<div align="center">Draft Profile: Edvīns Bērziņš



Position: D
DOB: 18 January 1997
Jersey Number: 73
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 190 lb
Birthplace: Riga, Latvia

Player Profile:</div>
Not many people know Edvīns Bērziņš. One scout quipped, “Kid just burst onto the scene here. Draft's in, what, two days? He shows up now and he's already turning heads.”

Quickly, Bērziņš became one of the most intriguing prospects for the upcoming S28 SMJHL Draft. The 6'3" tank from Riga made his rounds to each SMJHL team, alerting them of his interest and, more fundamentally, his interest. Another team representative chimed in, “Nobody had any idea who this kid was until a few hours ago. He's got a great build, though, great offensive defenseman."”

Bērziņš, a fan of Dinamo Minsk, laments his decision to not come over sooner. “I should have look at calendar. I did not know draft was so soon.” He has the advantage of having grown up speaking English, though never perfectly, with help from his father, who briefly worked at the US embassy in his homeland before deciding it was too much work and retiring to a call center.

But regardless of what his father may think about playing such a laborious sport, Edvīns shows no signs of slowing down. “I hope to make it SHL one day,” he said after a practice session on the ice. “That is goal for me, but first I need to get better down in junior and help team win championship.”

That goal, despite where he is now, hasn’t always been so attainable for him. When he was born 18 years ago in Riga, not many people liked his chances. “There was huge amount of Latvians who were drafted right then, and a lot of people started play hockey, so I had to stand out,” he said. And stand out he did, eventually earning a spot on the top pairing of his local youth team. But Bērziņš had bigger aspirations.

“I had been on team two years already, and I had just been name captain. I thought there could be bigger challenge out there.” And he found that challenge in North America, in the SMJHL.

“I wanted to play in best hockey league in world, and that’s SHL, but I found out I had to play in junior first, so that’s why I’m here,” Bērziņš said, obviously confident of his chances in making the SHL.

For anyone who watches him, his passion for the game is obvious. Always skating hard and playing with passion, there’s hardly a dull moment when Bērziņš takes the ice. “I don’t try to be flashy, I just try to do my job and help my team,” he said. “That’s my goal, is help my team. That’s what game is about, is about helping team win championship, and that’s first goal here in SMJHL.”

Early scouting reports of the 190-pound European are highly positive, with his skating and puck-playing ability garnering high praise from scouts. The biggest thing he needs to work on is his checking ability, but there’s no cause for concern with a big-bodied frame like the one Bērziņš possesses. One scout added, “The checking will come. For him, right now the biggest thing is just getting out on the ice and showing that he can produce points from the back end.”

Long-term, with his solid endurance, Bērziņš projects to be a solid top-four defenseman who can also QB a power play. Coming into the game so late, it’s difficult to to tell where he’ll fit into the draft order, but if anything’s for certain, it’s that his impact will be felt wherever he happens to end up on Monday.

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