The Kitmart Dundee Stars are pleased to announce the addition of Latvian defenseman, Kalvis Ozols on a deal until the end of the 2021-2022 Elite League season.

The 28-year-old blueliner most recently iced with Anglet in the French Ligue Magnus this season, making 5 appearances in the regular season and scoring one point.

Kalvis has also played in the Swedish third tier in this campaign with HockeyEttan side, Tranas AIF, where he featured in 7 games, scoring once.

Standing at six-foot-six-inches tall and weighing in at 214lbs, Ozols will add extra size on the Stars backend and be another outlet for creating attack from the defensive zone.

The native of Riga, Latvia has played across the globe throughout his career, including his home nation, United States, France, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Norway and Sweden.

 

images courtesy of Vasas Hockey

Discussing his latest addition, Stars Head Coach and GM, Omar Pacha said: “Kalvis has great size and is capable of playing in all situations.

“He has excellent defensive awareness and for a big guy, he moves well and will not be afraid to support the attack.

“The fact that he is also a right-handed d-man is a huge bonus heading into this playoff run down the stretch.”

Kalvis came through the youth system at Latvian side, Zemgale and played in the Latvian leagues until 2013, when he joined the Western States Hockey League and would win a championship with El Paso Rhinos.

Ozols also had the most points scored by a defenseman that season with 57, scoring 26 in El Paso and a further 31 with San Diego Gulls, where he began that year.

A year in the French second tier followed, before he returned to Latvia and then moved onto make his Romanian and MOL Liga debut.

By 2016, the defender had stayed in the MOL Liga but was now playing out of Hungary and soon had spells in Poland and Norway.

In the 2018-2019 season, Ozols again returned to Zemgale and then moved on to join Lyon in Ligue Magnus, before making his full international debut for Latvia. Those 3 appearances, combined with 2 U20’s caps gave his 5 full appearances for his country.

Then, in 2019-2020, the season cut short by COVID, Kalvis returned to Norway for a brief time, before moving to another Polish side, where he would help KH GKS Katowice to winning a Bronze Medal.

Ozols did continue to play through the pandemic and found himself in Hungary once again, this time with Opten Vasas HC in the Erste Liga, then he would move on to begin this season in Sweden.

In his 13-year career so far, Ozols has played in 398 regular season games, scoring 268 points (97G, 171A), while recording 530 penalty minutes and across 31 playoff matches, 24 points (10G, 14A), with 44 penalty minutes.

Kalvis is will hopefully be available to play in Saturday night’s massive Elite League home match against Guildford Flames. Get your tickets HERE

 

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Trade-Mart Dundee Stars Team
10 Games
5 Wins
5 Losses
0 OT Losses
10 Points