“Kurbads” announced several weeks ago that they will play in the 1st league next season, instead of the OHL. LHF General Secretary Roberts Plūjejs told in an interview that the Kaunas club will not play in the OHL either. The reason is similar – insufficient funding.
The Kaunas club was one of three Lithuanian clubs that joined the OHL two years ago when the league became international. In both seasons, the Kaunas club was the best of the Lithuanian teams – in 2023, they took sixth place, and this year, they took 7th place, moreover, in terms of points, they are much closer to HS “Rīga” in front, than to Vilnius and Elektrēni clubs, which are at the bottom of the table.
In the past season, “Kaunas” scored 25 points in 32 games, winning 12 victories (five of them were against Latvian teams) and accumulating goal statistics of 113:147, which was incomparably better than “Energija” (69:190) and “Hockey Punks” ( 59:212), both of which often suffered very heavy defeats against Latvian clubs.
“I agree that the Kaunas team was the most competitive among the Lithuanian teams,” said Plėžės. “I also agree that four Latvian teams in our top league are very few. But that’s the economic situation in Latvian hockey.”
“Accordingly, seven teams will be played this season – four from Latvia (“Mogo/LSPA”, “Zemgale/LBTU”, “Prizma” and HS “Rīga”, two from Lithuania (“Energija” and “Hockey Punks”) and Estonia) Panther,” said the LHF general secretary. “It’s clear at the moment, but the general meeting about things like the season calendar, the play system and the start date is yet to come, so I won’t comment on that yet.”
Plūjejs stated that the LHF hopes for the return of the league at least to the previous level of the number of participants in 2025/26. in the season of 2018 – there is hope that “Kurbads” and Kaunas would then return, as well as that Daugavpils and Liepāja would return to the geography of the OHL after a long absence. “The first half step in this direction has been taken,” said the Reaper.
“Of course, we want the local championship to be more widely represented, not with only four clubs,” said the LHF general secretary. “I believe that the LHF has done its job so that the clubs have a soil where they can form and where they can compete. However, this requires a budget that not every club can collect. After all, opportunities are correlated with finances. Parallels can be drawn here between Latvian clubs and For the Latvian national teams, the funding received by the Latvian national teams has remained unchanged for a few years, while the expenses continue to increase.
“That’s why we understand very well the clubs that choose to think long-term,” said Plūjejs, pointing to the desire of teams to skip an OHL season or two. “We need to aim for the teams to prepare to return to the OHL in the long term, and not now at all costs to gather for the start of one season. It’s all in the process. But right now we have to play as it is.”
