Aliaksei Protas moved into sole possession of second on the Washington Capitals in scoring this season with an assist against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday. The beautiful, twisting feed to Martin Fehervary was his 30th assist of the season and his 55th point.
Protas’ sweet dish to tie Sunday’s game 1-1 comes just one game after he led the Caps to a comeback 5-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings with three points (2g, 1a).
Protas has seen his breakout NHL season heat up lately, recording 19 points (7g, 12a) in his last 19 games. The 24-year-old winger has come leaps and bounds from where he started in the Capitals’ organization, with the 2020-21 Hershey Bears under Spencer Carbery’s guidance.
Carbery, now Protas’ bench boss in DC, was asked postgame Sunday to dive into what has gone into the former third-round pick becoming such a revelation not only for the Capitals but leaguewide this year. Protas has topped his former career high in points, 29, set last year, by 26 points this year with 18 games still left to play.
“You got an hour?” Carbery joked. “Yeah, he’s – all year long. I mean, the steps that he’s taken since his first pro game in North America in Hershey, the COVID year. Yeah, he’s grown exponentially and he’s such a hard worker and coachable. The thing I appreciate about him is he is so coachable. He wants feedback.
“And to me, that’s why he continues to get better and continues to grow as a player, because he’s constantly in pursuit of being the best version of himself every single day. Whether that’s nutrition, whether that’s in the gym, whether that’s on the ice, whether that’s system stuff, whether that’s his shot. He’s constantly in pursuit of that. You know people like that are going to get better in any field, not just hockey.”
The hard work that Carbery describes has been especially noticeable in the evolution of Protas’ shot. Protas has primarily been a distributor throughout his pro career until this season, where he ranks within the NHL’s top 30 in goal-scoring. His 25 goals are the most he has scored in a season since the 31 he potted in his final junior season for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders.
He is on pace to top that mark this year, as his 0.39 goal-per-game rate sees him targeted for 32 markers at season’s end. Among all under-25 skaters in the league this season, only New Jersey’s Jack Hughes (27) and Montreal’s Cole Caufield (31) have more goals than Protas.
Protas had extra motivation to perform on Sunday as his younger brother, Ilya Protas, was down in DC to watch the game at Capital One Arena.
Ilya, also a Capitals third-round draft pick, is on a four-day break between games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires. He is one of the top players in the OHL this season, recording 108 points (45g, 63a) through 57 games.
