Ilya Protas Named AHL's Most Outstanding Rookie for 2025-26 Season

April 23, 2026

The American Hockey League announced today that Hershey Bears forward Ilya Protas has been voted the winner of the Dudley (Red) Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL's outstanding rookie for the 2025-26 season. He becomes just the second Bears player in club history to be awarded this honor, joining goaltender Ron Hextall (1985-86). 

Protas, 19, led all rookies and tied for sixth overall in league scoring with 66 points (29g, 37a) in 69 games. Among his fellow rookies, Protas also finished second in goals and assists, tied for eighth in plus-minus (+17), second in power-play goals (11), and first in points per game among players with at least 48 games played (.96). The native of Vitebsk, Belarus was also named to the 2025-26 AHL All-Rookie Team and represented the Bears at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic in Rockford, Illinois in February. 

Protas' 66 points led Hershey in scoring and were the most by a Bears rookie since Craig Fisher (79, 1990-91), and were the fourth-most by a teenager in AHL history. He is just the fifth rookie in team history to lead or tie for the team lead in scoring, joining Phil Maloney (79, 1948-49), Paul Guay, 53 [tie], 1984-85), Fisher, and Connor McMichael (27, 2020-21). His 29 goals were the most in a single season by a teenaged player for the Bears, breaking the previous mark of 20 established by Réal Chevrefils in 1951-52. 

Protas also finished his rookie campaign leading the Bears in goals, power-play goals, power-play points (19), plus-minus, and shots on goal (147). He won four team awards, claiming the John Travers / Steve Summers Award (best plus-minus), Kenny Smith Memorial Player of the Game Award, Jack Gingrich Award (rookie of the year), and the Mountz Jewelers Team MVP Award. 

He was named the Upper Deck/AHL Rookie of the Month for April as he paced the Bears and led all AHL rookies with 11 points (2g, 9a) in six games, while his nine assists tied for the league lead for the month. Protas notably recorded a goal and five assists in Hershey's 8-1 win at Hartford on April 4, marking the first six-point game by a Bears player since Mathieu Perreault recorded six assists on Nov. 14, 2010 vs. Binghamton, and the first by an AHL player since Alan Quine (3g, 3a) for Stockton at San Jose on Dec. 27, 2019.

Protas made his NHL debut with the Washington Capitals at Toronto on April 8, becoming the 71st Bears player to make his major league premiere with the Capitals since Hershey and Washington entered into an affiliation agreement prior to the 2005-06 season. Protas appeared in four games with the Capitals, contributing four points (1g, 3a) before being loaned back to Hershey.

The 6'6", 225-pound center was Washington's third-round selection (75th overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft and he is in the first year of a three-year, entry-level NHL contract signed with the Capitals on July 6, 2024.

This award, which was first presented by the AHL in 1947, honors the late Dudley (Red) Garrett, a promising young player who lost his life during World War II while serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. Garrett split his only pro season, 1942-43, between the AHL's Providence Reds and the NHL's New York Rangers.