OHL Alumni Central

Andris Dzerins played two years in the Ontario Hockey League, 2007-08 and 2008-09, both with the Kingston Frontenacs. In each season with Kingston, Dzerins reached 20 goals, 20 in his first and 21 in his second. Previous to the OHL, Andris played junior in Latvia, Sweden and Finland.

Since leaving the Ontario Hockey League, Dzerins has been with Dinamo Riga of Russia’s KHL. The team plays out of the 10,300 seat Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. In its recent history, Dinamo has been mediocre, finishing around .500 each season. This season has started out as no exception with the team beginning with a 7-8 record and sitting in seventh in the eleven team KHL West Conference. Riga is captained by former NHLer Sandis Ozolins.

Like mostly every other player on Dinamo Riga, Dzerins is an annual fixture on Latvia’s national team. He played for Latvia two years in the IIHF under-18 D1 World Juniors, winning one gold and one silver. He followed that up with two years with the under-20 team, also winning a gold and silver. Over the past two seasons, he has been a member of Latvia’s squad at the World Championships. In 2011, he contributed five assists in six games.

Joining Andris on Dinamo Riga are two other Ontario Hockey League grads. Arvids Rekis played four seasons with the Erie Otters from 1996-97 to 1999-00. Juris Stals played the 2001-02 season with the Sarnia Sting and the following season with the Owen Sound Attack. Both were teammates of Dzerins on the 2011 Latvia team at the Worlds. Rekis was a member of the Team Latvia at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. Stals was the only one of the three drafted by a National Hockey League club. He was a ninth rounder of the New York Rangers in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

Ontario Hockey League graduate Arvids Rekis is leaving Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) after seven seasons. Rekis has moved to Russia’s KHL and will play for Dinamo Riga in his home country of Latvia.

Arvids played four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League from 1996-97 to 1999-00, all with the Erie Otters. During his third season in the Ontario Hockey League, Rekis played for Latvia at the IIHF World Under-20 Hockey Championships B Division.

Arvids has since represented Latvia in international competitions eight times. He has been on the blue line for six IIHF World Championships and two Olympic Games – 2006 in Turin, Italy and 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Undrafted by an NHL club, Rekis spent three years with the Peoria Rivermen of the ECHL after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League. In 2003-04, he left for Europe and the DEL. Arvids spent his first five seasons in Germany with the Augsburger Panther and his last two with Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg.

Check out Arvids Rekis’ profile page on the Dinamo Riga official website. The site is actually in English, which is rare for individual KHL sites.

Arvids is featured in two previous posts at OHL Alumni Central: OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 Olympics and OHL alumni playing for Latvia at the 2010 World Championships.

The following video is from a qualifying game for the 2010 Olympics with Latvia taking Hungary by a 7-3 score. It’s just a short highlight video showing all the goals. Rekis scores the third goal to make it 2-1 for Latvia. Fellow Ontario Hockey League grad Herberts Vasiljevs scores the eighth goal that makes it 5-3.