In the spirit of the NHL announcing quarter-century teams for each of its 30 franchises that have played since 2000, I thought I’d try a similar exercise by country – first and second teams. It’s not limited to NHL performance, although that carries a lot of weight. International play for the country also weighs heavily. To be eligible, a player needn’t have necessarily played for the country at a major tournament, but he had (or has) to be eligible.
Countries chosen have to have played in at least four major international tournaments (Olympic games, top-division IIHF World Championships or World Cups of Hockey) since 2000. Based on that arbitrary number, 20 countries qualify. Great Britain barely makes the cut with four top-level World Championships, while Hungary with three, South Korea and Poland each with two, and China with one do not.
I’m revealing them alphabetically starting with Austria, although the four teams in the 4 Nations Face-Off will be held back until the end, just before the start of the tournament. Scroll down for links to other teams that have been published so far.
LATVIA
First Team
F: Kaspars Daugaviņš
F: Rūdolfs Balcers
F: Sergejs Žoltoks (Sergei Zholtok)
D: Sandis Ozoliņš (Ozolinsh)
D: Kārlis Skrastiņš
G: Elvis Merzļikins
Second Team
F: Zemgus Girgensons
F: Teodors Bļugers (Teddy Blueger)
F: Lauris Dārziņš
D: Uvis Balinskis
D: Artūrs Kulda
G: Edgars Masaļskis
For players whose names are/were commonly spelled differently in North American media, those spellings are added in parentheses.
Latvia’s an interesting case of trying to balance NHL success with contributions to the national team. The most difficult choices were the inclusion of Girgensons and Bļugers on the second team ahead of many players who have contributed more to national team success. However, I believe that, if available, these players would have been chosen more and both should easily make the 2026 Olympic team.
From these teams, I also picked Balcers, Balinskis and Merzļikins to make the Olympic squad. Daugaviņš was included too, but that was before his surprising retirement this past autumn.
The reason Merzļikins and Masaļskis get the nod over the legendary Artūrs Irbe in goal is that Irbe was only an NHL starting goalie until 2002 and, due to injuries, played sparingly for the next few years before retiring in 2007. In recent years, Vancouver Canucks prospect Artūrs Šilovs has played impressively internationally and in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but his body of work before the 2025 cut-off wasn’t enough.
Agree or disagree with the selections? Comment below and check back daily as more international quarter-century teams are revealed.