Tony Romano

6th Round Draft pick of the New Jersey Devils... he was just signed today by the London Knights... could anyone give me some info on the kid other then his stats?

TONY ROMANO
RW/C 5.10 180 lbs Jan 5, 1988 Smithtown, NY
ACQUIRED: Free Agent
NHL STATUS : 6th Round Selection, New Jersey Devils, 2006 NHL Draft

Year Team GP G A PTS PIM
05-06 New York Bobcats 40 52 50 102 n/a
06-07 Cornell University NCAA 29 9 10 19 18

 

Here's a thread with some video clips of him:

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=378809

He has also been invited to the US WJC camp this summer.

 

A poor man's Pat Kane (or a nice compliment depending on what Kane does). A lot of offensive flair. He'll put up good numbers in the OHL.

 

grrrr. I'll give my comments after I calm down and forgive Tony for jumping ship.

 

yeah im a little ticked off also.

Its going to suck not being able to watch him anymore

 

Those video's are interesting, Romano has some great individual skill.
He could light it up big time next season.

 

And his defensive skill is about on par with Kane's which really makes me question this move. It's a real shortcoming of his and I'm not sure he has the offensive game in him to be in the NHL and not know what his own zone is.

I love his offensive ceiling and I love him as a prospect, but he's still very raw and has a LOT to learn and I'm not sure that leaving Cornell and the NCAA will really help him round out his game.

I'm not sure at all why he chose to leave and I'm sure it will surface sooner rather than later, but it seems like it might not be the greatest move for him...

 

I think he can easily put up over 100 points if he's paired with a guy like Kane or Gagner (or, hell, both). I'd be very surprised if he doesn't put up at least 90 or so points. He has a lot of offensive skill in him.

 

In the O, Tony's a 100+ point guy instantly. In NCAA he would have had to work hard for a PPG average over 1, I think he would have got there definitely by his junior year and probably by his soph, don't know why he made this move NCAA is more mature hockey

 

I called the Devils drafting him last year. What a find. Kane's a nice comp, but his top-end speed is a bit better ala Cogliano. Put that together and you have a showier Denis Savard.

 

A year learning offensive skills in the OHL with two top 10 draft picks and another 1 or 2 in the AHL learning the defense he'll need in the NHL. Seems like a good choice to me.

 

He might not learn much in the D-Zone playing in Junior but whenever he turns pro, I'm pretty sure the Devils will teach him a thing or two about his own end

 

Apparantly he actually called the Knights and said he wanted to sign with them as he followed them last year and became a big fan... I like this kid alone just because of that..

 

wow. thats a pretty tough thing to do. even if you are as good as he is.

 

9 goals last year is not exactly ripping it up all in the first half of the season and some of the teams they played were bottom of the college level.So we will all see where all thes goals are .Also london just signed Akim Aliu poss 1 rnd pick to play with Gagner and kane so lets see what happens

 

He'll score 100 points next year. He was 4th on scoring at Cornell, he'll probably be 4th on scoring for the Knights ie 100 point season. Put anybody with offensive skill into the Knights line up next year and they will rip it up.

 

"I know what I'm leaving but you only play 30 games at Cornell and it takes more than that to get to the next level," said the five-foot-10, 180-pound Romano, who was enrolled in pre-law while playing for the Big Red. "I was used to playing 60, 70 games a season so it was a big change for me. I love hockey and I want to play as many games as I can."

He used to play against Kane, his longtime pal Vladimir Nikiforov plays for the Barrie Colts and he has trained in New York with former Knights strength and conditioning coach Spero Mantzavrakos.

"Vladimir is a big supporter of the OHL and he loves what the London Knights have done and their approach to the game," Romano said. "I started following the Knights and you watch what they do with five forwards on the power play for two minutes straight and it draws your attention. The defensive guys probably don't like it too much but as an offensive player, you love it."



I just don't see how playing 30 games a year at Cornell is the best thing for him to develop as a hockey player.

 

wow, this is a huge pick-up for the knights. i knew they said they had something big to announce. i have seen romano play all the way back to squirts, the kid can really score, silky hands, and good speed. he will without question score over 100 points, unless he gets injured. ill say now, he has the potential to be a top 5 or 10 scorer in the ohl.

 

His offense is already a huge strength of his. He's not exactly going to get THAT much more of an offensive game at London. But he's losing his chance to become a more rounded player while he can as a younger guy which would've helped him adapt to the pro game much easier.

A lot of the NCAA guys have a lot easier time adapting to the AHL and NHL than the CHL guys just because the NCAA is a more pro-styled game (even if they play less games).

Yeah, playing more games will help him with his conditioning most likely, but he's just going to end up being all offense, no defense by the time he makes the AHL.

It's not a travesty just something that I don't think he really considered.

 

The bolded part is just wrong. I can provide quotes of players who've gone from NCAA to CHL. The CHL is definately geared more towards pro game in both season and style played.

As far as your other generalizations, I won't comment on them. It's your opinion so I'm sure I'm not going to change it. But you are biased. I don't think you have much of an idea of what the CHL game is all about.

(I'm sure the reason why some NCAA have a better time adjusting to AHL or NHL is because they are 3 or 4 years older in most cases)

 

Observations from a Cornell Season ticket holder:

Romano's talent is clear. Honestly, he's the best pure puckhandler that I've seen play in the ECAC. He's got great speed that allows him to be explosive at times.

Tony's issue in the offensive zone is that he falls in love with his ability to handle the puck and he wants to do everything with his hands. He doesn't move well without the puck and he's prone to forcing moves that rarely work.

On the defensive side there really isn't much to speak of. It's not so much that he doesn't care, but rather that he's inept. What concerned me last year was that he didn't seem to improve this side of his game. Early in the year, when I saw him try to deke his way out of the defensive zone, I was a bit flabergasted, but I figured it was just a bad habit left over from lower competition. The thing is that I saw him do it in the second to last game of the year. I just don't get how anyone could try that on a Mike Schafer team and ever think about doing it again, much less in a playoff game.

Tony's problem is that he's still playing like he's head and shoulders above everyone else on the ice. 90% of those fancy stick moves didn't end up working at the NCAA level, I'm guessing they won't in the OHL either.


Good luck to Tony. I echo the statements of others: If he wanted to work on the weaknesses in his game then he should have stayed with one of the best defensive coaches in college hockey. But he's made up his mind, so I wish him all the best.

 

Yeah, I only paid a decent hunk of change to watch a TON of CHL games this year and have no idea what the game is all about.

Look. The NCAA is much more defensive and tight checking than the CHL is. It's MUCH more of a pro-styled game. Really, the WHL is the only other league which I feel could prepare a player as well as the NCAA does (outside of Euro leagues obviously). The OHL and QMJHL are both WAY more open games more focused on offense than either the WHL or the NCAA.

I LOVE watching CHL hockey which is why I do pay to watch it and watch as much as possible. I prefer NCAA and CHL hockey to NHL hockey for the most part, anyway. Just more entertaining to me.

But really, I don't see how you could say that the OHL or the Q are a more "pro-style" game than the NCAA.

And the fact that you mention ages actually helps the younger NCAA players to adapt better. They are playing against bigger, older, more experienced players which easily resembles the NHL as they are going to be thrown right into those players once they leave whatever junior league they are from.

 

well said agreed

 

While all this may be at least partially true and I would never doubt the NCAA is a more defensive game against slightly older players - the OHL does a fine job of preparing players for the NHL year in year out. He'll play 1 year likely in the OHL and then probably one in the AHL. This route is just fine for him.

Let's not let this thread deteriorate into another one of those CHL vs NCAA threads. There are like 50 of them already and it's the same people making the same arguments every time. Both leagues have their advantages.

 

x 2. And it stretches to another dimension again when you go from "typical OHL" to the specialized Knights gameplan.