Checking in With Kristaps Skrastins
Image Credit: Ryan Moran, UNH Athletics
Kristaps Skrastins earned his place on the Latvian national team after four years at unh. Catch up with the world championships debuting forward.
WRITTEN BY MIKE KLEIN
ZURICH, Switzerland – With Europeans, particularly Latvians, increasing their presence in NCAA hockey, University of New Hampshire forward Kristaps Skrastins seems like an anomaly due to his decision to play entirely at home until his final year of junior hockey eligibility.
While many players will relocate to other countries, like Sweden and Finland, if not to the US or Canada, the Riga, Latvia native stayed local.
“At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue the NCAA route,” he said. “I played in Latvia for [HK Riga] and couldn’t decide if I wanted to play for [now-defunct KHL team] Dinamo Riga, go to the [Canadian Hockey League], or the USHL. It wasn’t until I was 19 years old that I decided on the latter. It didn’t work out, but I found an opportunity in Texas and went for it.”
Skrastins made the most of his time in the NAHL with the Amarillo Wranglers, finishing eighth in the league in scoring with 36 goals and 34 assists for 70 points, earning an offer to play for the University of New Hampshire Wildcats.
Although the Wildcats failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament in any of his four years with the team, Skrastins cannot recommend UNH enough to other players.
“Playing at UNH was everything I wanted and more,” he said. “[Head] Coach [Mike] Souza prepares his players for the next level in hockey and in life. One of the mottos we lived by at UNH is ‘how you do anything is how you do everything,’ and it helped me push myself in all parts of my life.”
While his time in Riga allowed Skrastins to be evaluated for the national Under-18 and Under-20 teams, he credits his coaches at UNH for helping him improve enough to make his debut for the Latvian Men’s National Team at this year’s IIHF World Championships.
“It’s a huge honor,” he said. “I can’t believe that I’m playing with guys who I watched when I was growing up. They’re great mentors for the younger guys, and the fans have been behind us 100%.”
It takes very little time to see how much support the Latvian players enjoy from their fans. Seemingly always clad in their jerseys, Latvians stand out in the host cities thanks to their large numbers and make their presence known at the arena with their incessant drum pounding whenever their team is playing.
Image Credit: Andre Ringuette, IIHF | Latvian fans taking in game action in Zurich, Switzerland.
“The Latvian fans are amazing,” he said. “They really go all out for this event. I thought UNH and Maine had great crowds, but this is a completely different level. It’s actually very easy to focus on the game and block them out of your mind, but we know they’re all there and everyone on the team wants to reward their loyalty.”
Incidentally, fans of NCAA Hockey who follow the tournament could find themselves cheering for some of their favorite players on Team Latvia. They routinely boast the second-highest number of alumni on their national team after Team USA.
This year, eight former NCAA players answered the call for Latvia, not counting Boston College incoming freshman Olivers Murnieks. Last year, the team featured 12 NCAA hockey alumni. According to Skrastins, a variety of factors contribute to the high number of Latvians in college hockey.
“I think Dinamo Riga’s exit from the [predominantly Russian KHL] made players look elsewhere, and that led everyone to look west,” he said. “It’s been happening for a while now, and if there’s one Latvian, another will usually follow. If you look at UNH’s roster, you can see that Martins Lavins arrived when I was a sophomore.”
Image Credit: Alex Miller, UNH Athletics | Skrastins on a net-front attack with UNH against Hockey East opponents UMass.
Indeed, Latvians have eyed the NCAA route for nearly twenty-five years, as Jekabs Redlihs matriculated at Boston University at the start of the 2002-03 season.
“Jekabs Redlihs was actually my coach in U18 hockey, and he does a lot to push players toward the NCAA route,” Skrastins said. “He really enjoyed his time at BU, and I think that made it known as an option for Latvian players. It was certainly the right decision for me, and I know I’m not alone in that.”
When asked his advice for anybody considering NCAA hockey, Skrastins answered, “Do it!”
“I entered college when I was twenty years old,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t ready for pro hockey and UNH did a great job of getting me ready for pro hockey. Our practices were intense and we did a lot of work in the weight room. It was an amazing experience. My freshman class was really close right away. We all stayed at UNH all four years and lived together in each of them. The coaching staff gave me a lot of confidence. I would do it again without thinking.”
