Albert Schmidt will be 18 years and two months old in the OS’s first match against the USA. If he goes to the field, he will become the youngest ever Olympian of the Latvian hockey team. Schmidt, who plays in Finland’s top league, will be one of two U20 players to take part in the Milan games, with only him and Canada’s young hockey star McLean Celebrini on that short list. Not bad company at all.
Šmit’s game in Finland, the Latvian men’s national team and the U20 national team, as well as predictions for a very high place in the 2026 NHL draft, have attracted wide attention and hype, so much so that the inclusion of an 18-year-old player in the Olympic team was not even perceived as a special surprise. But how big a role will he play in the Latvian national team in Milan, considering that the other seven defenders of the Latvian national team are, as described by hockey journalist Jānis Matulis, “iron old men in their prime”.
“I think that the coach of the national team will not immediately throw Šmita under the tank and will hardly play him immediately in the first shift,” said Atvars Tribuntsovs, the former long-time defenseman of the Latvian national team, who has established a hockey school in Ogre. “Starting with him in the third pair of defenders or as the seventh defender – it sounds more logical. You don’t need to immediately throw him into the sea, but gradually, if the situation calls for it, you can involve him more during the game and give him more minutes.”
Tribuntsov, who has represented the Latvian national team in two Olympic Games and ten world championships, did not want to name his Olympic defensive line rank, saying that it is still too difficult to determine: “Yes, Balinskis would be the number one according to NHL status. But who will have playing time in the Olympic tournament… it really depends on the pairs selected by the coaches, on how much they will have to play in the minority and in the majority, on the player’s condition that very week.”
“It should also be taken into account that we don’t have such universal defenders,” continued Tribuntsov. “There are those who tend to join the attack, there are those who are more inclined to the security of their own goal, there are specialists of the majority, there are specialists of the minority. We have an experienced defensive line. As much as I saw Šmitas playing in the Junior World Cup, it seemed that our defense men, who have already gone through several World Cups, will have their own advantage, also psychologically. Then it is unlikely that Šmitas will be ahead of everyone. But standing side by side with for the others – that’s all.”
“I will also note that the tournament will not be long, there will be little time to play and gain confidence. The help of the whole team will be important. Also about the high expectations and additional pressure due to the NHL draft – the other hockey players also know and understand this, and the team must come to the rescue in such a situation, cover somewhere and understand. If you are under such great pressure, it is difficult to cope alone, but together in a team – it is much easier,” Tribuntsov said. who has represented German, Finnish, Swedish and Czech top league clubs in his playing career.
In order to determine the place of Šmitas in the ranking of the defenders of the Latvian national team at the moment, the ranking itself must be compiled, and in this process Herberts Vasiļjevs, the former captain of the Latvian national team and currently a coach and TV commentator, Jānis Matulis, a long-time hockey journalist, and Ulvis Brože, Sportacentrs.com hockey columnist, gave their helping hand. They were invited to rank the defenders of the Latvian national team in the order of how big a role and playing minutes they are expected to play in the Milan games.
The ranking of defensemen of the Latvian hockey national team compiled by Sportacentrs.com
| V. | Player | To the point |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Uvis Balinskis | 3 |
| 2. | Christian Rubin | 8 |
| 3. | Jānis Yaks | 9 |
| 4. | Kristaps Zile | 10 |
| 5. | Albert Schmidt | 16 |
| 6. | Ralf Freiberg | 17 |
| 7. | Oskars Cibulskis | 22 |
| 8. | Roberts Mamčics | 23 |
The calculation for the creation of the ranking was simple – each place received exactly the same number of points. All points were added together, and places were ranked according to the sum of points – the lower the better.
“I was able to find quite a lot of arguments why Alberts Šmits can be called the second best defender in Latvia this season,” explained Ulvis Broz. “How many defenders do we have who can feel confident about their role in the first pair and regular playing time of more than 20 minutes? But I think Milan will prioritize experience first.”
“For me, Balinsky is the first – obviously,” he explained Jānis Matulis. “Rubin has played little, but still the second. Jak collected more points in the Czech Republic than our forwards, he is in third place, then Zile. In principle, the second to fourth place could also be mixed according to the mood, at the moment they are just numbers. I put Freiberg as the next due to experience, so Schmidt is in sixth place for me.”
“It is mandatory that Schmidt will get playing time, he will not be an eighth defender in the reserve,” emphasized Matulis. “The third pair of defense together with Freiberg – sounds logical. We also heard that Vītoliņš spoke to the coaches of “Jukurit” in November after the German Cup and asked (or asked, let’s find out) to play Šmit in the majority during the rest of the season. Then maybe it will happen that Šmit is also played in the majority in the Olympics.”
On the other hand Herbert Vasiliev in his ranking, unlike the others, he placed Zīli in the second place and Mamčić in the seventh place: “Balinskis will be the first-shift defender and will play a lot. I put Zīli as the second, because he is a proven value, a defense-oriented defender who covers forward flying partners and blocks a lot of shots. He will play a lot in the minority. Rubin, on the other hand – a solid “Top 4″ defender – still has question marks about his physical fitness during the OS, because had injuries.”
“In this ranking of how much playing time he will get and what his role will be in the national team, I currently place Shmit as the fifth,” Vasiliev explained. “But he could rise to the top if he gets more playing time. I hope that Vītoliņš will trust him. Šmit has great potential, he is simply a machine already at this age. A very attacking type of player who, in my opinion, should be paired with a more experienced player like Freiberg. Accordingly, Freiberg comes in sixth place for me – he has a lot of experience, he will play in the minority, but in the same formations he could “stump” an adventurer Šmitu. I expect both Mamčić and Cibulski to be involved in the game, but they will hardly get many minutes.”
“Is the defensive line our trump card compared to the goalkeeper and forward lines? It’s a question you can think about,” said Matulis. “I’ll say this – if it’s not the trump card, then it’s definitely not the one that will pull down. It’s known that our forwards are already divided into boxes – we expect some of them to be able to score goals, but there is a whole streak of which we think that we should not let them in and it will be fine. By all standards, we have the highest quality in the goalkeeper line, but in practice, one is just after an injury and two, although with an NHL record, but also with such this season, “however, whenever it happens” I write it down.”
