The rights to the 2020 second-round draft pick were traded this week to the Utah Hockey Club for forward Jan Jenik.
Ottawa Senators winger Egor Sokolov has always been an easy guy to cheer for.
Sokolov left his home in Russia in 2017 to pursue his NHL dream, joining the QMJHL's Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. He played three seasons for the Eagles, scoring 97 goals and 191 points in 184 games. His teammate, Drake Batherson, helped mentor Sokolov in those early days when he spoke no English at all, making sure he was always included in team events.
But the NHL didn't come calling in Sokolov's draft year or the year after that. But Sokolov kept working, and in his overage year, he exploded for 47 goals and 92 points.
That set up one of the most beautiful draft moments in Sens history when Sokolov finally heard his name called on draft night, surrounded by the Ryans, his billet family.
That moment left Sens fans clamouring to know more about the big Russian.
The Senators selected him in the second round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Remarkably, at 61st overall, Sokolov was Ottawa's sixth pick that summer.
Fans embraced Sokolov for his enthusiastic personality, his neat connection to Batherson and his potential to be a sniper for the team for years to come. The more fans learned, the more they liked him.
During his three years living with the Ryan family, Sokolov was like a son to them and like a big brother to their daughter, Neico. Sokolov was never too cool to play Barbies with Neico or sing songs with her in the back seat on the way to hockey practice.
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But Sokolov spent the next four years becoming the Belleville Senators' all-time leader in games played, goals, assists, and points. That cannot be achieved without playing a lot of games in the minors. And the reason he was in Belleville for all those games and not in Ottawa is no secret.
As hard as he worked on it, the skating speed just wasn't there.
So, the new Senator management, with no skin in Sokolov's game, traded his rights this week to the Utah Hockey Club for Czech forward Jan Jenik. Jenik's story is similar to Sokolov's. Both players were born in 2000, ripped it up in junior, were drafted around the same point in the NHL draft, and both cleared waivers last fall.
But Jenik has more speed and, frankly, more connections. He played for Staios and Michael Andaluer with the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.
Sokolov was a great story out of that phenomenal 2020 NHL Draft. Here's hoping he can still craft a happy ending somewhere else.