Dinamo Riga of the Kontinental Hockey League has signed an affiliate contract with HK Liepaja, who is currently playing in the Latvian Championships.
The signed contract between Dinamo Riga and HK Liepaja states that players with two-way contracts with Dinamo Riga can be sent over to HK Liepaja. Contracts term is one season.
Juris Savickis, Head chairman of Dinamo Riga, a member of KHL’s Director Office:
”City of Liepaja is the biggest regional hockey center after Riga, and Dinamo Riga has worked together with another team from the town previously. We have always had a good relationship between both clubs and both sides can gain from this contract. Liepaja is very well known for traditions of hockey, famous hockey schools from which many students are now playing for our Dinamo system teams. I have no doubt both sides can be happy about our new affiliate, and I can assure that Latvian hockey can and will gain from this.”
Uldis Sesks, Mayor of Liepaja:
“City of Liepaja can be proud of the choice made by Dinamo Riga to take their club and transfer it into a farm club. It shows trust to the new team in city, with strong hockey traditions. New doors are open for everyone, and I hope that when Dinamo Rigas players will arrive in Liepaj, it will be another reason to celebrate for fans; and of course a great way to burn flame into the eyes of our children, our future talents.”
Karlis Drengers Chairman of HK Liepaja:
“We highly appreciate that Dinamo Riga picked us out of so many teams, it’s another step towards improving hockey! We are hoping to enjoy our time together to make hockey even more famous in our country.”
HK Liepaja was established in May of this year and plays for Latvian Championships. The roster consists primarily of Liepaja hockey school students with ambitious goals. Previosuly Liepaja had a team called SK Liepajas Metallurgs, which won 8 Latvian championship titles. SK Liepajas Metallurgs was the farm club of Dinamo Riga for 3 seasons (2010/2011, 2011/2012 un 2012/2013), hence the relationship between Dinamo and Liepaja. Dinamo Riga was the only club to play without a farm club in the KHL last season.
Photo by Aigars Prūsis of Flickr
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