Man of the Week: Sam Anas
With the new season, KHL.ru restarts its weekly ‘Man of the Week’ column. Today, the talk is about Dinamo Minsk’s newcomer Sam Anas.
Not many imports manage to have an impact right away – the adaptation to a new league, a new team and, last but not the least, a new country, usually takes its tool in form of starting production. However, some players do manage to get the ball rolling right away, just like Sam Anas. In his debut season in the KHL, the forward has amassed 5 (3+2) points in as many games, with two multi-point games in Dinamo Minsk’s defeats against Kunlun Red Star and Torpedo. The Belarusian side is currently the seventh seed in the Western Conference, but the season is still young and Dmitry Kvartalnov’s squad still has chances to climb up in the standings.
Early years
Sam Anas was born on Jun 01, 1993, in Potomac, Maryland, from parents of Greek descent. Anas spent most of his early career close to home, playing for the Washington Little Caps in the Atlantic Youth League and several other teams in Maryland before getting drafted in the second round of the 2011 USHL Entry Draft by the Youngstown Phantoms. He spent two years in Ohio, constantly being among the team’s scoring leaders. Following his career stint in the USHL, Anas moved up to play college hockey, as he joined the Quinnipiac Bobcats of the ECAC conference in the NCAA.
His college career proved to be a successful one. During his freshman year with the Bobcats, he earned recognition as the 2014 Rookie of the Year and secured spots on both the 2013–14 ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team and the All-ECAC Hockey Second Team. Additionally, Anas received the 2014 College Hockey News Rookie of the Year award. In his sophomore year, he was named to the AHCA/CCM Hockey All-American Second Team.
In his junior year (2015–16), Anas achieved AHCA/CCM Hockey Men’s Division I All-America First Team honors, while also earning a place on the ECAC Hockey First Team, the All-CollegeHockeyNews.com Second Team, and the NCAA Tournament All-Regional Team.
Moving up
Following a successful career in college, Anas was signed by the Minnesota Wild to a two-year contract on April 2016 and assigned to the franchise’s AHL affiliate in Iowa. The Maryland native clinched the American Hockey League’s scoring title in the 2019–2020 season. Despite his impressive AHL performance with the Iowa team, he was unable to secure a spot in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild. Consequently, he departed as a free agent. Among the several accolades Anas collected with Iowa, he was the recipient of the JB Sollenberger Trophy as the league’s top scorer in 2019–2020
On October 10, 2020, Anas signed a two-year, two-way contract with the St. Louis Blues. After his time with the Blues organization, he once again became a free agent, albeit he collected the Fred T. Hunt Trophy as the league’s top sportsmanship in 2021–2022 while in Springfield. Subsequently, on August 15, 2022, Anas signed a one-year AHL contract with the Hershey Bears for the 2022–23 season. The forward helped the Bears grabbing the 2023 Calder Cup – playing with Traktor’s Zach Fucale – but then decided to move overseas as he opted to pursue a career in Europe. He then signed a one-year deal with the Belarusians on Jul 10.
Move to the KHL
Capable to play both in the middle and on the wings, for now Dmitry Kvartalnov has iced him on the flank, with Roman Gorbunov as a center and former SKA forward Alexander Volkov on the other wing. For now, the line is delivering, with all the players being among the team’s top scorers, with Anas trailing only Vitaly Pinchuk and Kodie Curran. The Belarusian franchise is as usual competing for a spot in the playoffs, and Anas’ strong play will be key for Kvartalnov as he will try to lead yet another team to a postseason qualification.
