After posting a goal and an assist in five games for Team Latvia in the IIHF Men’s Under-20 World Junior Championships forward Klavs Veinbergs is heading to Lincoln, Nebraska to continue his professional hockey career. According to Zemgale, the Latvian team he played for last season, Veinbergs is going to spend this season in the USHL playing for the Lincoln Stars (at least that’s what Google Translate says).
It’s an interesting change of pace for the 19-year-old who has played the last few seasons in the Latvian professional league as well as MHL (a junior league in Russia). Coming over to the States does allow him to acclimate to the North American style of play and the USHL is probably equal to the competition he sees in Latvia. He could have signed a contract and played for the Crunch or the Solar Bears, but the Lightning are getting a little close to their maximum number of contracts (CapFriendly has them at 48 out of 50) and they might need a little flexibility to sign folks as the season goes on as opposed to a recent late-round draft pick.
As a 2022 draft pick (7th round) the Lightning have plenty of time to watch him before they need to offer him a contract or lose his rights in the summer of 2026. It will be a little easier to keep an eye on him if he’s playing in North America. Why would he play in Nebraska of all places? Well, because the Stars drafted him in Phase II of the 2022 USHL Draft. He was drafted in the 9th round, 134th overall back in May.
Veinbergs is likely to play for Latvia again in the 2023 World Juniors after opening the season for the Stars. If he’s successful with either team, he could turn that into a professional contract with the Lightning/Crunch in 2023. He could also choose to play US College hockey, a path a lot of USHL players have gone through in the past. Latvians playing in the USHL isn’t unheard of, their World Juniors team had 7 players with USHL ties at the most recent tournament.
Best of luck to Klavs in Lincoln!
Lightning / NHL News
The Lightning announced the jersey numbers for their new players. Vlad Namestnikov is back in his familiar “90”.
New #Bolts on the block ‼️
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) August 23, 2022
Canes sign Stastny, add forward depth [Canes Country]
We mentioned Paul Stastny in yesterday’s Lightning Round and low and be hold he found a team to play for. The Carolina Hurricanes signed him to a $1.5 million, one-year contract. The ‘Canes have made some savvy moves this off-season as they look to stay atop the Metropolitan Division.
Hurricanes name Shehan Wolves head coach [NHL.com]
Brock Shehan led the Chicago Steel to the Clark Cup in 2021. Now he’ll have a chance to win the Calder Cup in the same town (kind of) as he takes over as the head coach of the Chicago Wolves, the AHL affiliate of the Hurricanes.
Allovimo is back from summer break with a new edition of Syracuse Speaks. She chats with Patrick Williams about a wide range of topics involving the AHL and the Syracuse Crunch.
After a summer break, Syracuse Speaks is back! Host @FPHCrunch welcomes @pwilliamsAHL back to the show. They discuss the league’s off season and why “NHL Free Agency” should be renamed to the more appropriate “AHL Free Agency.” This and more in episode 77! https://t.co/dSwN1Mfds8
— Field Pass Hockey (@FieldPassHockey) August 22, 2022
Inside 3ICE 3-on-3 hockey’s revolutionary first season [ESPN]
Jailbreak penalty shots? I’m listening. Same with live pucks off of the netting.
Did Fanatics accidentally “leak” the themes of some of the Reverse Retro styles coming out later this year? The Lightning t-shirt (in the second Tweet in the thread) does pay homage to the original logo but nothing indicating the Storm Jersey. Fanatics has already taken the images down.
Looks like Fanatics has accidentally leaked several of the new Reverse Retro 2.0 jersey themes for this upcoming season 👀 pic.twitter.com/y59ZavtvJ1
— Gino Hard (@Ginohard_) August 24, 2022
Arizona Coyotes to play at Mullet Arena next season [Arizona State University]
No, it’s not in honor of hockey’s favorite hairstyle. Rather it’s in honor of Donald and Barbara Mullet, long time supporters of Arizona State hockey and athletics. Still, Gary Bettman can’t be overly excited to have one of his 32 franchises playing in a 5,000 seat arena with a name that will elicit a thousand jokes.
