When the puck drops at 7 o’clock for the Flyers’ matchup with the Detroit Red Wings at the Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday night, a few televisions will be burning brightly more than 4,000 miles away.
Despite it being after 2 a.m. in Riga, Latvia, one of those TVs will have Rodrigo Ābols’ grandmother, Maiga, firmly planted in front of it.
“She’s been the biggest trouper this year,” Ābols said of his grandmother, who has been staying up to watch his minor league games, too. He joked that if he doesn’t get a shot on goal, she’ll text him to shoot more.
“Everyone has a different schedule, but whoever can and is willing to sacrifice some sleep, they’ll be watching,” he added about his relatives all watching. “I imagine there be some sacrifices made there today.”
And it’ll be for a good reason.
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The center was called up from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Monday after he got a wake-up call from Flyers assistant general manager Alyn McCauley the day before. “It was one way to make an off day even better,” Ābols said. He gets a chance with Ryan Poehling going on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury and Scott Laughton unavailable to play because of a family matter.
The 29-year-old will make his NHL debut. As he humbly said about his family, “It’s not only an achievement for me, it’s an achievement for them, spending all those hours taking me to the rink and giving me a chance to be a hockey player.”
It’s been a long road for the Latvian to the NHL ranks.
He was selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the seventh round of the 2016 draft, but Ābols’ rights expired after he played two seasons in the Canadian Hockey League — one full year with Portland of the Western Hockey League and another split between Portland and Acadie-Bathurst of what was then called the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
In May 2019, he signed a two-year deal with the Florida Panthers and spent the following season in the minors, where he registered 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 36 games with AHL Springfield. But the COVID-19 pandemic shortened things, and he returned to Europe on loan with Örebro HK in Sweden, notching 20 goals and 35 points in 47 games, with another 10 points in the postseason, in 2020-21. In 266 career games with Örebro and Rögle BK, Ābols collected 163 points (85 goals, 78 assists).
Last June, he signed a one-year, $775,000, two-way contract with the Flyers.
“I kind of felt it inside from the last time when I was here with all the COVID and stuff, there were some questions unanswered for myself,” Ābols said. “So I didn’t want to let this opportunity slip and when I’m done with hockey, I’m glad at least I came here and gave it another shot.”
After training camp, Ābols went down to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League and potted nine goals and 19 points in 34 games. Since returning from an illness on Dec. 14, he has nine points (five goals, four assists) in 16 games.
The center will have Garnet Hathaway on his right wing and a familiar face on his left in Olle Lycksell, who was recalled from the Phantoms after the holiday break.
“I’ve seen him a lot; I faced him a lot in Sweden, too,” Lycksell said of Ābols. “He’s big and he’s good with the puck and he [has a] really good two-way game, I think. I’ve seen he’s been scoring a lot lately down in Lehigh as well, so I really think he’s figuring out the American way, too.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Ābols can speak Swedish with Lycksell. In fact, the 2023 World Championhip bronze medalist speaks four languages. “When you’re a kid, you’re a sponge,” he said about learning Swedish through cartoons while his father, Artis, was playing in Sweden. Aside from Latvian and English, he learned Russian beginning in seventh grade in Latvia.
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Being able to speak to everyone in the room, and knowing most of the guys from training camp has only upped his comfort level ahead of his long-awaited NHL debut.
“Once the season got going, you come to the rink every day, you have more fun and you feel comfortable,” Ābols said. “And it’s probably the same with everyone in their jobs; once you feel comfortable in the environment, you can excel. So here, so far it has been no issue. So I feel like it should be good.”
Ābols plans on keeping his game simple and using the strengths he has to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing in the NHL. And while his grandmother will be watching from Latvia, his wife and 3-year-old son will be watching from along the glass, after a visit to the team store for some gear.
“It will be fun, obviously, to share that moment with them,” Ābols said. “He knows the Flyers. He’s starting to learn the teams. And whenever we go around stores and stuff, there’s Flyers merch, he’s like, ‘Oh, Flyers, Flyers.’ So now I was like, ‘OK, Dad’s going to the Flyers now.’ And he’s like, ‘What?!’ It’ll be fun to share that with them.”
Breakaways
Ābols father was the coach for Latvia at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship when it upset Canada, 3-2, in a shootout in the preliminary round. … The Flyers held an optional skate Tuesday. Defenseman Erik Johnson, who did not participate in Monday’s practice, was back on the ice.
