Kristaps Sotnieks

Kristaps Sotnieks
Born (1987-01-29) January 29, 1987
Riga, Soviet Union
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 192 lb (87 kg; 13 st 10 lb)
Position Defence
Shoots Left
KHL team
Former teams
Dinamo Rīga
HK Riga 2000
National team  Latvia
Playing career 2005present

Kristaps Sotnieks (born January 29, 1987) is a Latvian professional ice-hockey player. He currently plays for Dinamo Rīga.

Career

In his first season in senior hockey in 2004/05 Sotnieks mostly played for the reserves squad of HK Riga 2000 which played in the Latvian hockey league, however he also played 5 matches in the main team of Riga 2000 in Belarusian Extraliga. Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout the squad of Riga 2000 was quite impressive that year, including NHLers Kārlis Skrastiņš, Sergejs Žoltoks and Darby Hendrickson, thus it was especially tough for youngsters like Sotnieks to get through on the main team. In 2005 Sotnieks played in five matches for Latvia at the U18 World Championships.

The next season Sotnieks was already a regular player in the main team of Riga 2000 which won bronze medals in the Belarusian Extraliga. In 42 matches he scored one goal, gave 4 assists and got 10 penalty minutes. In 2006 Sotnieks represented Latvia at the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Canada, earning 2 points for assists as Latvia was relegated to Division I.

The next two years Riga 2000 played only in the Latvian hockey league with Sotnieks as one of the most reliable defenders on the team. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 as a member of Riga 2000 Sotnieks won Latvian league titles.

When Dinamo Riga was formed in 2008 Sotnieks wasn't among the players who were expected to be playing regularly for the side which included former NHLers like Duvie Westcott and Filip Novák, as well as a whole selection of players who had played for Latvia national ice hockey team at several world championships - Atvars Tribuncovs, Rodrigo Laviņš, Guntis Galviņš, Krišjānis Rēdlihs, Oļegs Sorokins and Agris Saviels. Thus Sotnieks was expected to be a leading defender for HK Riga 2000 (the farm club of Dinamo) playing in the Belarusian league. However, Sotnieks became a regular for Dinamo. As of 17 February 2009, he has played 43 matches for Dinamo in the KHL, scoring two goals.[1]

In February 2009 Sotnieks played for Latvia national ice hockey team in the Qualification to 2010 Winter Olympics, scoring two assists in three games[2] and earning Latvia a qualification spot at the Olympics.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
2004–05 HK Riga 2000 BLR 5 0 0 0 4
2004–05 HK Riga 2000 LHL 21 2 1 3 14 2 0 0 0 4
2005–06 HK Riga 2000 BLR 42 1 4 5 10
2005–06 HK Riga 2000 LHL 3 6 9 10
2006–07 HK Riga 2000 LHL 45 5 6 11 71
2007–08 HK Riga 2000 LHL 48 4 3 7 32
2008–09 Dinamo Riga KHL 46 2 0 2 34 3 0 0 0 2
2009–10 Dinamo Riga KHL 48 0 2 2 28 9 0 2 2 6
2010–11 Dinamo Riga KHL 45 2 6 8 12 11 0 1 1 4
2011–12 Dinamo Riga KHL 49 2 4 6 41 6 0 1 1 2
2012–13 Dinamo Riga KHL 47 3 5 8 12
2013–14 Dinamo Riga KHL 53 5 6 11 49 7 1 1 2 0
2014–15 Dinamo Riga KHL 55 4 6 10 34
KHL Totals 343 18 30 48 210 36 1 5 6 14

International statistics

   
Year Team League GP G A P PIM
2009 Latvia WC 7 0 1 1 8
2010 Latvia OG 4 1 0 1 4
2010 Latvia WC 6 0 1 1 0
2011 Latvia WC 6 0 4 4 6
2012 Latvia WC 7 0 0 0 0
2013 Latvia WC 7 0 0 0 12
2014 Latvia OG 5 0 1 1 0
2014 Latvia WC 7 1 2 3 8
WC totals 41 1 8 9 35
Olympic Totals 9 1 1 2 4

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.