The Washington Capitals doubled up on Protases when they selected Ilya Protas with a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Five years earlier, the Caps selected Ilya’s older brother, Aliaksei Protas, in the same round at the 2019 NHL Draft.

Aliaksei, already an established NHL player with the Capitals, attended the 2024 draft in Vegas with his wife, Tatsiana Protas, and mother, Tatyana Protas, in support of his little brother. Spencer Carbery, coming off his first season as head coach of the Caps, was also in town with the rest of the club’s top brass, so he took advantage of the occasion and went out for lunch with the Protas family.

“We’re trying to find [another Protas], but there are just those two,” Carbery told 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies on Wednesday. “Yeah, and that story in itself is crazy. Going back to Vegas – when Little Pro, when it was his draft year, I was out there, and Big Pro came because his brother was going to be drafted. And I went for lunch with him and Pro’s wife and Pro’s mom. Pro’s dad couldn’t make it, but his mom was there and doesn’t speak any English.

“We went for lunch, and I have nothing to do with the draft, nothing. So, like, I have no idea who we’re going to pick. And she said – she told Pro to translate. She goes, ‘Can you tell Coach Carbs I would really love if you guys would draft my younger son so that they can look after him like they did for you?’”

While Carbery had no real influence, the Capitals did acquiesce to Tatyana’s request, selecting her youngest son with the 75th overall pick as a coincidence. The Protas family rejoiced in the stands after learning both brothers would be in the same NHL organization.

To acquire the pick they used to draft Ilya, the Capitals sent their third-round pick (82nd overall) and their fifth-round pick (146th overall) to the New Jersey Devils.

The draft-day trade mirrored, almost exactly, the same deal the Caps made to draft Aliaksei, as they sent the Devils two picks in the 2019 draft to move up to 91st overall in the third round.

“I was sitting on my phone when I heard Jersey traded the pick to the Caps,” Aliaksei said in Vegas. “I was like, ‘Good!’ Then I heard my name and I’m like, ‘No way.’ I’m so proud.

“It was a little déjà vu when I heard it,” he added. “I kind of hoped. For sure, I hoped. It’s nice to be drafted by every team, but for sure, you want to be together. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

The two Protas brothers have made the Capitals look like geniuses since being drafted, with Aliaksei posting a career high 66 points (30g, 36a) in the NHL last year, and Ilya recording 124 points (50g, 74a) in 61 games for the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires.

Despite the age gap, the two are very close, spending their summers in Belarus training together. Ilya, over the last year, grew another inch and is just as tall as his 6-foot-6 brother. He told reporters at rookie camp that he just did whatever Aliaksei told him to do as they prepared for this season.

“(I focused on) what my coach told me to do — it was my brother,” Ilya said earlier this fall. “So what he wanted me to do, I did.”

Ilya was one of the final cuts from this year’s Capitals Training Camp after playing in four NHL preseason games, including one with Aliaksei in Hershey at Giant Center. He has since made his professional debut with the AHL’s Bears, playing in the team’s first two games of their 2025-26 campaign and centering the second line.