ECHL: Iowa Heartlanders Re-Sign Defender, Welcome Latvian International

Coralville, Iowa- On Friday, July 19, the Iowa Heartlanders made significant boosts to their defensive strength in the re-signing of defensive staple Louka Henault and welcoming Latvia’s Bogdans Hodass to the squad.

Head Coach and General Manager Derek Damon has made some interesting and exciting decisions in his first ten signings, and these defensively-minded decisions are no different.

Henault, a 23-year-old from Montreal, is set to enter his third season in the ECHL. In 2023-24, Louka played 10 games for the Orlando Solar Bears before being swapped for Forward Jesse Jacques. Henault then played 49 games in the Heartland, tallying 15 assists and being a team leader in ice time per game. Louka Henault will likely be asked to remain a defensive playmaker and minutes leader in his first full season with Iowa.

Louka Henault delivered some craft highlights for Iowa in 2023-24, including this well-placed goal:

Bogdans Hodass is a 21-year-old left-handed defender from Jelgava, Latvia. After three seasons with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL, the 6’3” defender is ready to make the jump to professional hockey after averaging 26 points per season for the Tigers while making his first senior international appearances for Latvia. Hodass brings his youth, availability, and international experience to the Heartlanders in ways that few before him have.

Here are some beautiful goals from Hodass:

Going into the Qualifying Offer Deadline Weekend, the Iowa Heartlanders have their roster almost half-filled. With Ten players on the roster and help likely to come from the Iowa Wild’s player reassignments, the roster is starting to shape up quickly. Here is what the roster looks like going into the last third of July:

Goaltenders (1): William Rousseau

Defensemen (3): Jules Boscq, Louka Henault, Bogdans Hodass

Forwards (6): Nico Blachman, Will Calverley, Adam Goodsir, Yuki Miura, Jonny Sorenson