- Hershey Bears forward Ilya Protas took home the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award
- The 19-year-old finished with 66 points in 69 games to lead all AHL rookies
- Read below for full details and video of Protas’ first NHL goal
Ilya Protas added another trophy to his rookie-season haul.
The Hershey Bears forward was named the winner of the Dudley "Red" Garrett Memorial Award as the AHL’s Rookie of the Year for 2025-26. Protas got the news after the Bears’ morning skate ahead of Game 2 of their Atlantic Division First-Round series against the Bridgeport Islanders, and his teammates mobbed him when head coach Derek King made the announcement.
He’s just the second Bears player in franchise history to take home the award. The last one was longtime Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall, who won it in 1985-86.
The team shared the locker-room reaction:
Protas finished with 66 points (29 goals, 37 assists) in 69 games, leading all AHL rookies in scoring and tying for sixth overall in the league. Among fellow first-year players, he was second in goals, second in assists, second in power-play goals with 11, and first in points per game among anyone with at least 48 games played.
Those numbers put him in rare company. His 66 points are the most by a Bears rookie since Craig Fisher dropped 79 in 1990-91, and they rank fourth all-time for a teenager in AHL history.
His 29 goals broke a franchise record that had stood for 74 years. The previous mark for a teenage Bear was 20, set by Real Chevrefils back in 1951-52.
The 19-year-old from Vitebsk, Belarus is the younger brother of Capitals center Aliaksei Protas. Washington grabbed Ilya in the third round of the 2024 draft, and he’s already gotten a taste of the big club. He made his NHL debut against Toronto on April 8, picking up an assist, then put up a three-point game three nights later in Pittsburgh that included his first NHL goal.
Here’s the video:
The Capitals loaned him back to Hershey for the AHL playoff run. Now he has a fresh piece of hardware to carry into the rest of it.
