In the last twenty years, just four players under the age of 19 have scored 58+ goals in a single OHL season. Three of those four players were first-overall picks: Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, and John Tavares.
The fourth is Anthony Romani.
Unlike Kane, Stamkos, and Tavares, Romani wasn't a first-overall pick. He had to wait a little bit longer until the sixth round to hear his name called in the draft, selected 162nd overall by the Vancouver Canucks. There’s a simple reason why he lasted that long: when he scored 58 goals, he was in his second year of draft eligibility.
"I kind of had that chip on my shoulder."
In his first year of eligibility, Romani passed right through all seven rounds of the draft.
“After going undrafted last year, I kind of had that chip on my shoulder,” said Romani at the Canucks’ 2024 development camp. “I wanted to prove to teams what I am and what I’m capable of doing. I always had that confidence in myself and I think it was just more proving to the teams what I’m capable of doing.”
What Romani was capable of doing was dominating the OHL.
Romani’s 58 goals led the league and it’s important to remember that, even though he was in his second year of draft eligibility, he was still 18 years old for the entire season. He just turned 19 on July 12 and if he had been about two months younger, this would have been his first year of draft eligibility — the age cut-off for the draft is that players must be 18 by September 15.
More than just goals, Romani led all under-19 players in the OHL with 111 points. The next highest was Quentin Musty, a first-round pick from last year’s draft. In fact, Romani out-scored several first-round picks from 2023: Easton Cowan, Calum Ritchie, Oliver Bonk (to be fair, a defenceman), Colby Barlow, and even 10th-overall pick Dalibor Dvorsky.
When looking at Romani’s gaudy numbers, it’s easy to get carried away. Clearly, Romani isn’t comparable to Kane, Stamkos, and Tavares, who were singularly dynamic, game-breaking talents, who each jumped directly to the NHL after their draft years and quickly became stars in the NHL. Still, that’s nice company to be keeping.
It might be more fair to compare Romani to Tyler Toffoli and Nick Robertson, who scored 57 and 55 goals, respectively, in the OHL in their second years of draft eligibility. Those two forwards had a slower path to reaching and sticking in the NHL. Toffoli didn’t play full-time in the NHL until his fifth season after being drafted, while Robertson still spent nine games in the AHL this season, five seasons after his draft.
In other words, Romani likely has a long development path ahead of him. Still, both Toffoli and Robertson were drafted in the second round, so the Canucks arguably got second-round value out of a sixth-round pick.
“That was a goal of mine going into this year: I wanted a team to want me like that,” said Romani. “It was great to get picked by the Canucks…I’m going to try to prove them right and make them have a good pick.”
An analytics darling in limited minutes
So, why didn’t Romani get drafted in his first year of eligibility? There are several reasons why but one of the biggest is opportunity.
Last season, Romani scored 23 goals and 43 points in 66 games. While respectable, those are not the type of numbers that get a prospect drafted without a significant other dimension to their game.
But those numbers come with context — they didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Romani was playing on a deep North Bay Battalion team with a wealth of talented forwards. While other players in their draft year were playing big minutes on top lines, Romani was buried in the Battalion’s bottom six.
Romani was stuck behind forwards like Matvei Petrov, Kyle Jackson, Kyle McDonald, Nikita Tarasevich, Liam Arnsby, and Canucks prospect Josh Bloom on the depth chart, as well as Pasquale Zito before he was traded to the Windsor Spitfires. It’s not just that Romani was in the bottom six; he was frequently on the fourth line.
Another consequence of playing on a deep team is that Romani got limited opportunities on the power play. With just a little bit of time on the second power play unit, Romani had just 3 goals and 4 assists on the power play in 2022-23. He jumped up to 14 goals and 28 points on the power play this past season.
With limited minutes, it’s impressive that Romani even got to 23 goals in his draft year. In fact, he was secretly scoring goals at an elite rate at 5-on-5.
“Here’s an analytics darling,” read Romani’s profile from Elite Prospects in his draft year. “The mid-six winger was one of the OHL’s best even-strength finishers per 60, with his 1.56 equalling or surpassing Shane Wright, Sasha Pastujov, and Brennan Othmann.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all that Romani would rack up goals as his minutes increased.
"I had great linemates to help me out."
Petrov, Jackson, and McDonald all graduated from the OHL this past season and started their professional careers, while Tarasevich and Bloom joined other OHL teams, Tarasevich via trade and Bloom via assignment from the Canucks.
There was a question of where the offence would come from for the Battalion but Romani and his linemates, Dalyn Wakely and Owen Van Steensel, thoroughly answered that question. Promoted to the top line and the first power play unit, all three elevated their games.
It wasn’t just Romani erupting from 43 points to 111; Wakely jumped from 49 points to 104, while Van Steensel went from 11 goals and 28 points to 41 goals and 86 points. It should be noted that both Wakely and Van Steensel were in their third year of draft eligibility.
The setups by Wakely and Van Steensel played a big role in Romani’s breakout season, something that Romani readily acknowledges, but his finish also played a big role in his linemates racking up assists.
“I’m playing with great players. I was on a great team and I had great linemates to help me out, I couldn’t thank them more for that,” said Romani. “But I think also just building my confidence over the year. I got a little more opportunity going into this year and I think my confidence built and grew — just being comfortable having the puck on my stick and putting it in the back of the net.”
Romani and Wakely developed chemistry together at the end of the 2022-23 season on what was ostensibly the fourth line, though their third forward was often a top-six winger getting double-shifted for extra ice time. That’s when things started to click for Romani, as he put up 10 goals and 18 points in his final 18 games of the season.
It was a sign of things to come and perhaps an indication that if he had more ice time and opportunity in his draft year, he might have broken out a lot sooner and been drafted last year. That oversight by scouts last year was to the Canucks’ benefit this year.
"He was near-impossible for goaltenders to stop down the stretch."
With his high scoring rate in limited minutes and his elevation to a top-line role, Romani was a prime breakout candidate for this season. But no one saw Romani breaking out quite like this.
Even the Battalion's management, who had the most optimism about Romani's potential, didn't expect him to lead the OHL in goalscoring at such a young age.
"I’ve got to give John Winstanley, our assistant general manager, a lot of credit," said Battalion general manager Adam Dennis. "[Director of scouting] Charlie Abbott reminded us the other day that Johnny said, ‘At one point, Anthony Romani’s going to lead this league in scoring.’ Did we think it was going to be at 18? It’s early, for sure, but we knew that he was capable of this."
Elite Prospects’ Mitch Brown named Romani the CHL’s most improved player for his massive leap forward.
“I certainly didn't expect him to go from 43 points to 111, along with an OHL-leading 58 goals,” said Brown. “He was a standout play-builder, setting the table for his more productive linemates with transition passing, pace, and off-puck game. Now, he's a creator and finisher.”
It’s that finishing threat that made Romani so dangerous and makes him such an intriguing prospect.
Romani scored in every possible way last season. He finished off passing plays into open nets, yes, but he also undressed goaltenders with gorgeous dekes, went bar down from distance to beat goaltenders cleanly, banged in rebounds in the crease, sniped wrist shots in transition, and snapped one-timers past goaltenders on the power play.
“He was near-impossible for goaltenders to stop down the stretch, thanks to a blistering release and the uncanny ability to finish no matter where he is on the ice,” said Elite Prospects’ Lauren Kelly.
But Romani isn’t just a one-dimensional sniper. He’s an excellent playmaker, particularly in transition where he can hit teammates with long stretch passes, thread needles across the ice, or slip drop passes as he cuts through the middle. His dual threat of playmaking and goalscoring makes him a dangerous power play quarterback from the half-wall.
He’s no slouch defensively either, with Elite Prospects praising his “all-out defensive effort.”
“The work rate is ridiculous,” said Kelly in one scouting report. “Consistent breakups in the neutral zone through backpressure, always recovering pucks in the DZ and starting the breakout, working give-and-gos, using the middle of the ice.”
"I want to be a winner."
Romani still has a lot of development ahead of him before he can become an NHLer. He’s adept at using his exceptional hockey IQ to find open ice in the OHL but his skating needs work if he wants to do the same at the NHL level. Even more important is getting stronger and more physical to protect the puck, something the Canucks’ coaching staff emphasized to him at development camp.
“A lot of the focus of what we were talking about was engaging in body position,” said Romani. “That’s a big thing in the NHL and they were really keen on that. The Sedins were really good at it. They told us, they were only 180 [lbs] playing in the NHL, so they had to use their body position and stuff like that to win battles.”
That’s the focus for Romani as he heads back to the OHL next season, looking to build on his breakout year: get bigger, stronger, and more well-rounded as a player. But Romani also has another goal to focus on.
“Definitely, my main goal is to win,” said Romani. “I haven’t won in the OHL yet, so that’s my goal going into next year — I want to be a winner.”
