Rangers Sign Alberts Smits To Entry-Level Contract

The trend of recent first-round draft picks signing their entry-level contracts is continuing. The New York Rangers announced they’ve signed defenseman Alberts Smits to a three-year, entry-level contract.

Smits, 18, was drafted with the fifth overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft. Smits, originally from Valmiera, Latvia, spent most of his international career in Finland, with a brief period in Germany. Leading up to the draft, he was ranked as the second-best European skater by NHL Central Scouting.

Last season, Smits spent much of the year with the Finnish Liiga’s Jukurit, scoring six goals and 13 points in 38 games with a -3 rating. Additionally, he played five games for the DEL’s EHC München and five games with Jukurit’s U20 SM-sarja program.

Although many fans from around the league don’t get to watch much Liiga action, Smits was on full display in international competition. At the U20 IIHF World Junior Championships, scoring one goal and five points in five games for Team Latvia. Although they didn’t make it beyond the quarterfinals of the tournament, Latvia reaching the knockout round at all was a testament to their growth as a hockey nation.

Additionally, Smits featured again for Team Latvia at the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2026 IIHF World Championships. He tallied six assists in 12 combined contests from those two tournaments, showing that he can hang with some of the world’s best. Already at 6’3″, 209 lbs, Smits already has the makeup of a sturdy two-way defenseman.

In our 2026 mock draft, PHR’s Gabriel Foley, who correctly predicted Smits landing with the Rangers, had high praise for the Latvian, saying, “He’s a true rover: aggressive with and without the puck, confident driving it into the teeth of a defense, and a strong enough skater to recover when his gambles don’t land.” Furthermore, Foley said, “[t]he puck skill and mobility at 6-foot-3 are rare for the position, and a patient Rangers group would be betting on one of the most dynamic offensive defenders in the class.“