The American Hockey League has announced the 2025-26 AHL All-Rookie Team, as voted by coaches, players, and media in each of the league's 32 member cities. Among the selections is Hershey Bears forward Ilya Protas, marking the sixth time a Bears player has received AHL All-Rookie Team honors.
Protas, 19, leads the Bears and all AHL rookies in scoring with 62 points in 66 games, in addition to ranking among the league rookie leaders in goals (2nd, 28), assists (T-3rd, 34), power-play goals (2nd, 10), first goals (T-7th, 4), shots on goal (7th, 141). His 62 points and 28 goals are both also tied for eighth overall in the AHL.
The native of Vitebsk, Belarus represented Hershey at the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic in Rockford, Illinois in February. He leads the Bears in goals, power-play goals, power-play points (17), plus-minus (+16), and shots on goal. Protas' 28 goals are 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 has recorded 16 multi-point games, including registering six points (1g, 5a) in Hershey's 8-1 win on April 4 at Hartford, 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 American Hockey League player since Alan Quine (3g, 3a) for Stockton at San Jose on Dec. 27, 2019. The club is also 14-7-4-2 when Protas finds the back of the net, with Hershey's 14 wins representing the most victories tied to any individual goal scorer on the club this season.
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. He made his NHL debut with the Capitals at Toronto on April 8. Protas appeared in four games with the Capitals, contributing four points (1g, 3a) before being loaned back to Hershey earlier today.
Protas is just the third forward in franchise history to earn AHL All-Rookie Team honors, joining Connor McMichael (2020-21) and Ethen Frank (2022-23). Defensemen Mike Gaul (1997-98), Mike Green (2005-06), and John Carlson (2009-10) were Hershey's other representatives on the AHL's All-Rookie Team, which started in 1996-97.
The complete 2025-26 AHL All-Rookie is as follows:
Goaltender - Sergei Murashov, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Defenseman - Tyson Jugnauth, Coachella Valley Firebirds
Defenseman - Dmitri Simashev, Tucson Roadrunners
Forward - Isaac Howard, Bakersfield Condors
Forward - Quinn Hutson, Bakersfield Condors
Forward - Ilya Protas, Hershey Bears
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