Ilya Protas caps breakout rookie season, leads AHL teenage scoring race

Ilya Protas’ recall was never just a roster move. It was the end result of a rookie season that turned Hershey’s latest teenager into the American Hockey League’s most dangerous first-year scorer and made him impossible for Washington to ignore.

By the time the Capitals called him up on April 6, Protas had 62 points in 66 games, the most by any AHL rookie and the sixth-highest total by a teenager in league history. He finished with 28 goals and 34 assists, a balance that mattered as much as the raw total. Hershey did not get a one-dimensional shooter or a passenger riding power-play touches. It got a 19-year-old who could finish chances and set them up, and it gave him the kind of workload that forced the game through him.

The breakout had a signature night at Hartford on April 4, when Protas exploded for six points in Hershey’s 8-1 win. That performance, one goal and five assists, was the first six-point game by a Bears player since Mathieu Perreault had six assists on Nov. 14, 2010, and the first by any AHL player since Alan Quine’s three-goal, three-assist game for Stockton on Dec. 27, 2019. Protas also had 16 multi-point games during the season, which is the kind of detail that separates a hot streak from a real offensive profile.

The goal total stands out on its own. His 28 goals are the most ever by a teenage player in a single season in Hershey history, breaking Réal Chevrefils’ mark of 20 from 1951-52. That is not a cosmetic record. It says Hershey put him in positions to finish, and that he kept finishing against older, heavier, more experienced competition. That is how prospects become NHL options instead of organizational names.

The family connection gave the story a familiar frame, but the player made it his own. Washington drafted Ilya Protas in the third round in 2024 after selecting older brother Aliaksei in 2019. Aliaksei won the Calder Cup with Hershey in 2023 and has gone on to play 317 games for Washington. Ilya’s path is not identical, but the organization’s belief is clear: Hershey has now helped produce another Capitals contributor.

The recall came with stakes on both sides. Hershey was 30-30-6-3 and still fighting for a Calder Cup Playoff berth, while Washington was trying to strengthen its grip in the Eastern Conference race. Protas made the jump look smooth in his NHL debut on April 8 against Toronto, skating 19 shifts for 15:37 and picking up an assist in a 4-0 Capitals win. He became the 42nd player in Capitals history to record a point in his first NHL game, a tidy end to a breakout that already had enough substance to travel.