At 23, Ottawa's second-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft is the Belleville Senators' all-time games-played leader.
The Ottawa Senators have a decision to make this summer on 23-year-old Russian winger Egor Sokolov. For that matter, as he becomes a restricted free agent, Sokolov has a decision to make, too.
From the Sens' perspective, they must decide if he remains a prospect in the organization. On that front, he has three things working against him.
For one, Sokolov's skating, by pro standards, remains below average. He told me back at training camp that skating was what he'd been working on most.
"The biggest goal was to elevate my skating as much as I could," Sokolov said. "I worked three times a week with our technical skating coach, Shelley Kettles. We focused on things like quickness, and my skating has come a long way."
The other factor is the dip in scoring this season, and scoring ability was the main reason the Senators drafted him. If Sokolov were a player tracking to be a regular NHL player someday, his AHL numbers should be trending upward. Instead, his goal-scoring totals with the Belleville Senators were the same as last season (21), and he was down 13 points from 2022-23.
Finally, eight Belleville forwards got call-ups to Ottawa this season, and Sokolov was not among them.
Sokolov played eight games in Ottawa two years ago and five last year. This year, he played none, even though the Senators were entirely out of playoff contention for the final two months.
At the very least, the Senators would probably like to give the affable Sokolov another two-way contract. GM Ryan Bowness knows for sure that Sokolov is a good AHL player. He's an extremely popular player in Belleville, a well-liked teammate, and his fiance is from Toronto, just down the road. If he's happy with the AHL, it's a perfect fit.
But Sokolov probably still has the NHL dream, so if the Senators would like him to remain in the organization, they'll have to do some serious tap dancing to convince him that his door to the main stage isn't locked. Sokolov may not want to stay in a situation where management now defines him exclusively as a career minor leaguer or a mentor to younger prospects.
There's certainly a chance Sokolov may look for a fresh start with another NHL organization or head home to the KHL, where the money is far better than the AHL.
Sokolov is now the all-time games-played leader for the Belleville Senators with 240.