Dinamo Riga ( lv, Rīgas Dinamo) is a professional ice hockey team based in
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...
,
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 ...
. It is a member of the
Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with
HK Zemgale/LLU.
The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a
former hockey team (also named "Dinamo Riga"), which was founded in 1946, but ceased to exist in 1995. Since being re-established, Dinamo Riga played their home games at the
Arēna Rīga
Arena Riga ( lv, Arēna Rīga) is an indoor arena in Riga, Latvia. It is primarily used for ice hockey, basketball and concerts. Arena Riga holds a maximum of 14,500 and was opened on 15 February 2006.
It was built to be used as one of the venu ...
till 2022, which could accommodate attendance of 10,300 spectators.
History
The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 and among the founders of the club were
Guntis Ulmanis,
Kirovs Lipmans
Kirovs Lipmans (born 5 November 1940) is a Latvian business person and former ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2016; was a member of the Latvian Olympic Committ ...
,
Mały Snopp ,
Juris Savickis,
Viesturs Koziols and others. However, on 27 May,
Latvian Ice Hockey Federation
The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation ( lv, Latvijas Hokeja federācija), commonly abbreviated as LHF is the governing body that oversees ice hockey in Latvia, including the Latvian Hockey Higher League, the Latvia women's national ice hockey team a ...
president
Kirovs Lipmans
Kirovs Lipmans (born 5 November 1940) is a Latvian business person and former ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2016; was a member of the Latvian Olympic Committ ...
stepped out of the project because of a possible clash of interests. After the first season,
Viesturs Koziols also left the project.
Július Šupler became the first head coach of the club. For the first two seasons, he was assisted by
Miroslav Miklošovič and
Artis Ābols, but in 2010,
Viktors Ignatjevs replaced Miklošovič. On 27 April 2011, the new head coach,
Pekka Rautakallio, was announced.
In the
first season of the franchise, the team was led by players like
Masaļskis,
Prusek,
Westcott,
Ņiživijs,
Hossa and others. After 2008-09, forward
Aigars Cipruss decided to retire and instantly became the manager of Dinamo Riga's farm club,
Dinamo-Juniors Riga. The team finished the regular season in tenth position, higher than anyone would have predicted before the start of the season. However, in the first round of the league playoffs, Dinamo lost to
Dynamo Moscow 0–3, which later advanced to the
Gagarin Cup semifinals.
Following the first season, Dinamo managed to sign legendary
Sandis Ozoliņš, as well as
Jānis Sprukts
Jānis Sprukts (born January 31, 1982) is a Latvian professional ice hockey forward.
Biography
As a youth, Sprukts played in the 1996 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a team from Riga. He was drafted by Panthers as their eigh ...
,
Mārtiņš Karsums and others. The team finished the regular season in eighth place of the Western Conference, which qualified them for the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs, Dinamo faced
SKA Saint Petersburg
The Hockey Club SKA (russian: Спортивный клуб СКА), often referred to as SKA Saint Petersburg and literally as the Sports Club of the Army, is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Saint Petersburg. They are members o ...
with players like
Sergei Zubov,
Petr Čajánek,
Maxim Sushinsky
Maxim Yuryevich Sushinsky (russian: Максим Юрьевич Сушинский; born July 1, 1974) is a Russian former professional ice hockey player. He played in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and with the Minnesota Wild in the Nationa ...
and
Alexei Yashin
Alexei Valeryevich Yashin (russian: Алексей Валерьевич Яшин; born 5 November 1973) is a Russian former professional ice hockey centre who played 12 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Ottawa Senators and New ...
on the roster. Still, Dinamo managed to beat SKA 3–1 and advance to the Western Conference semifinals. In the semifinals, Dinamo was defeated by later
Gagarin Cup finalist
HC MVD, 1–4.
After his league-leading performance, Marcel Hossa signed a two-year contract with the then-current KHL champions
Ak Bars Kazan.
Martin Kariya
Martin Tetsuya Kariya (born October 5, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He is the youngest brother of former NHL players Paul Kariya and Steve Kariya.
Playing career Amateur
Kariya had a standout NCAA college hockey ...
signed a two-year contract with Swiss
NLA's
HC Ambrì-Piotta. New players signed during the off-season include
Tomáš Surový
Tomáš Surový (born September 24, 1981) is a Slovak professional ice hockey left winger currently playing for Slovan Bratislava of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
Playing career
As a youth, Surový played in the 1995 Quebec International ...
,
Brock Trotter,
Mikael Tellqvist and the returning
Mark Hartigan
Mark Hartigan (born October 15, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre, who played in the National Hockey League with the Atlanta Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings. He currently resides ...
.
Július Šupler resumed his post as the head coach.
The team finished the season in seventh place in the Western Conference and thirteenth in the league, as the team qualified to the playoffs. In the first round, their opponents were
Dynamo Moscow. Dinamo won the series 4–2, advancing to the next round and facing
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Dinamo lost the series 1–4.
As of the end of the third season, head coach
Július Šupler left the team to be the coach of
CSKA Moscow. On April 27, 2011, Dinamo signed
Pekka Rautakallio for the head coach position. Also, all the foreign players with no active contracts left the team to play somewhere else.
Brock Trotter also left using his chance to play in the NHL with the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
.
On February 27, 2022, Dinamo withdrew from
KHL
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs b ...
in protest against the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On August 10, 2022, it was announced that Dinamo Riga will play in the
Latvian Hockey Higher League next season.
Crest
Dinamo Riga Logo.svg, 2008–2020
File:Dinamo Riga (2020).svg, 2020–
Season-by-season record
''This is a partial list of the last ten seasons completed by Dinamo Riga. For the full season-by-season history, see
List of Dinamo Riga seasons.''
''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against''
Players
Current roster
Retired numbers
Team captains
*
Rodrigo Laviņš, 2008–2009
*
Sandis Ozoliņš, 2009–2012
*
Mārtiņš Karsums, 2012–2013
*
Sandis Ozoliņš, 2013–2014
*
Lauris Dārziņš, 2014–2016
*
Gints Meija
Gints Meija (born September 4, 1987) is a Latvian professional ice hockey winger currently playing for Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He previously played for EHC Black Wings Linz of the Austrian Hockey League
The ICE H ...
2016–2017
*
Miks Indrašis 2017–2018
*
Lauris Dārziņš, 2018–2022
*
Georgijs Pujacs, 2022–''present''
Head coaches
*
Július Šupler, 22 May 2008 – 29 March 2011
*
Pekka Rautakallio, 27 April 2011 – 5 November 2012
*
Artis Ābols, 5 November 2012 – 30 April 2015
*
Kari Heikkilä
Kari Heikkilä (born 10 January 1960) is a Finnish former ice hockey player and coach.
He played majority of his career in Ilves, but had also stints in Sweden (HC Vita Hästen and Luleå HF) and in Italy, where he ended his career in 1994.
A ...
, July 2015 – 7 January 2016
*
Normunds Sējējs, 7 January 2016 – 29 May 2017
*
Sandis Ozoliņš, 29 May 2017 – 28 September 2017
*
Ģirts Ankipāns
Ģirts Ankipāns (born November 29, 1975) is a retired Latvian ice hockey player and coach. Currently he serves as the head coach of Dinamo Riga in KHL.
Career Playing career
He started his professional ice hockey career in Latvia, where he ...
, 28 September 2017 – 3 March 2020
*
Pēteris Skudra
Pēteris "Peter" Skudra (born April 24, 1973) is a Latvian former professional ice hockey goaltender and head coach. During a playing career that lasted from 1994 to 2007 he played for several teams in Latvia, Russia and North America. After star ...
, 20 July 2020 – 3 March 2021
*
Sergei Zubov, 12 April 2021 – 21 October 2021
*, 22 October 2021 – 29 November 2021
*
Vladimir Krikunov, 29 November 2021 – 30 April 2022
*
Leonīds Beresņevs, 17 August 2022 – ''present''
Franchise records and leaders
Scoring leaders
Leading goaltenders
References
External links
* {{in lang, lv
Ice hockey teams in Riga
Ice hockey clubs established in 2008
2008 establishments in Latvia
Former Kontinental Hockey League teams