Jānis Jaks (born 22 August 1995) is a Latvian professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

for HC Energie Karlovy Vary of the

Czech Extraliga The Czech Extraliga () is the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic. It was created in 1993 following the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia midway through the 1992–93 Czechoslovak Extraliga season (which all Slovak and ...

Playing career

Collegiate

Jaks joined American International for the 2016–17 campaign and quickly became a mainstay of their blue line, scoring five goals and six assists for 11 points as a freshman, including two game-winning goals.

Professional

On 30 March 2020, Jaks was signed to a one-year contract with the

Bakersfield Condors The Bakersfield Condors are a professional ice hockey team based in Bakersfield, California. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers. The Condors play their home games at Dignity Healt ...

of the AHL for the 2020–21 season. With the commencement of the 2020–21 North American season delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Jaks was signed to a try-out contract with Latvian-based KHL club,

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga () is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It most recently was a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LBTU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a D ...

, on 23 August 2020. Jaks appeared in 17 contests with Dinamo, collecting 1 goal and 4 points before returning to the AHL and the Condors. In completing his first professional season, Jaks contributed with two goals and 6 points from the blueline with the Condors. Jaks left North America as a free agent and signed a one-year contract to return to the KHL with Russian-based club HC Sochi on 19 July 2021.

International play

Jaks played for Latvia's junior team at the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

World Junior Championships. He played his first game at the senior international level in the 2014 World Championships for Latvia's national team against Russia's national team. He represented Latvia at the

2023 IIHF World Championship The 2023 IIHF World Championship was co-hosted by Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Latvia. The tournament was held from 12 to 28 May 2023, organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). Canada men's national ice hockey team, Canada won ...

where he recorded two goals and five assists and won a bronze medal, Latvia's first ever IIHF World Championship medal.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* * * * 1995 births Living people American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey players Bakersfield Condors players Dinamo Riga players HK Riga players HK Zemgale players Latvian ice hockey defencemen 21st-century Latvian sportsmen Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Olympic ice hockey players for Latvia HC Sochi players Ice hockey people from Riga {{Latvia-icehockey-bio-stub