Griffins Forward Eduards Tralmaks Selected to Latvia Olympic Roster, Faces USA

Grand Rapids Griffins forward Eduards Tralmaks has been named to Team Latvia's roster for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games, setting up a Feb. 12 group-play opener against Team USA at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. The selection confirms a rapid rise for the 28-year-old Riga native whose scoring and international play have pushed him into the Olympic spotlight.

Schedule details vary across outlets: WOOD reported Latvia’s opener at 9:10 p.m. ET on Feb. 12, while the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Detroit News list the start at 3:10 p.m. EST. The discrepancy underscores the need to check the official Olympic timetable, but the opponent and date are consistent among reports.

Tralmaks arrives in Italy on the back of a standout AHL campaign. In 31 games with Grand Rapids he has 14 goals and four assists for 18 points, a plus-15 rating and six penalty minutes. Those totals place him tied for second on the Griffins in goals and inside the AHL’s top 10 for goal scoring. His recent form follows a dominant season in the Czech Extraliga, where he led the league with 51 points, including 23 goals in 48 games, a performance that helped earn him a one-year, two-way contract with the Detroit Red Wings last March. As MLive noted, “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.”

Tralmaks has a steady international résumé. He helped Latvia qualify for the Olympics by scoring one goal in three qualifying games and has represented Latvia at the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Championships, combining for nine points (4-5, 9) in 14 games. Last year he led Latvia with seven points (three goals, four assists) in seven games at the World Championship. As WOOD put it, “Tralmaks has yet to make his NHL debut, but he will get some time on the world’s biggest stage.”

For Grand Rapids and the Red Wings organization, Tralmaks’ Olympic presence is both a branding win and a player-development test. The Olympics will put him in head-to-head competition with NHL veterans and top international talent while offering Detroit and Griffins staff a high-visibility evaluation window. Organization-wide Olympic representation is notable: outlets vary on the complete list, with names such as Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, Filip Hronek, Radim Simek and Tomas Tatar appearing in different reports. The Griffins’ website also notes that Tralmaks becomes the seventh player to participate in an Olympics while playing for Grand Rapids and highlights former Griffins staff on Olympic teams.

Latvia is in Group C with the USA, Germany and Denmark, and eight of the 12 teams will advance to the quarterfinals under the tournament format that grants byes to the three group winners and the fourth-best team. For fans, Tralmaks’ selection means watching a power-forward prospect who has translated European scoring success to the AHL step and now gets a chance to make a global statement. His performance against Team USA on Feb. 12 could alter his trajectory with the Red Wings and provide Latvia a physical, net-front presence it will need in a compact, high-stakes tournament.