Ilya Protas was named as one of six players to the 2025-26 AHL All-Rookie Team on Wednesday.
The 19-year-old center is just the sixth Hershey Bears player ever to earn the end-of-season recognition and only the third forward, joining Ethen Frank (2022-23) and Connor McMichael (2020-21). Despite spending four games up in the NHL with the Washington Capitals the past couple of weeks, Protas is still Hershey’s leading scorer with 62 points (28g, 34a) in 66 games.
Protas, who was sent back to Hershey on Wednesday morning, is still the AHL’s top rookie scorer, with Quinn Hutson, also named to the All-Rookie Team, trailing him by one point. In the overall league rankings, he is tied for 8th in scoring, although he has played fewer games than four of the players ahead of him.
Protas’ 28 goals are the most in a single season by a teenage player for the Bears, breaking the previous mark of 20 established by Real Chevrefils in 1951-52. He also recorded the first six-point game for Hershey since Mathieu Perreault notched six assists on November 14, 2010.
In four NHL games with the Capitals, Protas finished as a point-per-game player with four points (1g, 3a). In an April 12 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, he became the first teenager in just over 42 years to record three points in a game for the Capitals, with the last being Scott Stevens (1g, 2a) on March 1, 1984.
Protas, now back with the Bears, will try to help secure Hershey an AHL playoff spot in their last three games of the regular season. The club plays the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wednesday night with a chance to clinch if they win and get some help elsewhere.
