Riga's Dinamo, under Viktor Tikhonov, rocketed into the big league and competed with Moscow teams as an equal.

The Philadelphia Flyers made the historic selection at the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft in the ninth round, 160th overall, even though there was no chance of getting him out of the USSR.

He turned down an offer to move to Moscow and play for the USSR Central Red Army hockey club, instead preferring to remain in his native Latvia.

(It should be mentioned that in Soviet times most of the best players were transferred to the Central Red Army club.)

GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; The Super Series were exhibition games between an NHL team and Soviet teams (usually a club from the Soviet Championship League).