The Washington Capitals made another roster move and placed another forward on injured reserve. Aliaksei Protas has been recalled from the Hershey Bears while Nic Dowd gets placed on IR.
Protas has four points with a goal and three assists in six games with Hershey this season and his three assists are tied for fifth most on the Bears. The 20 year old recorded 18 points with 10 goals and eight assists in 58 regular season games with Dinamo Minsk during the 2020-21 season. The six foot six, 225 pound center tied for fifth on the team in goals and tied for eighth in points despite ranking 15th in time on ice per game (12:52 minutes) among Minsk skaters with at least 30 games played.
The Vitebsk, Belarus, native was re-assigned to Hershey on March 18 and made his AHL debut on March 31. He recorded seven points with two goals and five assists in 16 games with Hershey. He also represented Belarus in the 2021 IIHF World Championship, recording two assists in six games.
Protas would spend the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons with the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League (WHL) where he recorded a combined 120 points with 42 goals and 78 assists in 119 games.
Protas finished the 2019-20 season with 80 points (31 goals and 49 assists) in 58 games and ranked ninth in the WHL in points. He became the third European player in Prince Albert’s history to record 80 points, joining Leon Draisaitl (2013-14: 105 points) and Milan Kraft (1998-99: 86 points).
Protas led Prince Albert in goals, assists, points, plus/minus (37), and seven game winning goals in 2019-20 with just eight penalty minutes, the fewest among the league’s top 50 scorers. Protas was selected to the WHL’s Eastern Conference First All Star Team and was named the WHL Eastern Conference Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year. He was selected by the Caps in the third round at 91st overall in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Dowd joins fellow center Nicklas Backstrom as well as T.J. Oshie on inured reserve. He is eligible to return the next game on Nov. 4 at the Florida Panthers. He hurt himself at the beginning of Friday’s morning skate. It is a lower body injury. He also was day to day as recent as last Sunday and missed that Monday game at the Ottawa Senators.
The Caps take on the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight. Puck drop is at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Washington. Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic reported that Caps head coach Peter Laviolette and the team are working through some things in the room but it sounds like Protas could make his NHL debut tonight. Stay tuned!