The Philadelphia Flyers have signed 28-year-old Latvian center Rodrigo Abols to a one-year, two-way contract, the NHL team announced on Saturday.

 “It is of course sad that we lose a player like Rodrigo, but at the same time we are happy for him. It is the nature of hockey that players want to go to North America and we are giving him this chance,” said Hampus Sjöström, sports director for Rögle BK, Abols’ most recent club. 

Unlike recent deals announced to youngsters Oscar Fisker Mølgaard and Oliver Kapanen, this is not an entry-level contract. As he was a free agent, there’s a good chance Abols would be sent the Leigh Valley Phantoms if he doesn’t make the Flyers. Abols is big at 6-foot-4 and 205 lbs, and isn’t afraid to use his size, so he might be well-suited to North American hockey.

In fact, Abols has played in North America on two previous stretches. He played junior hockey for the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks and the QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan between 2015 and 2017. He also spent the 2019-20 season in the Florida Panthers organization, splitting time between the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds and ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits.

Since 2017, Abols has played almost exclusively in Sweden, mostly with Örebro HK but he played last season with Rögle BK, where he recorded 26 points in 52 regular-season games and then 12 points in 15 playoff games. In all, he has 202 points in 314 SHL regular-season and playoff games.

Abols is an important player on the Latvian national team and was a huge part of the team that surprisingly won bronze at the 2023 IIHF World Championship. In all, he has played in eight World Championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.  

Notably, Abols has often been named captain or alternate on the Latvian national team or on his professional clubs in Sweden.