Winning two Stanley Cups has made Panthers’ Uvis Balinskis a celebrity in Latvia
Florida Panthers defenseman Uvis Balinskis is recognized a little more now when he goes back home to his native Latvia.
Being part of the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions — the first from his country to accomplish the feat — will do that.
During the summer, Balinskis met with Latvia’s prime minister and recorded a few commercials for a local auto dealership that let him test drive a few cars for the gig.
“A lot of cool things,” Balinskis said.
But that hasn’t changed Balinskis’ mentality entering the 2025-26 season, which starts Tuesday when Florida hosts the Chicago Blackhawks, as the Panthers attempt to be the first team since the New York Islanders in the early 1980s to win at least three consecutive championships.
“Just earn my spot on the team,” Balinskis said. “Be in the lineup every night, help the team get to the playoffs and try to win another Cup.”
Balinskis will have to earn that spot, a challenge he embraces considering his path to getting to the NHL in the first place.
He was a diamond-in-the-rough signing by the Panthers in April 2023 after they noticed him first while playing for the Latvian National Team, which participated in the 2022 Winter Olympics and won the bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships, and then kept following him during his time in the Czech Extraliga, the highest-level ice hockey league in the Czech Republic.
At 27 years old, Balinskis received his first chance to play in the NHL. He only got on the ice for 26 regular-season games in the 2023-24 season, most of that early in the campaign while Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour recovered from offseason shoulder surgeries, but made enough of an impression during the Panthers’ first Stanley Cup-winning season to get a legitimate chance for playing time in 2024-25.
Balinskis on paper remained Florida’s seventh defenseman last season, but an assortment of injuries plus a pair of late-season suspensions to Ekblad allowed him to play more frequently. Balinskis appeared in 76 games, including five as a fourth-line forward, and tallied 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) while averaging about 15 minutes of ice time per game played.
He also made his postseason debut with five games during the Stanley Cup playoffs — three in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, once in the second round against the Toronto Maple Leafs and once in the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes. He scored a goal, becoming just the second Latvian player to score a goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs (also Teddy Blueger, who has two) and had a plus-minus rating of plus-4.
“I improved a lot,” Balinskis said. “I think maybe my mental game improved the most. I just have to have a clear head every game and just not think about what happened the game before or shift before. Just go out there and start over.”
His contributions have been recognized by his team and his country.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice praised Balinskis’ versatility and ability to keep his game steady even if his playing time drops off. Balinskis is competing with Jeff Petry to be Florida’s sixth defenseman.
“He’s got his own personality in the room now,” Maurice said. “He’s got five nicknames. That’s always a tell that he’s part of the group. In his role — and he will always be a really good defender — but what he does is we can move him all over. He can sit out for a stretch of time, come in and play. Now, he may go in and play and never come out. Those things are all possible for him, but he’s very versatile as a defensemen. He’s one of the lads.”
Meanwhile, in Latvia, he has essentially reached celebrity status. He’s the country’s first player to win multiple Stanley Cups and just the third player overall to win one, with Sandis Ozonlis (1996 with Colorado) and Bluegers (2023 with Vegas) the others to do so. He met with Latvia’s prime minister Evika Siliņa in August.
He has already been named to Latvia’s hockey roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
“Thank you to Uvis for bringing the name of Latvia to the world and inspiring the new generation, as well as his family and coaches for their tireless support and investment on the path to Uvis’ success,” Siliņa wrote in a post on Instagram showing his visit to the Palace of Justice in Riga. “Have a successful next season in the NHL — two Stanley Cups have already been won, let’s hope for a third!”
Through it all, Balinskis is taking his newfound fame in a very humble manner as he gets ready to compete for that hopeful third Stanley Cup.
“It’s pretty cool,” Balinskis said. “I never really thought something like that was going to happen. Just to battle my way onto the team, earn a spot here and being on a championship team, everybody oves it back home. It’s nice that people recognize me. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.”
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