HERSHEY, PA — Seven games into the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs, the Hershey Bears are led in goals by an unlikely player. Bogdan Trineyev has scored four times, more than doubling his goals-per-game average in the regular season from 0.23 to 0.57.
Trineyev tallied in three-straight playoff games from May 9 through May 16 — the longest consecutive goals streak of his professional career. He also lit the lamp three times during the Atlantic Division Semifinals, including a backbreaking empty-net goal in Game 5 that helped clinch the series for the Bears and send them to the third round of the postseason.
With 1:40 remaining in the third period and Hershey clinging to a 3-2 lead, the Russian forward hustled to a loose puck in the neutral zone and turned up ice just enough to angle the puck — with some help from Lehigh Valley Phantoms defender Emil Andrae — into the yawning cage. Hershey would go on to win 4-2. The victory marked the Bears’ ninth straight playoff series win — an AHL record.
Trineyev’s goal came after the Bears had frittered away a two-minute-long, five-on-three power play earlier in the period, and momentum seemed to be turning back to the Phantoms’ side.
“We could have really closed the game out with the five-on-three opportunity. We did not,” head coach Todd Nelson said then. “You know, I was thinking, is this going to come back to hurt us? They made it a one-goal game. I was just happy when Bogdan put that empty-net goal in. They were coming. They’re just a good hockey team.”
The goal won’t make any highlight reels. But Trineyev’s effort on the play and the silliness in which he scored his own body into the net were memorable. They’re two characteristics, among others, that have come to define his career in the AHL.
While many Russian hockey players in the past have dazzled with their stick-handling, Trineyev is a hardworking, smothering, and dependable player who thrives on the forecheck. His dedication and success playing in the trenches have allowed him to play in all situations. His dream of someday debuting in the NHL is becoming more viable by the day.
“He does everything hard,” Nelson said. “He shoots the puck hard. He skates hard. He plays the game hard. And I just think this year is kind of a breakout year for him.”
A Pro assist
A fourth-round draft pick by the Washington Capitals in 2020, Trineyev was selected out of Dynamo Moscow — Alex Ovechkin’s former KHL team, where the Capitals’ legend still serves as an advisor to this day. The two Caps even shared the ice in Dynamo Moscow jerseys during an open training session in 2022.
“Everybody knows he is one of the greatest in Dynamo history,” Trineyev said. “He’s a big fan. You can tell, right? He’s a big fan.”
Trineyev played parts of three seasons for Dynamo from age 18 through 20, notching 13 points (2g, 11a) in 53 KHL games. He wore the number 88, but not because of Ovechkin.
“That number was pretty much one of the only numbers left, and I just picked it,” Trineyev said.
Trineyev first arrived in Hershey at the end of the 2021-22 season. He signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Capitals on May 2 (that started in the 2022-23 season) and inked a professional tryout with the AHL team a day later. Trineyev made his Bears debut in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on May 8, 2022. He appeared in two games total during Hershey’s 2022 playoff run and registered no points, returning home to Russia after the season.
The following fall, Trineyev was loaned by the Capitals to Dynamo Moscow for the 2022-23 campaign, finishing the year tied for ninth on the team in assists and seventh in hits (41). He suited up in two games during the Bears’ regular season, before serving as a black ace during the team’s 2023 Calder Cup championship run. While he didn’t play in any games, just being around the winning culture was beneficial.
At first, Trineyev was shy — some would even say to a fault. He listened, observed, and absorbed all that he could. Aliaksei Protas, a budding prospect in the Capitals organization and an every-night player for that year’s Bears playoff team, was Trineyev’s mentor — someone he would never stray too far from. Protas, born in Belarus, spoke Russian and English and was a bridge for Trineyev to other English-speaking coaches and players.
“Just work hard and bring the positive atmosphere to the team,” Protas said then, when asked what advice he offered Trineyev. “I think that’s the most important thing. I found out when I wasn’t playing in Washington (as a healthy scratch), you just gotta stay positive, be around the teammates. What they’d like to see from you. You’re not away from the team or nothing, or you just go around mad or something. Just bring the positive atmosphere, for sure, learn from the old players, just work hard, and that’s it. Just enjoy the time here. He just has to enjoy it and be around it and just have fun with it.”
Taken in like family in DC with the other Russian-speaking Caps players, Protas returned the favor in Hershey to non-English speaking players trying to transition to North America.
“I learned a lot from Protas,” Trineyev said. “I tried to get the best things out of him. I understood that he played in NHL. He knew pretty much everything at that point in the AHL, so I was just almost treating him like a big brother, and trying to get only the best things. Like how Protas handled himself, how he handled situations in the playoffs, how he was playing, his playing style, his role on the ice, how he behaves himself on the ice, and what he does. So I just tried to pick whatever he thought was going to help me, and put it in my toolbox.”
The Bears would go on to win the Calder Cup in late June after Mike Vecchione scored in overtime of Game 7, eliminating the Coachella Valley Firebirds in California.
“I was looking at the players from above, from upstairs, and I learned how they play,” Trineyev said. “Good atmosphere. I looked at how they handled high-pressure situations playing — especially the Game 7 overtime. I know it’s not the Stanley Cup, but it’s still the most important thing in the AHL. I learned from every single person.”
During the team’s championship celebration at Giant Center when they returned home, Trineyev stayed glued to Protas and was one of the last players to finish signing autographs for fans, staying hours after they were advertised to leave.
He offered fist bumps and tried to communicate in English as much as possible.
“He was kind of pretty shy and quiet down here,” Protas said. “But now everybody speaking to him, everybody happy to see him out here, and have him around. His English got better a little bit, but he still needs some help. He’s getting better, and he really enjoys it here.”
Hershey’s Russian 3
After seeing how to become a championship player, Trineyev tried to apply what he learned during his first full professional season in North America. He would be without Protas, who graduated fully to the Capitals for the 2023-24 season, but quickly made two new friends.
Talented 2022 first-round pick Ivan Miroshnichenko, who idolized Ovechkin and had characteristics of the Caps captain’s game, arrived for his rookie AHL year. The team also signed 27-year-old veteran Dmitry Osipov, a Moscow-born defenseman who could speak both Russian and English, to an AHL contract. Osipov would not only serve as a reserve defenseman for the Bears but also pick up where Protas left off as a mentor and translator for Hershey’s Russian contingent.
“It’s kind of like [having] a big brother,” Trineyev said of Osipov, who sat beside him and translated off and on during an interview with RMNB in 2024.
Trineyev started the year mainly in, but sometimes out of the lineup as a healthy scratch. He’d eventually find a home on the team’s fourth line with Riley Sutter and become a regular on the penalty kill.
“We were joking, Patrick Wellar runs the penalty kill, and he said to Bogdan one day, he goes, ‘I think you’re probably the only Russian penalty killer that I’ve seen,’” Nelson said.
Trineyev would score his first AHL goal on October 29, 2023– his sixth game of the regular season.
In the locker room after the team’s 6-1 win over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Nelson gave Trineyev the milestone goal puck as Bears players cheered. When his teammates demanded a speech, Trineyev roared like a bear instead, avoiding speaking in English with the camera trained on him.
“In the beginning of the season, I was in and out of the lineup, and then when I started playing more consecutive games, my confidence grew,” Trineyev said. “And then even though I was making mistakes, I was learning from it. So that’s how everything kind of went up.”
Not only was finding a niche on the ice important to his development, but so was understanding and speaking English. Trineyev and Miroshnichenko worked with a local English tutor near Hershey to get a better foundation of the language.
As Trineyev had more success, he was also thrust into uncomfortable situations that he admitted, begrudgingly, were essential to his growth. The most cited example was when Trineyev scored the Bears’ Teddy Bear Toss goal in 2024.
Trineyev was asked to do a three-question interview alongside Osipov, but got stage fright despite his affable and fun personality. No matter what strategy Osipov employed, such as telling him the answers, Trineyev couldn’t get comfortable.
“I’m always on him,” Osipov said. “Like I’ll roast him for something, and I’ll force him to talk English. I’ll try to — especially, us being roommates, where I’m just constantly on him. ‘Do this, do that. You’ve got to do this. You’ve got to do that.’ And from his words, even though it sucks, it’s still — you’ve got to have that pressure to improve. And he’s glad that I was hard on him sometimes, even though he didn’t like it.
“He understands pretty much 90 to 95 percent of the interview,” Osipov added. “He understands — it’s crazy how much he understands. In the locker room, you leave him by himself. He’s going to go around, talk with some guys, talk your ears off.”
Miroshnichenko and Trineyev formed a special bond during the season as they went through similar learning curves, acclimating to life in the United States. They both have big personalities and use humor to connect with others.
“Funny every day,” Miroshnichenko said of Trineyev. “Every practice, every game.”
They would also sometimes prank each other. One story relayed to RMNB through a source was when Miroshnichenko declared he, in fact, was Bogdan Trineyev to a Hershey employee so that he could claim his teammate’s per diem for a road trip. When Trineyev realized what had happened, he was forced to sprint to the bus to get his money back.
“They didn’t know each other before the season,” Osipov said. “It was more like a player relationship. They would see each other in the game. They’re like, ‘Hey, hey, how you doing?’ That kind of stuff. And then this season kind of kickstarted the whole friendship.”
Trineyev and Miroshnichenko played important roles for a Bears team that finished the regular season with the best points percentage in team history. In the playoffs, they continued their growth. Trineyev was used on the fourth line as a shutdown forward.
While Trineyev didn’t score in the 2024 postseason, he was on the ice and forced the turnover on Matt Strome’s Calder Cup-winning goal in overtime of Game 6.
In just one short year, Trineyev went from watching his teammates win a Calder Cup to lifting it himself.
“Towards the end of the season, I was trying to play the most consistent, trying to be as reliable as I can be, playing the role that I was playing,” Trineyev said.
His play was so highly-regarded in his rookie AHL season that Brian MacLellan, the Capitals’ then-GM, named Trineyev as a possible option to replace Beck Malenstyn on the team’s fourth line in 2024-25.
“He’s on the right path”
Trineyev did not make his NHL debut for the Capitals during the 2024-25 season, but he continued to make the case on why he should. He set career highs in goals (14), assists (8), points (22), plus/minus (+13), shots (109), and game-winning goals (2). Not only was he one of the first forwards on the ice for the penalty kill, but he began playing in other situations, too.
“I know we use him on the PK all the time, but he’s gotten power-play time this year,” Nelson said. “And, you know, he’s produced some goals for us. He’s on the right path. With the way he’s producing, he’s on the right path to give himself a chance to play at the next level.”
Trineyev also scored his first career overtime goal in a 2-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch on December 13.
In the locker room afterward, Trineyev, with gauze jammed up his right nostril, was awarded the Bears Head as player of the game. And this time, he did make an acceptance speech. And flawlessly.
“Good job, Mud, good game,” Trineyev said. “Bad start, BUT GREAT WIN!! LET’S GOOOOOO!!”
At the end of the regular season, Trineyev was named the team’s unsung hero, receiving the Arlene Tighe Award.
“I think his scoring touch – he’s always been pretty reliable defensively,” Nelson said. “He’s on the [penalty kill]… But just his growth, his confidence – he’s growing up, but he’s in his second full year [in North America] and he’s growing more confident every game he plays.”
Perhaps most heartwarming, Trineyev is becoming more comfortable in front of the camera and letting people see who he really is. The most recent example was when a Bears’ social media person asked players to ask them a question.
“Who is your favorite Hershey Bears player?” he asked.
“Bogdan,” she replied.
