Latvian forward Kaspars Daugaviņš, 37, has signed a one-year contract with HK Mogo, the Latvian club announced on Tuesday via social media.
Daugaviņš, a former NHLer and longtime captain of the Latvian national team, surprisingly announced his retirement in November 2024 while playing for Slovak club Dukla Michalovce.
Late in the season, he returned to the ice to represent Latvia at his 13th IIHF World Championship in Sweden and Denmark.
Daugaviņš’s most notable international accomplishment has been captaining Latvia to a historic bronze medal at the 2023 Worlds. He has also played in three Winter Olympics and helped the team qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics, meaning that he will quite likely play in his fourth Olympics in Milan in February.
Predicting Latvia's 2026 Olympic roster
When they beat France 5-2 on home ice on Sunday, <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/international/latest-news/latvia-denmark-slovakia-and-maybe-france-qualify-for-2026-olympics">the Latvians qualified for the men’s ice hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics </a>for the fifth time out of the last six possibilities. Only once, in 2014 in Sochi, did Latvia reach the quarterfinals.
Drafted in the third round, 91st overall, by the Ottawa Senators in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Daugaviņš went immediately to North America and, after two seasons playing for the OHL’s Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, played 91 NHL games for the Senators and Boston Bruins between 2008 and 2013, recording six goals, nine assists and 21 penalty minutes. He also played in seven playoff games and was on the roster of the Boston team that played in the 2013 Stanley Cup final.
Since then, Daugaviņš has played in Europe, largely in the KHL – including one season for hometown Dinamo Riga – but also in Switzerland for Genève-Servette and SC Bern, in Germany for the Iserlohn Roosters, and in Slovakia.
Daugaviņš had 20 points in 19 games for Michalovce last season before his sudden retirement announcement on Nov. 25, which caught everybody off guard. He cited “family issues” as one of his reasons for quitting but said, “I’ll be back. Not as a hockey player but I’ll be back as a person for you.”
HK Mogo is the two-time reigning champion of the Optibet Hockey League, which has five teams in Latvia, two in Lithuania, and one each in Estonia and Ukraine.
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