Montreal Canadiens Top Prospects Countdown: #2 Alexander Romanov

Montreal Canadiens general manager has compiled a long list of prospects. We are counting down the top 30.

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has focused on the draft for the past three years to build up his prospect pool. He loaded up on picks for the past three years and has another boatload of selections to make next year.

This has led to the Canadiens having a great group of prospects. With the offseason well underway and next season still more of a question mark than anything else, we are digging deep into the future of the franchise.

So, we have been counting down the Canadiens Top 30 prospects.

This list so far looks like this: 30th Jack Gorniak, 29th Jacob LeGuerrier, 28th Otto Leskinen, 27th Rafael Harvey-Pinard, 26th Jack Smith, 25th Jacob Olofsson, 24th Lukas Vejdemo, 23rd Alexander Gordin, 22nd Blake Biondi, 21st Rhett Pitlick, 20th Joni Ikonen, 19th Brett Stapley, 18th Joel Teasdale, 17th Gianni Fairbrother, 16th Cam Hillis, 15th Luke Tuch, 14th Josh Brook, 13th Jan Mysak, 12th Sean Farrell, 11th Cale Fleury, 10th Noah Juulsen, 9th Jayden Struble, 8th Jesse Ylonen, 7th Jordan Harris, 6th Ryan Poehling, 5th Kaiden Guhle, 4th Mattias Norlinder and 3rd Cayden Primeau.

That brings us to the second best prospect in the Canadiens system and that is Alexander Romanov. This was a unanimous selection from all four writers from our site who filled out their own ballots. Each one of us had Romanov second on their list.

It was a big surprise when the Canadiens announced they picked Romanov with the 38th overall selection in the 2018 NHL Draft. He was not ranked at all by several draft pundits and was somewhere in the fourth round or so by others. Bob McKenzie had Romanov highest on his rankings and that was 83rd which would have made him a late third round pick.

However, since being selected early in the second round of that draft, Romanov has skyrocketed up everyone’s prospect rankings. Luckily for Habs fans, he jumped up the Habs management team’s ranking long before anyone else was high on him.

After being drafted by the Habs, Romanov became the youngest player in the KHL when he cracked the roster of the powerhouse CSKA Moscow team. As an 18 year old he played a depth role for the team, but he looked terrific when playing against players his own age.

At the 2019 World Juniors, Romanov scored one goal and eight points in seven games. He led the tournament in assists and led all defensemen in points. More impressive was his defensive game as he shutdown the opposition in every game and played a heavy, physical style that had other teams playing on their heels and being hesitant to attack the Russian net.

Romanov was given the tournament’s Best Defenceman Award and was named to the First All-Star Team while helping Russia take home a bronze medal.

He was just as good at the 2020 World Juniors when he scored a goal and six points in seven games. He was even better defensively at his second tournament, physically punishing the opposition and shutting down most of their chance at the blue line before they got anywhere near the Russian goaltender.

He was once again named to the World Junior All-Star Team while playing a huge role in the Russian’s earning a silver medal.

Romanov has played the past two seasons in the KHL and by all accounts is ready to step into the NHL. We could see the Habs playing regular season games again in a month, and don’t be surprised if Romanov is among the regular skaters from game one of the 2020-21 season.

At 5’11” and 185 pounds, Romanov won’t be the biggest player on the ice in any NHL game, but he could be the most physical. He has great skating, is terrific at reading the play defensively and can shut down an opposing team’s rush with a thunderous body check.

He basically has Alexei Emelin’s physicality, but with much better timing, and intelligence in the defensive zone and better skating as well. He hasn’t put up much offensively in the KHL, but he is still just 20 years old and could develop at that end of the ice over time.

Romanov will almost definitely be an excellent defensive defenceman at worst, and a terrific two-way player at best. It all depends on how the offensive game develops over time. However, even if it doesn’t, he will be a huge part of the Habs penalty kill for the next decade, and will often be counted on to shut down the best players on the other team.

Bergevin might have surprised a lot of people when he selected Romanov in the second round of the 2018 NHL Draft, but no one should be surprised now if the 20 year old takes on a huge role for the Canadiens by the end of next season.