Dinamo Riga

Dinamo Riga (Latvian: Rīgas Dinamo) 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.

Dinamo Riga
City	Riga, Latvia
Founded	2008
Folded	2023
Home arena	Inbox.lv ledus halle [lv] (capacity: 1,000)
General manager	Jurijs Kuzņecovs
Website	www.dinamoriga.lv
Uniforms used since the 2020–21 KHL season.

The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a former team (also named "Dinamo Riga"), which was founded in 1946, but ceased to exist in 1995. Since being re-established, Dinamo Riga played their home games at the Arēna Rīga until 2022, which could accommodate 10,300 spectators.

History

The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 and among the founders of the club were Guntis Ulmanis, Kirovs Lipmans, Mały Snopp, Juris Savickis, Viesturs Koziols and others. However, on 27 May, Latvian Ice Hockey Federation president Kirovs Lipmans stepped out of the project because of a possible clash of interests.^[1][2] After the first season, Viesturs Koziols also left the project.^[3]

Július Šupler became the first head coach of the club.^[4] For the first two seasons, he was assisted by Miroslav Miklošovič and Artis Ābols, but in 2010, Viktors Ignatjevs replaced Miklošovič. On 27 April 2011, the new head coach, Pekka Rautakallio, was announced.

In the first season of the franchise, the team was led by players like Masaļskis, Prusek, Westcott, Ņiživijs, Hossa and others. After 2008–09, forward Aigars Cipruss decided to retire and instantly became the manager of Dinamo Riga's farm club, Dinamo-Juniors Riga. The team finished the regular season in tenth position, higher than anyone would have predicted before the start of the season. However, in the first round of the league playoffs, Dinamo lost 3–0 to Dynamo Moscow, which later advanced to the Gagarin Cup semifinals.

Following the first season, Dinamo managed to sign legendary Sandis Ozoliņš, as well as Jānis Sprukts, Mārtiņš Karsums and others. The team finished the regular season in eighth place of the Western Conference, which qualified them for the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs, Dinamo faced SKA Saint Petersburg with players like Sergei Zubov, Petr Čajánek, Maxim Sushinsky and Alexei Yashin on the roster. Still, Dinamo managed to beat SKA 3–1 and advance to the Western Conference semifinals. In the semifinals, Dinamo was defeated 4–1 by later Gagarin Cup finalist HC MVD.

After his league-leading performance, Marcel Hossa signed a two-year contract with the then KHL champions Ak Bars Kazan. Martin Kariya signed a two-year contract with Swiss NLA's HC Ambrì-Piotta. New players signed during the off-season included Tomáš Surový, Brock Trotter, Mikael Tellqvist and the returning Mark Hartigan. Július Šupler resumed his post as the head coach.

The team finished the season in seventh place in the Western Conference and thirteenth in the league, as the team qualified to the playoffs. In the first round, their opponents were Dynamo Moscow. Dinamo won the series 4–2, advancing to the next round and facing Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Dinamo lost the series 4–1.

As of the end of the third season, head coach Július Šupler left the team to be the coach of CSKA Moscow. On 27 April 2011, Dinamo signed Pekka Rautakallio for the head coach position. Also, all the foreign players with no active contracts left the team to play somewhere else. Brock Trotter also left, using his chance to play in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens.

On 27 February 2022, Dinamo, along with Finnish Jokerit withdrew from KHL in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[5]

On 10 August 2022, it was announced that Dinamo Riga would play in the Latvian Hockey Higher League during the 2022–23 season.^[6] On 11 July 2023, it was announced that Dinamo Riga would not play in the 2023–24 season.^[7]

Crest

• 
  2008–2020
• 
  2020–2023

Season-by-season record

This is a partial list of the last ten seasons completed by Dinamo Riga. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Dinamo Riga seasons.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season	League	GP	W	L	OTW	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	Finish	Playoffs
2008–09	KHL	56	24	23	5	4	86	132	156	2nd, Kharlamov	Lost in First Round, 0–3 (Dynamo Moscow)
2009–10	KHL	56	23	22	4	7	84	174	175	5th, Bobrov	Lost in Conference Semifinals, 1–4 (MVD)
2010–11	KHL	54	20	20	7	7	81	160	149	4th, Bobrov	Lost in Conference Semifinals, 1–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2011–12	KHL	54	24	5	4	23	86	132	156	3rd, Bobrov	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 3–4 (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod)
2012–13	KHL	52	13	31	4	4	51	109	151	7th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2013–14	KHL	54	22	16	11	5	93	141	122	3rd, Bobrov	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 3–4 (Donbass Donetsk)
2014–15	KHL	60	22	30	3	5	77	136	160	5th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2015–16	KHL	60	17	34	8	8	75	129	151	7th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2016–17	KHL	60	11	34	10	5	58	116	158	7th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2017–18	KHL	56	9	31	7	9	50	105	153	6th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2018–19	KHL	62	18	26	8	10	62	129	155	5th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2019–20	KHL	62	11	38	6	7	41	103	187	6th, Bobrov	Did not qualify
2020–21	KHL	60	5	41	4	10	28	126	211	5th, Tarasov	Did not qualify
2021–22	KHL	45	9	22	5	9	37	93	143	6th, Tarasov	Did not qualify
2022–23	OHL	32	16	10	5	1	43	147	105	3rd	Lost in Semifinals, 0–4 Zemgale/LLU

Players

For a list of all Dinamo Riga players with a Wikipedia article, see List of Dinamo Riga players.

Current roster

Retired numbers

Dinamo Riga retired numbers

No.	Player	Position	Career
8	Sandis Ozoliņš	D	2009–2012, 2013–2014

Team captains

• Rodrigo Laviņš, 2008–2009
• Sandis Ozoliņš, 2009–2012
• Mārtiņš Karsums, 2012–2013
• Sandis Ozoliņš, 2013–2014
• Lauris Dārziņš, 2014–2016
• Gints Meija 2016–2017
• Miks Indrašis 2017–2018
• Lauris Dārziņš, 2018–2022
• Georgijs Pujacs, 2022–2023
• Miķelis Rēdlihs, 2023–2023

Head coaches

• Július Šupler, 22 May 2008 – 29 March 2011
• Pekka Rautakallio, 27 April 2011 – 5 November 2012
• Artis Ābols, 5 November 2012 – 30 April 2015
• Kari Heikkilä, July 2015 – 7 January 2016
• Normunds Sējējs, 7 January 2016 – 29 May 2017
• Sandis Ozoliņš, 29 May 2017 – 28 September 2017
• Ģirts Ankipāns, 28 September 2017 – 3 March 2020
• Pēteris Skudra, 20 July 2020 – 3 March 2021
• Sergei Zubov, 12 April 2021 – 21 October 2021
• Valērijs Kuļibaba [lv], 22 October 2021 – 29 November 2021
• Vladimir Krikunov, 29 November 2021 – 30 April 2022
• Leonīds Beresņevs, 17 August 2022 – 20 March 2023

Franchise records and leaders

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Lauris Dārziņš	506	124	175	299	–14	282
Miķelis Rēdlihs	581	120	173	293	–41	386
Miks Indrašis	319	88	98	186	+6	113
Marcel Hossa	241	105	80	185	–12	252
Aleksandrs Niživijs	290	45	108	153	–46	127
Guntis Galviņš	416	31	112	143	–1	230
Krišjānis Rēdlihs	449	37	99	136	–13	205
Gints Meija	541	51	69	120	–53	210
Mārtiņš Karsums	196	62	57	119	+3	183
Jānis Sprukts	186	42	73	115	+12	130

Leading goaltenders

Player	GP	TOI	W	L	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Timur Bilyalov	38	2,035:59	15	14	74	4	93.0%	2.18
Jānis Kalniņš	72	3,835:47	18	34	143	4	92.7%	2.24
Mikael Tellqvist	103	5,880:56	44	42	232	5	91.8%	2.37
Jakub Sedláček	126	7,082:09	41	58	286	10	91.8%	2.42
Joacim Eriksson	34	1,934:53	9	17	78	2	91.9%	2.42
Chris Holt	90	5,246:44	37	34	214	6	91.7%	2.45
Mantas Armalis	12	576:37	3	5	24	0	91.1%	2.50
Alexander Salak	32	1,835:38	8	19	77	2	91.2%	2.52
Kristers Gudļevskis	42	2,255:16	13	24	98	3	90.1%	2.61
Martin Prusek	55	3,017:36	18	26	132	6	91.6%	2.62