The announcement came on May 29 following a meeting of the club's board and was confirmed on the club website.
"The board assessed a number of Latvian and foreign head coach candidates. Sandis Ozoliņš was approved as head coach," the statement said, along with a picture of the new appointee shaking hands with club chairman Juris Savickis.
Ozoliņš will take charge of Dinamo Riga in its 10th season in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), which is dominated by teams from Russia but also has teams from Belarus, Finland, Slovakia, Kazakhstan and Croatia.
Last year Riga finished 14th and last in the western division of the KHL.
Sandis Ozoliņš - Dinamo Rīga galvenais trenerishttps://t.co/KLjmjKJEfy
— Dinamo Riga (@hcDINAMORIGA) May 29, 2017
Speaking in an interview posted on the Dinamo Riga twitter account, Ozoliņš said he felt "great " about the appointment and that shifting from an assistant's role to that of head coach meant that "responsibility" was the main difference.
"The head coach is responsible for the results and for what goes on day-to-day," he said.
"Everything depends upon us jointly as a team - how we work, how we prepare and what results we get," said Ozoliņš, a former Dinamo Riga player himself towards the end of a glittering career.
Before that he was also a NHL star, with a reputation for indestructibility and dependability, chalking up 875 games in total.
