Capitals Recall Ilya Protas

The Washington Capitals have recalled top center prospect Ilya Protas from the AHL’s Hershey Bears. It is a headline that Capitals fans have waited all season for and comes just two days after a six-point night in the AHL. Protas leads Hershey, and all AHL rookies, with 28 goals and 62 points in 66 games this season. He could make his NHL debut as soon as Wednesday per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.

Washington could give one of their top prospects a look with four games left in the season. All four games are against Eastern Conference and will be must-win contests with the Capitals sat one point outside of the second Wild Card. Protas could be an X-factor addition at the perfect time. He has continued a breakout performance that began with a move to the OHL in 2024.

Protas moved from his home country of Belarus to the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers for the 2023-24 season. He was an immediate, top-six impact and finished the year with 51 points in 61 games. The majority of that scoring came late in the season, helping the 6-foot-5 Protas slide under the radar enough to land in the third round of the 2024 NHL Draft. He followed the selection with a move to the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires, where his offensive skill quickly boomed next to New York Rangers prospect Liam Greentree. Protas led the Spitfires, and ranked second in the OHL, in scoring with an incredible 50-goals and 124 points in 61 games. His scoring was the second-most ever recorded by a European in the OHL behind compatriot and six-year NHL veteran Sergei Kostitsyn, who scored 131 points in 2006-07.

That hot scoring hasn’t left in Protas’ first pro season. Neither has his talent for creating chances, made evident by his five-assist performance in Hershey’s Saturday night win over the Hartford Wolf Pack. Protas has shown a strong ability to drive the puck into the slot. He offers an impressive amount of stickhandling ability and playmaking focus in a big frame. They’re the same traits that have helped his older brother, Washington’s Aliaksei Protas, notch a career-high 30 goals and 66 points in 76 games last season. The older Protas has 49 points in 72 games this year.

Now, the brothers could seek to make one final heave towards the playoffs together. It is not clear where the younger Protas will line up if he does make his NHL debut. He could step onto the third-line left-wing over Anthony Beauvillier or take on a center role and bump Justin Sourdif to the wing. Either move would likely bump Ethen Frank out of the lineup, after he posted no scoring and a minus-one in his last two games.