With a late pick in the CHL Import Draft, the Prince Albert Raiders headed to Belarus to select a goaltender.
With NHL Draft eligibility this season, the Raiders took a swing at 6-foot-1, 161-pound Tikhon Chayka from Minsk, BLR.
Chayka spent the majority of 2020-21 playing for Team Belarus U18 in the Belarus2 league. Goaltender records for that league are not always complete, Chayka is said to have earned a .870 save percentage and a 3.60 goals-against average in 29 games.
Team Belarus came calling for the Men’s U18 World Championships.
Team Belarus finished sixth among the 10 teams with the help of Chayka. He backstopped Belarus to a 2-1-0 record in his three games, making 82 saves on 90 shots (.911sv%) and finishing the tournament with a 2.67 goals-against average.
Belarussian success
Prince Albert is a destination for Belarussian players headed to the Western Hockey League. Six players have played at least two games with the team and the team has recently had four different players from Belarus.
The most productive player from Belarus is Igor Revenko who played 180 games with the team from 2008-11. Alexei Protas, Ilya Usov, Sergei Sapego, and Daniil Stepanov have all have relative success with the Raiders since the 2017-18 season. Protas scored at a more than point per game clip, registering 42 goals and 78 assists in 119 games.
