Sandis Smons (born 19 May 1999) is a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

defenceman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

who is currently playing with

HC La Chaux-de-Fonds HC La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss professional ice hockey team who currently play in the Swiss League (SL). Founded in 1919, La Chaux-de-Fonds play at the Patinoire des Mélèzes in front of a capacity 5,225. History Hockey Club La Chaux-de-Fonds ...

of the

Swiss League The Swiss League, also known as the Sky Swiss League for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League (ice hockey), National League. The winners of the league each ...

(SL). He plays in Switzerland with a Swiss player-license.

Playing career

Smons made his professional debut with the Ticino Rockets of the

(SL) during the 2018–19 season, appearing in 2 games this season. On 18 August 2019, Smons signed his first professional contract with Genève-Servette HC for the 2019/20 season. He was immediately loaned to

HC Sierre HC Sierre is a professional ice hockey team, in Switzerland currently playing in the Swiss League (SL). Sierre has played in each of the top Swiss hockey leagues the National League (NL) and Swiss League (SL). It has also played several years in t ...

of the SL to begin the 2019–20 season and was called up on September 23, 2019, by Genève-Servette to replace injured Henrik Tömmernes.

International play

Smons made his debut with Latvia men's national team in 2020.

Personal life

Smons moved to

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

at age 15 to play his junior hockey with Genève-Servette which allows him to play in the

National league National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

and in the

with a Swiss player-license. He is fluent in both Latvian and French.

References

External links

* 1999 births Living people Genève-Servette HC players HC La Chaux-de-Fonds players Latvian ice hockey defencemen HC Sierre players HCB Ticino Rockets players {{Latvia-icehockey-bio-stub