Washington Capitals: Top 5 bold predictions heading into the preseason

#3 Aliaksei Protas will breakout this preseason

Among Capitals prospects last season, Aliaksei Protas played in the second most games, suiting up for 74. He only trailed Alex Alexeyev, who played in 77 total games. Protas began the 2020-21 season on loan to Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), recording 18 points with 10 goals and eight assists in 58 games before re joining the Hershey Bears.

In the remainder of his season with Hershey, Protas finished with seven points with two goals and five assists in 16 games. Protas is a native of Belarus and played for his country in the Olympic Qualifying tournament recording an assist in three games.

Despite ranking 15th in time on ice per game with 12:52, Protas’ 10 goals were ranked fifth on the Minsk. He also recorded four points with a goal and three assists in five playoff games and was named Best Rookie of the KHL Playoffs first round.

Protas has a towering presence at six foot six. He admitted bouncing around from overseas to North America was a bit of an adjustment. Via Andrew Gillis of NBC Sports Washington, Protas told the media during Rookie Camp:

"“It was totally different game for me, I needed to get used to it. Last games was way better, but first games I kind of wasn’t that good, because I needed to get used to it.”"