Baltic Hockey League at a crossroads

It’s no secret that the 2024-25 season was extremely rough for the Baltic Hockey League (aka Optibet Hokeja Liga), as two of the better teams in the league folded due to financial difficulties over the previous summer.

Two-time Latvian champions & one-time Estonian champions HK Kurbads, which finished third place in the league in 23/24, folded just after their first season back in the Latvian (now also Baltic) top tier from the Estonian league. Another notable loss was Kaunas City, which, despite finishing just 7th out of 9 teams & ranking higher than only the Lithuanian teams in the league, had a relatively good roster going, notably with foreigners such as Ondrej Machala (22gp, 21g+15a, 36 total points) and Denys Honcharenko (27, 19+11, 30) leading the charge. It truly felt like Kaunas was the first Lithuanian team to take the step forwards and become competitive with the rest of the league, but the surprise announcement of the club folding due to financial difficulties put a stop to any such hopes. 

The league didn’t manage to gather any teams to replace these two losses either, as Daugavpils’ Dinaburga and Liepaja chose to stick around in the Latvian 2nd tier, no new Estonian or Lithuanian teams joined, and the legendary Dinamo Riga (which, admittedly, didn’t have the greatest of seasons when they joined the Optibet Hokeja Liga) has still yet to return.

This led to a downsizing of the league from 9 teams to just 7, and of those 7, only Mogo and Zemgale could truly be considered strong teams, while Panter was a cut above the leftover teams. The chase for the 4th spot in the league wasn’t a battle for the best team, but rather, which of the 4 other teams – Hockey Punks, Elektrenai, Prizma and Rigas HS – is the least worst. This season, that title of “least worst of the worst” went to Vilnius

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The only two teams to have a positive goal differential in the regular season was Mogo at +155 and Zemgale at +129. The worst goal differentials were Vilnius Hockey Punks at -93 and Rigas HS at -110. Even Panter, which finished third, had a negative goal differential of -8.
Mogo won 33 of 36 games played in the regular season, while Zemgale won 29 of 36. Both teams won their semi-finals series 4-0 (Mogo outscored Vilnius 34-9, Zemgale outscored Panter 18-4) The difference between these two teams and everyone else is so massive, that many fans have started calling the league a “two team league that isn’t competitive”.

In a recent interview with Latvian forward Rudolfs Polcs, he stated that he would be happy with playing in the Latvian/Baltic league, but only if there were more than 3 competitive teams. This season was a dire one in Baltic & especially Latvian hockey.

Despite this, there are some positive news for the upcoming season. The league’s participants have been confirmed, and the league is once again upsizing back to 9 participants, as there’s one newcomer and one returning team.

Liepaja will finally be making their return to the league, after not participating since the 2021-22 season due to disagreements with the Latvian hockey federation. The team’s junior system has remained active in the meantime, with their main junior team splitting time between the Latvian 2nd tier and the Finnish U18 Mestis&Suomi-Sarja. There’s some talent coming through the Liepaja junior system, and head coach Edgars Brancis will be responsible for their transition to the Optibet Hokeja Liga. It remains to be seen what players Liepaja will sign, but, depending on their quality, we could see another competitive team in the league.

The newcomer, however, came very unexpectedly, as the Baltic league expands to four countries now! The Kyiv Capitals, which lost in the Ukrainian league finals this season, will be making a switch to the Optibet Hokeja Liga for the team’s third year of existence. They bring a competitive team mostly dominated by Ukrainian players, which should be enough for the team to be able to battle for third place in the league. The unfortunate factor is that this is likely the only season this team will play in the Baltic league, as their new ice hall in Kyiv is expected to be unveiled in time for the 2026-27 season, when they’ll likely make the switch back to the Ukrainian league. In the meantime, we should expect an exciting season from the Kyiv Capitals, which will be based at the Inbox Ledus Halle in Pinki, just outside Riga.

It is very probable that we’ll also see a return of the Daugavpils Dinaburga for the 2026-27 season, and, if the Kyiv Capitals are the only team not returning from this year’s participants, the league will at minimum stay at 9 teams, bringing more hope and optimism for the future.

The Kyiv Capitals, HK Zemgale/LBTU, as well as HC Panter have been the three most active teams in the Optibet Hokeja Liga so far, being the only teams to announce any signings as of 25th July.

Zemgale’s managed to bring over Finnish forward Tomi-Petteri Ansio, who was one of Panter’s leaders last season, while Panter’s managed to bring over a few imports from the Finnish Mestis. Overall though, the new signings from the teams deserve an article of their own, which will be available in the near future.

It’s an exciting upcoming season for Baltic hockey, and we’ll surely have to follow Liepaja’s & Kyiv’s seasons with a magnifying glass, as they look to compete with the best the Baltics have.

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