Dinamo Riga (KHL)

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For other teams named Dinamo Riga, please see Dinamo Riga.
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Dinamo Riga () is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It is a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LLU.
The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a former hockey team (also named "Dinamo Riga"), which was founded in 1946, but ceased to exist in 1995. Since being re-established, Dinamo Riga played their home games at the Arēna Rīga till 2022, which could accommodate attendance of 10,300 spectators.
==History==
The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 and among the founders of the club were Guntis Ulmanis, Kirovs Lipmans, Mały Snopp , Juris Savickis, Viesturs Koziols and others. However, on 27 May, Latvian Ice Hockey Federation president Kirovs Lipmans stepped out of the project because of a possible clash of interests. After the first season, Viesturs Koziols also left the project. 
Július Šupler became the first head coach of the club. For the first two seasons, he was assisted by Miroslav Miklošovič and Artis Ābols, but in 2010, Viktors Ignatjevs replaced Miklošovič. On 27 April 2011, the new head coach, Pekka Rautakallio, was announced.
In the first season of the franchise, the team was led by players like Masaļskis, Prusek, Westcott, Ņiživijs, Hossa and others. After 2008-09, forward Aigars Cipruss decided to retire and instantly became the manager of Dinamo Riga's farm club, Dinamo-Juniors Riga. The team finished the regular season in tenth position, higher than anyone would have predicted before the start of the season. However, in the first round of the league playoffs, Dinamo lost to Dynamo Moscow 0–3, which later advanced to the Gagarin Cup semifinals.
Following the first season, Dinamo managed to sign legendary Sandis Ozoliņš, as well as Jānis Sprukts, Mārtiņš Karsums and others. The team finished the regular season in eighth place of the Western Conference, which qualified them for the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs, Dinamo faced SKA Saint Petersburg with players like Sergei Zubov, Petr Čajánek, Maxim Sushinsky and Alexei Yashin on the roster. Still, Dinamo managed to beat SKA 3–1 and advance to the Western Conference semifinals. In the semifinals, Dinamo was defeated by later Gagarin Cup finalist HC MVD, 1–4.
After his league-leading performance, Marcel Hossa signed a two-year contract with the then-current KHL champions Ak Bars Kazan. Martin Kariya signed a two-year contract with Swiss NLA's HC Ambrì-Piotta. New players signed during the off-season include Tomáš Surový, Brock Trotter, Mikael Tellqvist and the returning Mark Hartigan. Július Šupler resumed his post as the head coach.
The team finished the season in seventh place in the Western Conference and thirteenth in the league, as the team qualified to the playoffs. In the first round, their opponents were Dynamo Moscow. Dinamo won the series 4–2, advancing to the next round and facing Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. Dinamo lost the series 1–4.
As of the end of the third season, head coach Július Šupler left the team to be the coach of CSKA Moscow. On April 27, 2011, Dinamo signed Pekka Rautakallio for the head coach position. Also, all the foreign players with no active contracts left the team to play somewhere else. Brock Trotter also left using his chance to play in the NHL with the Montreal Canadiens.
On February 27, 2022, Dinamo withdrew from KHL in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On August 10, 2022, it was announced that Dinamo Riga will play in the Latvian Hockey Higher League next season.
==Crest==
Dinamo Riga.png|2008–2020
File:Dinamo Riga (2020).svg|2020–
==Season-by-season record==
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Season 	League	GP	W 	L 	OTW	OTL	Pts	GF 	GA 	Finish 	Playoffs
2008–09	KHL 	56	24	23	5 	4 	86 	132	156	2nd, Kharlamov	Lost in First Round, 0–3 (Dynamo Moscow)
2009–10	KHL 	56	23	22	4 	7 	84 	174	175	5th, Bobrov 	Lost in Conference Semifinals, 1–4 (MVD)
2010–11	KHL 	54	20	20	7 	7 	81 	160	149	4th, Bobrov 	Lost in Conference Semifinals, 1–4 (Lokomotiv Yaroslavl)
2011–12	KHL 	54	24	5 	4 	23 	86 	132	156	3rd, Bobrov 	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 3–4 (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod)
2012–13	KHL 	52	13	31	4 	4 	51 	109	151	7th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2013–14	KHL 	54	22	16	11 	5 	93 	141	122	3rd, Bobrov 	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 3–4 (Donbass Donetsk)
2014–15	KHL 	60	22	30	3 	5 	77 	136	160	5th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2015–16	KHL 	60	17	34	8 	8 	75 	129	151	7th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2016–17	KHL 	60	11	34	10 	5 	58 	116	158	7th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2017–18	KHL 	56	9 	31	7 	9 	50 	105	153	6th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2018–19	KHL 	62	18	26	8 	10 	62 	129	155	5th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2019–20	KHL 	62	11	38	6 	7 	41 	103	187	6th, Bobrov 	Did not qualify
2020–21	KHL 	60	5 	41	4 	10 	28 	126	211	5th, Tarasov 	Did not qualify
2021–22	KHL 	45	9 	5 	9 	10 	37 	93 	143	6th, Tarasov 	Did not qualify
2022–23	OHL 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==Players==
===Current roster===
===Retired numbers===
Dinamo Riga retired numbers
No.	Player 	Position	Career
8 	Sandis Ozoliņš	D 	2009–2012, 2013–2014
===Team captains===
* Rodrigo Laviņš, 2008–2009
* Sandis Ozoliņš, 2009–2012
* Mārtiņš Karsums, 2012–2013
* Sandis Ozoliņš, 2013–2014
* Lauris Dārziņš, 2014–2016
* Gints Meija 2016–2017
* Miks Indrašis 2017–2018
* Lauris Dārziņš, 2018–2022
* Georgijs Pujacs, 2022–present
===Head coaches===
*Július Šupler, 22 May 2008 – 29 March 2011
*Pekka Rautakallio, 27 April 2011 – 5 November 2012
*Artis Ābols, 5 November 2012 – 30 April 2015
*Kari Heikkilä, July 2015 – 7 January 2016 
*Normunds Sējējs, 7 January 2016 – 29 May 2017
*Sandis Ozoliņš, 29 May 2017 – 28 September 2017
*Ģirts Ankipāns, 28 September 2017 – 3 March 2020
*Pēteris Skudra, 20 July 2020 – 3 March 2021
*Sergei Zubov, 12 April 2021 – 21 October 2021
*, 22 October 2021 – 29 November 2021
*Vladimir Krikunov, 29 November 2021 – 30 April 2022
*Leonīds Beresņevs, 17 August 2022 – present
==Franchise records and leaders==
===Scoring leaders===
Player	 	 	 	 	 	
 	506	124	175	299	-14	282
 	581	120	173	293	-41	386
 	319	88 	98 	186	+6 	113
 	241	105	80 	185	-12	252
 	290	45 	108	153	-46	127
 	416	31 	112	143	–1 	230
 	449	37 	99 	136	-13	205
 	541	51 	69 	120	-53	210
 	196	62 	57 	119	+3 	183
 	186	42 	73 	115	+12	130
===Leading goaltenders===
Player	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	38 	2035:59	15	14	74 	4 	93.0%	2.18
 	72 	3835:47	18	34	143	4 	92.7%	2.24
 	103	5880:56	44	42	232	5 	91.8%	2.37
 	126	7082:09	41	58	286	10	91.8%	2.42
 	34 	1934:53	9 	17	78 	2 	91.9%	2.42
 	90 	5246:44	37	34	214	6 	91.7%	2.45
 	12 	576:37 	3 	5 	24 	0 	91.1%	2.50
 	32 	1835:38	8 	19	77 	2 	91.2%	2.52
 	42 	2255:16	13	24	98 	3 	90.1%	2.61
 	55 	3017:36	18	26	132	6 	91.6%	2.62
==References==
==External links==
* 
 
Category:Ice hockey teams in Riga
Category:Established in 2008