Olympic Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits has accomplished a lot this season.

He's graduated full-time to the Liiga level in Finland, where he's playing over 20 minutes a night. He led a feisty Latvian team at the World Junior Championship and pushed Canada to the brink. And he just finished participating in his first Olympics, averaging just under 20 minutes across four games as the youngest player in the tournament.

He's doing it all as an 18-year-old learning two new languages and living on his own. Focusing on what he can control above all else and understanding when to unwind along the way has driven him up draft boards and better prepared him to pursue his calling in the NHL.

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