Canadiens: Alexander Romanov Isn’t the Franchise Player You’re Expecting

Alexander Romanov has swept the Montreal Canadiens’ nation as a core of the team’s future. However, I see otherwise and feel as though he isn’t the player you’re expecting.

Recently, while digging through some old files, I found a USB stick. On it, I saw an article I wrote in 2016, on the trade that brought Phillip Danault to the Montreal Canadiens.

With the Canadiens 2015-16 season pretty much over after tanking through the 2nd half, GM Marc Bergevin traded depth forwards Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Danault, and a 2nd round pick in 2018.

At the time, I thought the trade was a complete flop (keeping in mind my much younger viewpoint) as Danault was a player I knew little about. A 1st round pick of the team in 2011, he was a player who had been an ongoing project for the Blackhawks but had yet to pay any dividends.

Of course, this all ended up working out in the end, as Danault has become one of the better defensive forwards in the NHL, while Weise and Fleischman played exactly 34 games combined for the Hawks. Had it been just Danault alone, this trade would’ve still been seen as a win, but what about that 2nd round pick?

Cue, Alexander Romanov.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about the Moscow-born defenseman by the time he started gaining more and more attention from the Montreal Canadiens hopeful. While the 2018 draft went decently well for the team, with them picking up players like Jesse Ylonen and Jacob Olofsson, it was 3rd overall pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi who stole most of the limelight, and as such Romanov fell under my radar.

That was until the 2019 World Junior Championships.