Man of the Week: Sam Anas

KHL.ru’s weekly column returns with Sam Anas. The Dinamo Minsk forward, in his third year in the league, had another exciting start in Belarus, and scored four points in just two games last week. Anas’ offensive skills are one of the top reasons behind Dinamo Minsk’s success.

Two years after swapping the American rinks for the KHL, Anas’s transition has been excellent. He arrived in Minsk in the summer of 2023 and hit the ground running — in 2023–2024 he posted 21 goals and 25 assists in 60 KHL games (for 46 points), then followed with another 46-point campaign in 66 games the next season (19+27), numbers that make him one of Dinamo Minsk’s steady top contributors and a reliable offensive fulcrum for his line.

This season he’s kept that form, and last week in particular was a tidy reminder of what he brings: in the Belarusians’ convincing win over Torpedo on Oct. 14 Anas scored twice within a frantic spell to help turn the game into a rout — a little two-goal burst that underlined his knack for being in the right place at the right time and finishing chances when the game opens up.

Early years

The road to Minsk ran through some very solid development work in the NCAA and the AHL. Born in Potomac, Maryland, Anas was a college star at Quinnipiac, where from day one he scored: as a freshman he led all NCAA Division I freshmen in goals (22) and points (43) and picked up ECAC Rookie of the Year honours; by his junior year he was an AHCA/CCM All-American and an established top scorer in the conference. Those Quinnipiac seasons (22+21+24 goals across three years with steadily rising point totals) explain why pro teams kept an eye on him despite his modest size — he simply produced.

Moving up

Pro hockey in North America made him a grinder in the best sense: Anas carved out elite AHL résumés, including winning the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL’s leading scorer in 2019–2020 and earning All-Star recognition. He moved around through AHL stops (Iowa, Utica, Springfield) before signing with Hershey for 2022–2023. That Hershey season ended as scripted for any dream story — Calder Cup champions — and Anas played his part in that playoff run, contributing key goals and veteran savvy to a deep Bears group.

Calder Cup

Hershey’s 2023 cup team has become an interesting little pipeline: several players from that roster have since taken careers to European leagues and the KHL in particular. Zachary Fucale, the veteran goaltender who backstopped Hershey in that era, is now a known KHL name and later signed with Dinamo Minsk — his path is one of the more high-profile Bears-to-KHL arcs. Logan Day, another member of the recent Bears groups, has logged time in the KHL as well, with other familiar names on that roster being Bobby Nardella, Mason Morelli, and Michael Vecchione.

Move to the KHL

After his Calder Cup success with the Bears, Anas left the AHL as a free agent and opted to pursue a career abroad by signing a one-year deal with Dinamo Minsk July 10, 2023. His statistical profile — repeated mid-to-high 40s in points across KHL seasons, plus an AHL scoring title and a Calder Cup on his résumé — tells that he’s not a one-season wonder but a repeatable producer, even at the KHL level. And with Dinamo Minsk’s ambitions for the current season, his production will be key for Dmitry Kvartalnov’s squad.