In a recent interview, the Washington Capitals' Aliaksei Protas had kind words for his countryman Yegor Sidorov.
Yegor Sidorov is good at scoring goals. Actually, that might be an understatement. He is excellent at scoring goals. The 19-year-old scored 50 goals in 66 games this past season for the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL.
Well, he’s an overager. Shouldn’t he be dominating the league anyways? Sure, but don’t forget that he scored 40 goals in even less games during the 2022-23 season at age 18.
Sidorov isn’t riding shotgun on a top-heavy line either. He may have been playing alongside fellow overager Trevor Wong most of the time, but it was Sidorov who was driving play and creating most of his goals.
After signing his first professional contract in early April, Sidorov proceeded to put up eye-popping numbers in the WHL Playoffs. He averaged nearly a goal a game, scoring 15 in 16 games.
The Blades didn’t even make it to the WHL Final, yet Sidorov still finished with the most goals out of any of the playoff performers. This came off the back of a playoff run in 2022-23 in which he scored nine goals in 16 games.
Sidorov’s goalscoring accolades have caught the eyes of many and in particular, one of his fellow countryman.
Aliaksei Protas of the Washington Capitals just finished up his second full season as an NHLer. The 6-foot-6 forward set career-highs in goals, points and assist and was rewarded with a five year, $16.875 million deal. He also got his first taste of the NHL Playoffs, though the Capitals were swept by the New York Rangers.
In a recent interview with BetNews, Protas was asked about several Belarusian hockey players including Sidorov.
“Everything is going well with Yegor,” Protas said (translated from Russian). “He did a great job, had a great season, and now he has an interesting time in his career. I believe that everything will work out for him.”
Protas also praised Sidorov’s work ethic, saying that with hard work and trust from the coaching staff, he will be fine. One aspect of Sidorov’s game where the Ducks would like him to continue to improve is defensively.
“He has the ability to score," Ducks Director of Player Development Jim Johnson said in a recent interview published on the Ducks' website. "But what we asked him to do was, while not change his ability to shoot the puck because we liked the fact that he's a shooter, focus on a 200 foot game. He did that for us and he got much better in his own zone this year without losing [the offensive production].”
Johnson praised Sidorov's speed and his deft release which helped him amass 90 goals over the past two WHL seasons. The Ducks now want Sidorov to focus on how he can make the players around him better since he is such a strong goalscoring threat.
Think of it like gravity in basketball. Everyone is focused so much on how big of a threat someone like Steph Curry or Nikola Jokić is that one of their teammates ends up being open for a pass and the potential of an easy basket.
"If they're focusing one or two guys on him, it opens up other players," Johnson said.
Sidorov will get his first taste of professional hockey next season in the AHL with the San Diego Gulls. He'll most likely be one of the main scoring threats for them along with players like Sasha Pastujov.
Despite their poor record and another season without playoffs, Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane has already left an impact on his young players due to his strong player development background.
He knows Sidorov briefly from the time the two spent together at Ducks development camp last summer and will have the opportunity to reconnect with him next month when development camp rolls around again.