Why are you doubling down on your mistake and posting his ice time without any context?

I guess his teammates were not on the ice in the overtime. Only Batna benefited from extra game time, got it.

 

[Dofs]

I don't get it, how does Batna playing on the third line instead of the second makes the statement of him being a 'middle-six forward' false?

 

[SoundAndFury]

Players tend to have more ice time when their team plays OT and the GWG is scored in the 72nd minute. Why are you doubling down on your mistake and posting his ice time without any context?

Are you blind? Game 4 ended in regulation, Jukurit won 5-2, Batna played over 20 minutes. The same guy you said "literally played on the 4th line in the playoffs". How stupid do you think others are to not see through your bullshit?

And just like ozo is saying, in your "saving grace" game that went to OT Oskars "literally the 4th liner" Batna played 4 more minutes than any other forward. Jesper Piitulainen was the closest with 20:36. That's the context you asked for.

It's hilarious you are digging a deeper and deeper hole under your feet with a hope to somehow surface on the other side.

Who is the 2C? Does he become the 1C? And is the 1C now in a quantum state of superposition?

I guess you have never heard of "middle six forward", "top 4 defensemen", or "1A/1B goalies". All these new advanced concepts.

 

[kudla]

Nah if someone makes a movie named SAF vs. Namejs, I'll be the first in the cinema.

 

[Namejs]

Look at the game sheets, numbnuts.

When you play a bottom 6 grinder type, do linematching and ice a shutdown line in the O zone or use a big body on the PK, his ice time can get inflated in comparison with a 2nd line skilled-type depending on the number of penalties or the tactics employed.

If a team rolls their lines relatively evenly, their focus is on keeping up the energy levels high and pressure on the opposing team high throughout the game.

How thick do you have to be to not realize this?

He has been a 3rd liner in 80% of games for Jukurit.

His usage and his playing style is that of a prototypical shutdown power forward. And this is blatantly obvious to anyone with a brain who has been following Latvian hockey.

He has no business being on or being associated with a middle six role in the context of the Latvian national team.

Prohorenkovs is a completely different type of a player who complements other skilled forwards well, as evidenced by the fact he's literally played on the 1st line for the Latvian national team in all 4 exhibition games along with Daugavins and Ravinskis.

A grinder type forward has no business playing in the top 6 of the Latvian national team. His offensive production is limited, and he plays like an old school agitator and earns way too many penalties.

I do not see him anywhere else than on the 4th line in a best on best scenario.

In terms of offensive production, as I explained before, once you compare the NHLe of Prohorenkovs numbers in NCAA to Batna's numbers in Extraliga and Liiga, Prohorenkovs is clearly more offensively talented and will likely get a contract in the AHL.

If you want to be diligent about Batna's talent level, let's go beyond the 23/24 season and look at his offensive talents in Liiga and the French league in 22/23 and 21/22.

I clearly prefer a more skilled forward on the 3rd line of the national team, yes. How preposterous of a notion, right?

 

[SoundAndFury]

Look at the game sheets, numbnuts.

Who cares about the game sheets? Znaroks, for example, had a habit of penciling his de facto 1st line as a 4th one all the time during his glory days with Dynamo.

It's just funny that you considered that to be your "gotcha" moment. You officially downgraded yourself from stat-watcher to lineup sheet-watcher.

You made the board borderline unreadable with screenshots from 2 games out of 6 that kinda sorta support your case although not even that since you argued the man is "literally the 4th liner", now you are evidently happy to "expose" him as a 3C in one of 6 games And those games where he led all Jukurit forwards in ice time by quite some margin, I guess you hope 20 hours is enough time to forget about it.

But, credit where credit's due, you have proved this "literal 4th liner" had 3rd line minutes in the few games he played the least in. Great success.

On a side note, I guess ruining the readability of the board is now your trademark desperation move, just like the dozens of reposted tweets from nobodies without any substance in Abols' case.

I clearly prefer a more skilled forward on the 3rd line of the national team, yes. How preposterous of a notion, right?

I told you already, you can prefer whatever you want and think whatever you want. Batna played in all situations for Jukurit, sometimes literally as much as it was possible to play him (almost 25 minutes even in a 71-minute game is McDavid levels) and is a core part of HK powerplay this season, as you can see in the previous page only trailing their most used PP forward by 20s and pretty much equal with everyone else on the PP duty. But to you he is a 4th liner because you are right, reality is wrong and every coach ever is an idiot to not see the things you see.

We all know this, it has been talked about with you ad nauseam. It's your prerogative. The issue is that you spend days trying to prove it to other people who know you are blatantly wrong, which you do not consider to be their prerogative.

 

[Namejs]

Buddy, let it go, you got exposed, the mic got dropped a week ago, you're stumbling around the stage with your mom's spaghetti on the sweater.

What makes my hands sweaty, on the other hand, is a guy named Dans Locmelis. 8 points in 4 AHL games and I am starting to feel a tingling sensation in one of my body parts that says he very well might not be joining the national team.

 

[Eye of Ra]

throwback, 2000 wc team. first time latvia reached qf.

Artis Abols (LW)
Aleksandrs Belavskis (RW)
Aigars Cipruss (C)
Vjaceslavs Fanduls (C)
Mareks Jass (RW)
Aleksandrs Kercs (LW)
Aleksandrs Macijevskis (RW)
Aleksandrs Nizivijs (LW/RW)
Juris Opulskis (LW)
Grigorijs Pantelejevs (LW)
Aleksandrs Semjonovs (C)
Sergejs Senins (RW)
Janis Sprukts (C)
Leonids Tambijevs (LW)
Herberts Vasiljevs (C)
Harijs Vitolins (C)

Mihails Bogdanovs (D)
Igors Bondarevs (D)
Viktors Ignatjevs (D)
Rodrigo Lavins (D)
Andrejs Maticins (D)
Normunds Sejejs (D)
Aleksandrs Siskovics (D)
Karlis Skrastins (D)
Atvars Tribuncovs (D)

Arturs Irbe (G)
Sergejs Naumovs (G)
Dmitrijs Zabotinskis (G)

 

[Namejs]

Apparently all of Tralmaks, Rubins and Batna are injured.

A lacerated tendon, a broken and dislocated foot and other fun things.

I don't think Rubins will make it in time. Tralmaks is 70/30, he's already been healing for 6 weeks now. Batna has barely stepped on ice.

Rubins and Tralmaks are obviously key players.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Update roster

goalkeeper Ēriks Vītols, defenders – Bogdans Hodass, Artūrs Andžāns, as well as forwards – Bruno Osmanis, Klāvs Veinbergs, Rogers Bukarts and Georgs Golovkovs are out

Tomorrow, center forward Filips Buncis, who has become the Danish champion, will join the Latvian national team.

Experienced defenseman Oskars Cibulskis, who has a Danish silver medal, is expected on Thursday.

Rūdolfs Balcers became the Swiss champion. Vītoliņš said that Balcers could join the team in Norway, where he lives in the offseason, but it is not yet known whether the forward will participate in any of the test games.

Defenseman Kristiāns Rubīns and forward Oskars Batņa, who previously trained separately due to injuries and have not yet participated in the test games, skated in a common group with the rest of the team.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Update roster

goalkeeper Ēriks Vītols, defenders – Bogdans Hodass, Artūrs Andžāns, as well as forwards – Bruno Osmanis, Klāvs Veinbergs, Rogers Bukarts and Georgs Golovkovs are out

Tomorrow, center forward Filips Buncis, who has become the Danish champion, will join the Latvian national team.

Experienced defenseman Oskars Cibulskis, who has a Danish silver medal, is expected on Thursday.

Rūdolfs Balcers became the Swiss champion. Vītoliņš said that Balcers could join the team in Norway, where he lives in the offseason, but it is not yet known whether the forward will participate in any of the test games.

Defenseman Kristiāns Rubīns and forward Oskars Batņa, who previously trained separately due to injuries and have not yet participated in the test games, skated in a common group with the rest of the team.

Namejs also lives in Norway. Now we know he is Balcers

 

[AdamParrot]

Zemgus Girgensons has been invited. He's not make a decision yet.

 

[Playmaker82]

No Girgensons, but Tralmaks is in.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Lines from today training

Zīle-Freibergs
Rubīns-Jaks
Mamčics-Komuls
Cibuļskis-Tumānovs
ABergmanis, Sējējs

Ravinskis-Buncis-Daugaviņš
Balcers-Prohorenkovs-Tralmaks
Dzierkals-Batņa-Andersons
Bukarts-Egle-Gavars
Skrastiņš, Laviņš

Locmelis will join the team this week

 

[SoundAndFury]

You didn't want Bicevskis last year? Well, this year we get Buncis instead.

Truly, this is some lineup. Good thing countries like France or Slovenia are also far from their best.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Namejs will be gone for a year. He always do that when he is proven wrong.

 

[Khokhlach86]

Final roster

Vārtsargi​	Gads​	Satv​	Cm​	Kg​	Klubs​
Kristers Gudļevskis	1992.	K	192	97	Fischtown Pinguins (Vācija)
Gustavs Grigals	1998.	K	188	89	Dukla Trenčín (Slovākija)
Mareks Mitens	1998.	K	185	84	Spišská Nová Ves (Slovākija)
Aizsargi
Oskars Cibuļskis	1988.	K	188	96	Blue Fox (Dānija)
Ralfs Freibergs	1991.	K	181	87	Mountfield HK (Čehija)
Jānis Jaks	1995.	L	186	86	Karlovy Vary (Čehija)
Kristaps Zīle	1997.	K	186	87	Litvinov (Čehija)
Kristiāns Rubīns	1997.	K	195	103	Plzen (Čehija)
Roberts Mamčics	1995.	K	196	105	Karlovy Vary (Čehija)
Markuss Komuls	1998.	L	183	86	Kladno (Čehija)
Miks Tumānovs	2001.	K	195	90	JYP (Somija)
Uzbrucēji
Kaspars Daugaviņš	1988.	K	183	96	bez kluba
Rihards Bukarts	1995.	L	177	86	Vitkovice (Čehija)
Oskars Batņa	1995.	K	195	106	Mountfield HK (Čehija)
Mārtiņš Dzierkals	1997.	K	183	84	Skellefteå AIK (Zviedrija)
Rūdolfs Balcers	1997.	K	180	82	ZSC Lions (Šveice)
Toms Andersons	1993.	L	185	86	La Chaux-de-Fonds (SL)
Dans Ločmelis	2004.	K	181	83	Bruins (AHL)
Eduards Tralmaks	1997.	K	194	95	Rytiri (Čehija)
Fēlikss Gavars	2002.	K	180	83	St. Lawrence (NCAA)
Haralds Egle	1996.	L	180	88	Liptovský Mikuláš (Slovākija)
Martins Laviņš	2003.	L	186	84	New Hampshire (NCAA)
Gļebs Prohorenkovs	2001.	K	187	85	Niagara Univ. (NCAA)
Anrī Ravinskis	2003.	K	191	91	HPK (Somija)
Filips Buncis	1997.	K	193	97	Bulldogs (Dānija)

 

[kthx]

Surprised by Abols not coming, not sure why but it's probably explained somewhere in this thread. Latvians probably expect a middle finish? Not an easy team to play against, that's for sure.

 

[tade]

It is not surprising. He can't come at this moment, he's playing in the AHL play-offs. And when talking about Abols, if Phantoms get bounced from the play-offs, is he expected to join the team?

And why Merzlikins/Silovs, and Blueger are not going this year? All have contracts for the next season, and don't seem to be injured, or?

 

[SoundAndFury]

Surprised by Abols not coming, not sure why but it's probably explained somewhere in this thread. Latvians probably expect a middle finish? Not an easy team to play against, that's for sure.

He is still stuck in the AHL playoffs. There is still a spot left open for him. But the real issue is that with additions of Andrae, Grebyonkin, Luchanko, Alex Bump, the Phantoms look like an actual contender in the AHL playoffs.

This is a very weak Latvian team but it faces other very weak teams: Slovakia, France, Slovenia also have very big losses and Austria is still beatable even close to their best so QFs is still the goal.

 

[JohnWillow]

It is not surprising. He can't come at this moment, he's playing in the AHL play-offs. And when talking about Abols, if Phantoms get bounced from the play-offs, is he expected to join the team?

And why Merzlikins/Silovs, and Blueger are not going this year? All have contracts for the next season, and don't seem to be injured, or?

Blueger's wife is about to give birth to their first child any moment now, Merzļikins just had a newborn + some kind of a injury, Šilovs still in AHL play-off.

 

[Vikz]

This is a very weak Latvian team but it faces other very weak teams: Slovakia, France, Slovenia also have very big losses and Austria is still beatable even close to their best so QFs is still the goal.

Not a weak team by any means.

Gudlevskis is one of the best EU goalies overall. While having Elvis or Silovs is certainly better on paper due to their NHL status, Kristers is fully capable of delivering a 2023 Silovs-style performance. At the end of the day, you only need one goalie.

Defence is same as usual. Balisnkis is the only guy missing from the best D corps we can ice.

Missing our top two centers is the worst part. But when was Latvia not thin on C? Daugavins, Bukarts, Balcers, Locmelis and Tralmaks are all high scoring forwards who fill out 5 of top 6 slots. Batna and Dzierkals are proven middle six players and Ravinskis and Prohorenkovs were great during exhibition games and can also be used to plug holes in any line.

Sure, not having a single NHLer automatically means its a weaker team. But gone are the days when the absence of a few top guys means we are fighting to avoid relegation.

Two main questions for me are:
1. How will the Center problem be addressed? Will pure, but less skillful lower line centers like Batna or Lavins or god help us Buncis be promoted? Or maybe Prohorenkovs, who appeared out of nowhere in the camp will debut on one of the top lines? Or do they just move guys like Tralmaks or even Daugavins to center to make sure that top lines are pure skill?

2. Who are the three guys they will be holding places for? Obvious answer is Abols, Balinskis and Silovs. Wonder if they consider Vilmanis. After all, the forward position in the one we are lacking at most, and the guy who was a last minute cut from his NHL team should definitely be in the conversation, even if he did not end up tearing up the AHL as we all hoped for.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Not a weak team by any means.

Gudlevskis is one of the best EU goalies overall. While having Elvis or Silovs is certainly better on paper due to their NHL status, Kristers is fully capable of delivering a 2023 Silovs-style performance. At the end of the day, you only need one goalie.

Defence is same as usual. Balisnkis is the only guy missing from the best D corps we can ice.

Missing our top two centers is the worst part. But when was Latvia not thin on C? Daugavins, Bukarts, Balcers, Locmelis and Tralmaks are all high scoring forwards who fill out 5 of top 6 slots. Batna and Dzierkals are proven middle six players and Ravinskis and Prohorenkovs were great during exhibition games and can also be used to plug holes in any line.

Sure, not having a single NHLer automatically means its a weaker team. But gone are the days when the absence of a few top guys means we are fighting to avoid relegation.

Two main questions for me are:
1. How will the Center problem be addressed? Will pure, but less skillful lower line centers like Batna or Lavins or god help us Buncis be promoted? Or maybe Prohorenkovs, who appeared out of nowhere in the camp will debut on one of the top lines? Or do they just move guys like Tralmaks or even Daugavins to center to make sure that top lines are pure skill?

2. Who are the three guys they will be holding places for? Obvious answer is Abols, Balinskis and Silovs. Wonder if they consider Vilmanis. After all, the forward position in the one we are lacking at most, and the guy who was a last minute cut from his NHL team should definitely be in the conversation, even if he did not end up tearing up the AHL as we all hoped for.

This is a very glass-half-full as opposed to half-empty kind of take.

Gudlevskis indeed seems to be at the absolute peak of his career which might make him even better than some out-of-form NHL goalies like Grubauer. But... Behind him are 2 Slovak league goalies. We don't know if Kristers is capable of delivering Silovs-level performance. There is a reason why NHL teams mostly rotate the goalies between back-to-backs. Not to mention playing numerous back-to-backs in a short period of time at age 32. One goalie might be enough but it's still a considerable weakness.

Team's best defenseman is missing, meaning Latvia won't even have 2 pairs of decent quality. You can say it is "as usual" but the usual is a clear and obvious weakness of the Latvian NT. We are going to see guys like Komuls, Tumanovs, Cibulskis taking regular shifts.

Same goes for the centers. It's not that Latvia is missing x. y, z guy. It's that the guys replacing them are at the Slovak league level. With the addition of Texier, France certainly has better centers. Austria has better centers. Slovakia has better centers. The only team Latvia can legitimately compete with at center (unless Abols comes) is Slovenia.

This is a very weak team by the Latvian NT standard. And it is absolutely fine if the goal is to avoid relegation but if the goal is a medal, as we have seen is possible to achieve with most of the best players on board, this team has no chance. Because truly, if you take the sum of things, this team is only clearly better than Slovenia. Austria, Slovakia, France - too close to call. Those teams have strengths exactly where Latvia has weaknesses.

In general, I'm confused how this is "not a weak team by any means". When it is weak at defense and it is VERY weak at center. It has NHL players being replaced by guys that are one step above the bottom tier of European pros. Guys that would look right at home at the D1B level. If this is not a very weak team, what is?

 

[overage]

Slovakia Latvia France Austria Slovenia
Not suprise this year if they make 1/4 or get relegated.