Grand Rapids Griffins right wing Eduards Tralmaks on Tuesday was selected to Latvia’s Olympic team for the Winter Games next month in Cortina and Milan, Italy.
Tralmaks (6-4, 225) is tied for second on the Griffins with 14 goals, behind John Leonard, who’s currently on the Detroit Red Wings roster, and has 18 points in 31 games.
The Red Wings signed Tralmaks, 28, to a one-year, two-way contract last March after he led the Czech Extraliga in scoring with 51 points, including 23 goals in 48 games for that country’s top professional league.
He helped Latvia earn a berth in the Olympics by scoring a goal in three games during the final qualifying round.
Latvia’s best finish in the Olympics came in 2014 when it reached the quarterfinals. That was the most recent tournament in which NHL players participated.
Tralmaks has represented Latvia in the past two World Championships. He tallied seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games last year.
The undrafted Tralmaks has no NHL experience. He played parts of three seasons with AHL Providence, the Boston Bruins’ affiliate, collecting 22 goals and 41 points in 87 games.
Tralmaks joins Dylan Larkin (USA), Moritz Seider (Germany) and Lucas Raymond (Sweden) as players in the Red Wings organization participating in the Olympics.