By Jeff D'Andrea

Raiders wave the Belarus flag at Import Draft

Jun 28, 2018 | 12:05 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders are waving the Belarussian flag.

At the 2018 CHL Import Draft, the Raiders selected Belarus’ Aliaskei Protas 26^th overall, joining his country-mate Sergei Sapego on Prince Albert.

If you want to look up his stats online, you’ll have more luck searching for an alternate spelling of his name, “Alexei Protas.”

The six-foot-three, 179-pound forward scored nine goals and 20 points in 49 games in the Vysshaya Liga, second tier professional hockey league in Belarus with the Under-17 Belarus squad.

Protas also played at the Mac’s Midget AAA Tournament, scoring two goals and five points in four tournament games. Both of his goals came in a 4-2 victory against the Saskatoon Contacts.

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“He’s a guy we saw play in the Mac’s, we had a feel for his skill level, his compete level and his play. It’s a tough tournament,” Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt said. “There’s an advantage that he’s Belarussian so we’ll get him here and get him acclimated with Sergei and get them in school.

“We’re excited to get him. We think he will help us in the middle and think it gives some options at centre or the wing. He’s another big body guy, you certainly saw how important that is when you get to the postseason.”

Protas represented his country internationally at the 2018 Under-18 World Junior Championships, scoring a goal and four points in five games played. That goal came against Canada.

Protas, listed at 6’3 and 179 lbs, had 9 goals and 11 assists in 49 games for the Belarus U17 team in the Vysshaya Liga.

He also had a goal and three assists in five games at the 2018 World U18 Hockey Championship. Take a look at the goal pic.twitter.com/BPcKc59gfD

— Prince Albert Raiders (@PARaidersHockey) June 28, 2018

Protas will replace defenceman Vojtech Budik, who will not be returning with the Raiders next year as a 20-year-old.

Even though it’s a forward replacing a defenceman, it’s a good fit for the Raiders who will be deep in defence depth next season. They can return five 19-year-old blueliners for next season, and that doesn’t include former first overall pick Kaiden Guhle, or 18-year-old Konrad Belcourt who the Raiders added at the deadline. Not only that, but all three 20-year-olds from last year that are graduating from the WHL were forwards in Jordy Stallard, Curtis Miske and Regan Nagy.

“It just made sense,” Hunt said. “Even though we lost Budik who was a big part of our backend, we did lose three forwards—two of which had significant contributions throughout our leadership group the entire year.

Last year, the Raiders used their lone pick of the 2017 CHL Import Draft to select German forward Dominik Bokk, ninth overall.

Bokk did not end up reporting to Prince Albert, instead playing with the Vaxjo Lakers program in Sweden. He was picked by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, 25^th overall.

Sapego was added by the Raiders to replace their vacant import spot, picking him up from import waivers after the Tri-City Americans released him. Sapego had four goals and 17 points in 41 games with the Raiders last season.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW