The monument is planned to be installed at the intersection of Grostonas and Mālpils streets near the Olympic Center, next to Arena Rīga. Placement of the monument in this place has been supported by the Riga Monuments Council.
Aigaras Bikše and Ilze Liepiņa’s proposal “Iron Man” was recognized as the winner in the international sculpture competition.
The creation of the monument requires 300,000 euros. Currently, approximately 104,000 euros have been collected from them.
A verbal agreement has been reached on financing also from the NHL teams in which Skrastins played – Dallas “Stars”, Nashville “Predators”, Colorado “Avalanche” and Florida “Panthers”.
The progress of the project and the financial report will be reflected on the foundation’s website “karlaskrastinafonds.lv”.
For the financial security of the project, a donation account and an informative website have been opened, so that every resident of Latvia can participate in the creation of the monument.
As reported, Skrastiņš passed away on September 7, 2011, when all the players of the Yaroslavl “Lokomotiv” team of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) were killed in a plane crash in the Russian city of Yaroslavl.
Skrastiņš was born on July 9, 1974 in Riga and started his career as a professional hockey player in the 1990/1991 season in the Riga RASMS team, playing the next three seasons in the Riga “Pārdaugava” team. After that, he spent three more seasons in the Finnish higher league club Turku TPS, with which he won the silver medals of the Finnish championship in 1996 and 1997, and also won the European Hockey League in 1997.
At the National Hockey League (NHL) draft ceremony for young players in 1998, Skrastin was chosen with the overall number 230 by the Nashville “Predators” team, in which the defenseman played five seasons. In 2003, Skrastiņš was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, but during the NHL lockout in the 2004/2005 season, he played for the Latvian club “Rīga 2000”, being recognized as the best defenseman of the Belarus Open Championship season.
After three and a half seasons in the “Avalanche” team, Skrastiņš was traded to the Florida “Panthers” team on February 26, 2008. On October 16 of the same year, he played his 600th game in his NHL career, and on November 1, he scored his 100th point in the NHL.
At the beginning of July 2009, Skrastiņš signed a two-year contract with the NHL club Dallas “Stars”, where he played until the end of the 2010/2011 season. In the summer of 2011, he joined the “Lokomotiv” team.
Thanks to his endurance, Skrastiņš got the nickname “Iron Man”. In March 2007, “Avalanche” management nominated Skrastin for the Bill Masterton Memorial Award, which is given to the league’s most persistent player after each season, but he did not win the award.
During his NHL career, Skrastiņš played 832 regular season games, scoring 32 goals, making 104 assists and earning 375 penalty minutes. On the other hand, in 20 Stanley Cup matches, Skrastiņš stood out with three assists and 12 penalty minutes.
As a member of the Latvian national team, Skrastiņš participated in 12 world championships, as well as three Olympic Games. In the 2000 world championship match with Belarus, Skrastiņš scored three goals and became the first defender of the Latvian national team to score three goals in one world championship game.
Skrastiņš played 151 games for the Latvian national team, scoring 28 goals and completing 38 assists, as well as earning 89 penalty minutes.
Skrastiņš made his debut in the Latvian national team in 1992. The last time he played in the world championship was in 2009, but the last match for the Latvian national team was at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, where Skrastiņš was the captain of the national team.
2024-10-01 00:13:29