HERSHEY, PA — Rejoining the Bears as they ready for a playoff push, Ivan Miroshnichenko has just closed out his finest big-league stretch since his initial appearance during December of 2023, on the 20th. The skilled winger, a 2022 first-round selection, dressed for nine of the team's last 11 games, contributing three points while spending most of his minutes in a fourth-line role beside Brandon Duhaime and Justin Sourdif.
Earlier this spring, Miroshnichenko notched a first multi-goal NHL effort — coming March 26 versus Utah's Mammoth — then strung together a third point streak of his big-league career.
Carbery remarked at the time that Miro was beginning to settle into who he is as an NHL player, something that showed up that particular night.
As the regular schedule wound down, the front office summoned Ilya Protas, a frequent Hershey linemate of Miroshnichenko's, and the youngster promptly looked the part of a star. Ilya collected an initial NHL point and his maiden goal, piling up four points across a four-game span on a unit with Tom Wilson and brother Aliaksei Protas.
As the season closed, Miroshnichenko also logged a fair bit of time alongside Alex Ovechkin, who at 40 is weighing whether to step away and may already have skated his final NHL shifts. Spending time with the captain — among it a Pittsburgh night out that included Evgeni Malkin — the 22-year-old witnessed the ovations and commotion surrounding what plenty figured could be a farewell.
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Following Friday's Hershey skate, Miroshnichenko sat down with RMNB to discuss his stretch in the nation's capital, his time near Ovechkin — a boyhood hero of his — and what it stirred in him watching Ilya succeed at the game's highest level.
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A Q&A session with the Hershey winger
On what the late-season call-up meant to him and what he took away from it: Miroshnichenko said dressing at that level next to legends is always valuable, citing veterans such as Ovechkin, Wilson, and Johnny, plus the work with coaches. Each time out, he noted, competing at a higher tier is a good experience.
On how his game carried over this time, and whether fourth-line duty with Sourdif and Duhaime boosted his confidence by keeping him along the walls: He responded that whenever he plays up at that level it works out well, no matter the line or the number of minutes he draws. As he'd said before, the coaches and the guys help him, so wherever he plays, it goes fine.
On drawing from his Hershey playoff background to steer the younger guys through the postseason grind: Miroshnichenko pointed out that many guys are in their first year facing big, powerful opponents. He and the others who skated in the AHL the previous season try to help the youngsters in the room, he explained, showing them how to battle hard around the net and trade the occasional punch — something good for the group as a whole.
On how proud he was watching Little Pro shine after his call-up: He called it unbelievable watching the two Protas brothers share the ice, describing it as a dream — being able to play here next to a sibling. Naturally, he said, he felt enormous pride watching the younger one bag that first goal and contribute in his debut.
On whether it stirred his emotions: Miroshnichenko said it did, for himself and, he believed, for the guys and coaches in Hershey, for everyone.
On feeling the weight of those games given the uncertainty over Ovechkin's career: He noted there were hundreds of video and photo people around, which added pressure on everybody in the room. The players even asked Ovechkin directly whether he was finished, he recounted, and figured that if the captain is indeed done, the two of them might wind up on an over-60 squad in Russia once Miroshnichenko's own career is over.
On when he first became an Ovechkin fan as a kid: He couldn't pin down a precise age, guessing it traced to a World Championship he watched on TV as a boy, with Russia featuring Ovechkin, Malkin, and the rest. He wasn't sure how old he was, but said every hockey-playing child knows the name.
On the meaning of being around Evgeni Malkin, who was close with the group that final weekend: Miroshnichenko described it as an unbelievable experience for him and the younger Protas, getting to sit at one table over dinner with both stars, just soaking in the chatter between the two veterans and snapping a picture afterward.
On the pride of having the whole tight-knit group — Aliaksei and Ilya especially — succeeding together late in the year, and whether his early-season extension reflected excitement about Washington's future: He said any club with a number of Russian players is better off for it, extending to families and kids who talk together — weekend barbecues, locker-room chatter and all. Being born in a different country makes a full season of speaking only English difficult, he explained, so the chance to use your own language regularly is invaluable; having five or six Russian or Belarusian teammates, he said, would be unbelievable.
📸: Ian Oland/RMNB