Deniss Smirnovs (born 7 March 1999) is a Latvian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

for

EHC Kloten EHC Kloten is an ice hockey team based in the city of Kloten in Switzerland. The team plays in the National League (NL). It has one of the best youth systems in Swiss ice hockey as its youth teams have won 19 championships during the last 50 year ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL). He previously played with

Genève-Servette HC The Genève-Servette HC (also called Servette or GSHC) is a professional ice hockey club based in Geneva, Switzerland and competing in the National League (NL), the top tier of the Swiss hockey league system. The team plays their home games at the ...

and won a NL title with the team in 2023. Smirnovs played his junior hockey in Switzerland which allows him to compete in the NL and the SL with a Swiss player-license.

Playing career

On August 8, 2019, Smirnovs signed his first professional contract with

, after having played 5 seasons with the organization's junior teams. Smirnovs made his National League debut with

on September 13, 2019 against the SCL Tigers at the

Ilfis Stadium Ilfis Stadium is an indoor sporting arena built in 1975, located in Langnau i.E., Switzerland. The capacity of the arena is 6,000. It is the home arena of the SCL Tigers ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played o ...

. He scored his first NL goal that day and picked up an assist to become the team's

PostFinance Top Scorer The PostFinance Top Scorer is awarded annually to the Swiss National League (NL) and Swiss League (SL) player who leads the league in points at the end of the regular season. The reigning Top Scorer from each team wears a yellow flame-emblazoned ...

for their Home Opener the next day against

EHC Biel EHC Biel-Bienne is a professional ice hockey club based in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, Switzerland and plays in the National League (NL). Since the city of Biel is completely bilingual, alongside the German name EHC Biel (Abbr: EHCB) the tea ...

International play

Smirnovs made his debut with Latvia men's national ice hockey team in 2018. He represented Latvia at the

2023 IIHF World Championship The 2023 IIHF World Championship will be co-hosted by Tampere, Finland and Riga, Latvia. The tournament is scheduled to be held from 12 to 28 May 2023, and will be organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Host nation bid The ...

where he recorded one assist and won a bronze medal, Latvia's first ever IIHF World Championship medal.

Personal life

Smirnovs left

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

and moved to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

in 2014 at age 15 to continue his junior career. He is fluent in Russian, Latvian and French.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

References

External links

* 1999 births Living people Genève-Servette HC players EHC Kloten players Latvian ice hockey centres Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Latvia {{Latvia-icehockey-bio-stub