Prospect Info: [2018 - 38th] Alexander Romanov (KHL - CSKA Moscow)

[Price4Prez]

In all honesty, i know absolutely nothing about this player. But judging from our past 2nd round picks, im not too worried. If they saw something in him to draft him that high, ill give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

[tazsub3]

If that is indeed the case, I cannot blame the team for getting a player like that (Mete-like mobility, Emelin-like checking ability, howitzer shot, grandson of a national team coach) so early, especially given how other gems panned out throughout this draft, at least based on their current promise.

he reminds me a lot when the habs drafted pk, many said was a huge reach....not saying he is a norris winner, but he has the physical tools.
rest is up to development

 

[Habs]

In all honesty, i know absolutely nothing about this player. But judging from our past 2nd round picks, im not too worried. If they saw something in him to draft him that high, ill give him the benefit of the doubt.

a lot of people are still confused by this pick, certain he would have been available in the 3rd round. The team has their own draft board, different from CS... lets see if its a giant turd or what.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

he reminds me a lot when the habs drafted pk, many said was a huge reach....not saying he is a norris winner, but he has the physical tools.
rest is up to development

He may also have a high-end toolbox to go with the tools, if his upbringing has anything to do with it. Maybe I put more emphasis on his granddad being national-team coach than most do.

 

[tazsub3]

He may also have a high-end toolbox to go with the tools, if his upbringing has anything to do with it. Maybe I put more emphasis on his granddad being national-team coach than most do.

Sure helps a lot, in fact looking back, Pk upbringing had a lot to do with his training discipline and development, thus success...
So many drafted players fail to make it simply by not knowing how to take their work ethic to another level. Discipline and training is vital in the success of many

 

[26Mats]

I think when Timmins said he reminds him of an Emelin enthusiastically, most fans actually downgraded their hopes for him.

 

[danyhabsfan]

he reminds me a lot when the habs drafted pk, many said was a huge reach....not saying he is a norris winner, but he has the physical tools.
rest is up to development

I don't see the PK comparable.

PK was the best point producer on defense in his team and with good numbers. (56 pts in 68 games)




Romanov is a 2nd pair defenseman in a junior league in Russia without impressive numbers.

 

[montreal]

Romanov's skating is damn near Mete level, that's the first thing I noticed about him and my main takeaway from my viewings. He's very agressive thanks to that, especially on defense, where he likes to engage physically and close the gap early. His plus mobility alone should give him a shot at something of a pro career, if nothing else.

We'll have to see when he comes over, but he certainly fits the new NHL mold of defensemen. Still trying to get a better read on his defensive and offensive game though. Usually I'm busy watching minor league baseball this time of year but I canceled my subscription to watch games from this past season for Romanov, Hillis, McShane, Houde and Fonstad mostly since we usually don't have this many new prospects to watch and I feel like following the AHL/CHL/Euro/NCAA guys are going to be so much better then trying to watch the Habs so might as well get an early start.

I'm going to need to figure something out for Liiga though, the free streams are too low quality, I don't mind paying but it's boring watching via a crappy stream.

If that is indeed the case, I cannot blame the team for getting a player like that (Mete-like mobility, Emelin-like checking ability, howitzer shot, grandson of a national team coach) so early, especially given how other gems panned out throughout this draft, at least based on their current promise.

I would hold off on the Emelin like checking ability, I thought I heard Timmins say something about Emelin like energy, which I don't even know what that means. I haven't seen enough of him yet, but I saw a good bit of Emelin in the RSL before he came over and so far Romanov has thrown maybe 1 decent hit in the 3 games I watched. Also I haven't seen him use his shot so I don't know if it's a big one cause the few i've seen weren't much.

he reminds me a lot when the habs drafted pk, many said was a huge reach....not saying he is a norris winner, but he has the physical tools.
rest is up to development

I saw a good bit of PK in the OHL and right away I thought what are they talking about with his defensive game, sure it wasn't pretty and he took too many chances but it wasn't that bad to me and you could very clearly see the skill plus physical tools like skating, speed, strength. I was very high on his upside even early on.

With Romanov I just have a hard time trying to figure out what he is other then a great skater, but before the draft I hadn't even seen a MHL game before so I'm getting used to that as well. It's just hard to notice him doing too much out there at least so far. But I'll be watching more games throughout the summer.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

a lot of people are still confused by this pick, certain he would have been available in the 3rd round. The team has their own draft board, different from CS... lets see if its a giant turd or what.

Doubt he would have been available in 3rd round. Columbus had him right after Montreal.

 

[Habs Halifax]

In all honesty, i know absolutely nothing about this player. But judging from our past 2nd round picks, im not too worried. If they saw something in him to draft him that high, ill give him the benefit of the doubt.

Pretty sure he was at their combine in Sweden. They got a chance to get good looks at several players. Lets how the good look they got ends up projecting into a top 4D with offensive upside.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I'm going to need to figure something out for Liiga though, the free streams are too low quality, I don't mind paying but it's boring watching via a crappy stream.
.

Can't help you there sadly, I only watch the Liiga via free streams .

 

[tazsub3]

I don't see the PK comparable.

PK was the best point producer on defense in his team and with good numbers. (56 pts in 68 games)




Romanov is a 2nd pair defenseman in a junior league in Russia without impressive numbers.

Again concentrating too much on points, the kid is built like a tank like pk was , even better skating. again, you should read what i said, as i did not say he will score as much as pk....

 

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

i wish he was more skilled or had legit top pairing upside which I don't see but still like what I see from him. Fantastic skating. Strong as an ox. Could still put up maybe half decent #s

 

[26Mats]

i wish he was more skilled or had legit top pairing upside which I don't see but still like what I see from him. Fantastic skating. Strong as an ox. Could still put up maybe half decent #s

I still have hopes for him because Timmins was so eager to get him.

But hearing Timmins compare him to Emelin doesn't justify taking him so early. Hopefully he means a defender with all of Emelin's strengths but who is also solid in all of Emelin's areas of weakness (stick handling, positioning, defensive coverage, etc...).

 

[Shabs]

Honestly, I think they decided to blindly draft for position/need no matter what or who was available. Ie They had this pick slotted for the best LD available and in their opinion Romanov was the best LD available.

 

[26Mats]

Honestly, I think they decided to blindly draft for position/need no matter what or who was available. Ie They had this pick slotted for the best LD available and in their opinion Romanov was the best LD available.

it's definitely a concern. I still have the same concern with Kotkaniemi.

Well, all we can do now is wait and see.

 

[Darz]

a lot of people are still confused by this pick, certain he would have been available in the 3rd round. The team has their own draft board, different from CS... lets see if its a giant turd or what.

Timmins said he felt he would not be available with there next pick as the reason he took him where he did, so I doubt he would of been available in the 3rd round

 

[tazsub3]

Timmins said he felt he would not be available with there next pick as the reason he took him where he did, so I doubt he would of been available in the 3rd round

but but hfboards posters said he will be, so they must know more no?

 

[montreal]

Again concentrating too much on points, the kid is built like a tank like pk was , even better skating. again, you should read what i said, as i did not say he will score as much as pk....

I wouldn't say he's built like a tank though, he has the tall upright skating style and he's not skinny and at 17 I wouldn't expect to be built like a tank.

but but hfboards posters said he will be, so they must know more no?

I doubt it since most HF posters likely didn't know who he was, but on an average of 10 NHL scouts they did think he would be there in the 3rd round and they had him ranked after Jordan Harris who was picked 71st overall.

https://www.tsn.ca/kotkaniemi-surges-into-top-five-of-tsn-draft-ranking-1.1115400

 

[Habs]

Timmins said he felt he would not be available with there next pick as the reason he took him where he did, so I doubt he would of been available in the 3rd round

good to know, I just saw he was ranked 117 or something in the Euro skater list.. something like that.

 

[Andrei79]

Doubt he would have been available in 3rd round. Columbus had him right after Montreal.

Link ? Where did you hear that ?

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

I doubt it since most HF posters likely didn't know who he was, but on an average of 10 NHL scouts they did think he would be there in the 3rd round and they had him ranked after Jordan Harris who was picked 71st overall.

https://www.tsn.ca/kotkaniemi-surges-into-top-five-of-tsn-draft-ranking-1.1115400

He was no were to be found before that list came out. No scouting agency had him in the top100. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Romanov ended that high on that list because MTL was part of the teams who gave their list to Mckenzie; having Romanov somewhere absurd like 20th overall, that's normally around what you draft from on your list when you have the 38th pick. We also got Olofsson, Hillis, McShane & Fonstad who were all higher on Mckenzie list than where we actually drafted them. Also, Kotkaniemi was higher on that list than people expected, I am not so convinced that many teams had him in the top5, you need some teams having at 3 to increase his average for this to happen. MTL being part of that list could possibly explain all of that.

I hate that pick from the bottom of my heart. Yeah maybe he gets taken if you don't take him at 38th, a big maybe, but maybe not, most likely not, Russian defenseman playing in the MHL taken highly in recent years, I don't remember any, it isn't like he tear the league apart. Take the risk like any semi-intelligent team of scouts/GM would do. Tiniest balls I have seen in my life. I don't think he is any good, but that's not the point. Not moving down is poor asset management, poor judgment in regard to risk-taking. He didn't belong in the 2nd round. If you lose him, so be it, you still get a very good player at 38 (Hallander, Thomas, Wilde, Eriksson, Tychonick, etc, etc), if you get one of those but end up losing him, you can't be that sad about that unfortunate scenario, unless you think Romanov is the second coming of Karlsson, in both cases your look dumb to me.

 

[MadMslm]

He was no were to be found before that list came out. No scouting agency had him in the top100. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Romanov ended that high on that list because MTL was part of the teams who gave their list to Mckenzie. Having Romanov somewhere absurd like 20th overall, that's normally around what you draft from on your list when you have the 38th pick. We also got Olofsson, Hillis, McShane & Fonstad who were all higher on Mckenzie list than were we actually drafted them. Also, Kotkaniemi was higher on that list than people expected, I am not so convinced that many teams had him in the top5, you need some teams having at 3 to increase his average for this to happen. MTL being part of that list could possibly explain all of that.

I hate that pick from the bottom of my heart. Yeah maybe he gets taken if you don't take him at 38th, a big maybe, but maybe not, most likely not, Russian defenseman playing in the MHL taken highly in recent years in recent years, I don't remember any, it isn't like he tear the league apart. Take the risk like any none ******ed team of scouts/GM would do. Tiniest balls I have seen in my life. I don't think he is any good, but that's not the point. Not moving down is poor asset management, poor judgment in regard to risk-taking. He didn't belong in the 2nd round. If you lose him, so be it, you still get a very good player at 38 (Hallander, Thomas, Wilde, Eriksson, Tychonick, etc, etc), if you get one of those but end up losing him, you can't be that sad about that unfortunate scenario, unless you think Romanov is the 2nd coming of Karlsson, in both cases your look dumb to me.

Feels like one of McKenzie scout is a Habs scout.

Not sure what to think of that pick. I believe in Timmins and I haven't seen Romanov play, so really hard for me to forge an opinion on some highlights. He does seem to skate very well and move the puck. It feels like it's the type of player who can do everything well but nothing too spectacular. Would really like him to find his way to the WJC but I doubt it. It's the type of player who may stay in the shadows till he comes over.

 

[Goldenhands]

Not impressed with Romanov after watching a couple of his games... Fluid smooth and quick skater althought not particulary fast on straight line, can make good tape to tape passes, moves well with the puck, will go for a big hit as soon as he has a chance to but gets caught out of position at times too doing it, alot of work to do defensively, got beat one on one a couple of times, struggled a couple of times under pressure, decision making under pressure has to get alot better, his positioning and reads in his own zone hasnt impressed me much either and his offensive tools are I would say, limited, not bad, but nothing to write about either... Overall, a project to me, early second round seems a reach to me at this point... they probably really wanted a LHD at that spot and with McIsaac picked just before, Romanov was probably their next target at that position.. I dont like the fact that he is going to play in Russia for the next 2 yrs since those idiots are rolling 4 D pairings, what made my experience to watch him not very pleasant to say the least...

 

[Forsead]

I'm expecting no less than Vlad Konstantinov reincarnated.