Raivis Ansons – © Photo: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff
On Monday, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins announced that they re-signed forward 23-year-old Raivis Ansons for the upcoming 2025-26 season. The former Memorial Cup champion played nine games in the AHL last year, scoring a single goal while compiling 12 penalty minutes.
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The native of Riga, Latvia, was initially drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins as the 149th pick in the fifth round of the 2020 Draft. In 87 career AHL games, Ansons has five goals and nine assists for 14 points with 64 penalty minutes.
As a member of the Saint John Sea Dogs in 2022, Ansons won the Memorial Cup. Before joining the Sea Dogs, he spent parts of three seasons with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. During his junior days, Ansons tallied 33 goals and 101 points in 125 games, scoring a goal and five points during the Memorial Cup run.
Internationally, he’s won a Latvia U18 championship, capturing two U20 World Junior Championship silver medals in 2020 and 2022, and leading the 2022 tournament in goals.