Belleville Senators News Of The Week: Abramov, Sokolov, Hogberg

The AHL season has come to a close, but that doesn’t mean exciting news will stop coming out of Belleville.

Egor Sokolov:

Sokolov has been named to the 2020-21 AHL Canadian Division All-Star team. The team was voted on by players, coaches and media members involved with the AHL. The full Canadian Division All-Star team is as follows:

Egor Sokolov (Belleville Senators)

Kale Kossila (Toronto Marlies)

Nathan Todd (Manitoba Moose)

Connor Mackey (Stockton Heat)

Otto Leskinen (Laval Rocket)

Cayden Primeau (Laval Rocket)

As you can see Sokolov was the sole Senators player to be selected to this year’s all-star team. In his first AHL season, Sokolov led the team in points with 25 (15 goals) in 35 games. It is interesting to note that he was also the only player on the team to play in all 35 games this year.

Sokolov somehow did not qualify for the AHL All-Rookie team. Had he been selected to that team he would have joined elite company with current and former Ottawa Senators’ players.

There is a long list of Senators’ players who have been selected to the All-Rookie team.

Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Connor Brown, Matt Murray, Bobby Ryan, Jason Spezza, Ron Hainsey and Zdeno Chara have all been bestowed that honour in their respective careers.

Sokolov’s player stock has been steadily rising since he was drafted 61st overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. The best-case scenario for him will be to make the Ottawa Senators opening night lineup come October. However, playing another year in the AHL would also be good for his development.

Vitaly Abramov:

Abramov has been an interesting case as a Senators prospect. He was originally acquired by the Sens in the Matt Duchene deal, at the 2019 trade deadline. Since then he has put up 67 points in 92 AHL games with the Belleville Senators.

He was always on the cusp of being called up to the NHL full-time but never got the chance. Over the last three seasons, he has played in only five NHL games in Ottawa.

It seems he felt he would be better served to play overseas. That is why he signed a two-year contract with the Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL. It remains to be seen whether he has an NHL future waiting for him after his two-year stint in Russia.

Marcus Hogberg:

Hogberg is another player who would seem to be better suited to playing overseas. In an organization that has been the hallmark of turn-over the last few years, Hogberg is incredibly the longest-tenured Senator.

He showed promise with his play late in the 2019-20 season after Anders Nilsson and Craig Anderson went down with injuries. However, his play did not translate to the new division in 2020-21.

He struggled out of the gate and although he did have a couple of solid games toward the end of the season, his fate was already sealed.

Marcus Hogberg has signed a four-year contract with Linkoping HC in Sweden. This is the same team that he played for from 2012-2017.