It has been a successful international hockey season for the Boston Bruins and their prospects. Will Zellers, James Hagens, Ryan Walsh, and Christopher Pelosi played for Team USA over the holidays in the World Junior Hockey Championships and the Spengler Cup, and Jeremy Swayman, Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, and Henri Jokiharju are all on their respective countries' rosters for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Some teams haven't named their rosters yet, including Latvia, which could add Dans Locmelis to its lineup.
Locmelis has been a fine representative of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. He played in the last three World Championships for his country, recording nine points in 21 games. Six of those points came in seven games in last year's tournament.
Locmelis also played in three Olympic Qualifying Games for Latvia last season, adding a goal and an assist to help his country qualify for the Milan-Cortina Olympics. It'd be difficult for the staff to justify leaving him off after being part of the Men's team for the last three years and playing a role in getting the country to the Olympics.
The center has also been playing some of his best hockey over the past year and a half. He had 33 points in 40 games at UMass last season, and then exploded onto the American Hockey League scene with 12 points in six games. The pace slowed a little bit this season now that he is a full-time pro, but he has still been one of Providence's better forwards with 19 points in 29 games.
Dans Locmelis could compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics
The list of Latvian-born players in the NHL is short. The team named its initial six players for the Olympics this past summer, as every other team did, but it wasn't hard to figure out who they were picking, since there are only six active players currently in the NHL. Rodrigo Abols, Uvis Balinskis, Teddy Blueger, Zemgus Girgensons, Elvis Merzlikins, and Arturs Silovs are NHL players already on the roster.
That leaves 11 forward spots for Locmelis to crack. It'd be a shocker to see him left off the roster, but stranger things are happening with some of the roster decisions from other countries. With only six Latvian AHL players currently playing, it should be a foregone conclusion that Locmelis will be in Milan and possibly play a big role for the Latvian underdogs.