This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2025-26 report →
Alexander Romanov
New York Islanders Defense
Plus-23 on a club that was outshot by all but seven others, and 2 per cent of his attempts from inside twenty feet.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-21 | MTL | 54 | 1 | 5 | 6 | +1 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 71 | 1.4 | 17:15 |
| 2021-22 | MTL | 79 | 3 | 10 | 13 | -9 | 53 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 107 | 2.8 | 20:24 |
| 2022-23 | NYI | 76 | 2 | 20 | 22 | +13 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 2.0 | 19:27 |
| 2023-24 | NYI | 81 | 7 | 15 | 22 | +23 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 117 | 6.0 | 20:50 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 290 | 13 | 50 | 63 | +28 | 137 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 395 | 3.3 | 19:41 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
81 games, 7 goals and 15 assists for 22 points, 20 penalty minutes, 20:50 a night and plus-23. He took 48.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,504 minutes, the 42nd percentile, and his ice went 66-50 against an expectation of 62.12-65.75.
Four goals of finishing above what the chances were worth and sixteen fewer conceded than they called for — the largest goaltending gain of anybody on this roster. The plus-23 is the best mark on the club and a good deal of it belongs to Ilya Sorokin.
The Finesse Game
162 attempts at a median of 57 feet, with 2 per cent from inside twenty and 81 per cent from beyond forty, 117 on goal, converted at 6.0 per cent.
50 career assists in 290 games. That is the shot chart of a defenceman who has been told to put it at the net from the point and go back to work, and he has agreed. There is no carrying and the first pass is functional rather than good.
The Physical Game
He hits everything at 6-1 and 220 and finishes every check he starts.
137 career penalty minutes in 290 games is a low rate for a man who plays this way. He clears the crease, blocks shots, kills penalties, and cannot be moved from in front of his own net.
The Intangibles
A second-round pick in 2018 by Montreal, out of Moscow, four seasons across two organisations, and 63 points in 290 games at a career plus-28.
He is 24 and played 20:50 a night for eighty-one games. On a club whose two best defensive defencemen each missed twenty-four games, he took the load and finished plus-23.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 1,504 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48.6%
- 43rd pct
- Shot attempts
- 46%
- 22nd pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 66 for, 50 against. Expected: 62.1 and 65.8.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 28 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 415 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 70 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 · 1504 minutes at five-on-five
- Noah Dobson48%
- Ryan Pulock34%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- NYI took 49.1% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.6% — 0.5 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,504 minutes at five-on-five — 97th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noah Dobson | 49.8% | 47.4% | 49.5% |
| Ryan Pulock | 48.6% | 48.6% | 49.4% |
| Mathew Barzal | 49.2% | 48.3% | 55.0% |
49.8% together, 47.4% for him apart and 49.5% for Dobson apart. Splitting them up moved neither man. Whatever is driving the share, it is not this pairing.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
162 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 7 of them goals. His median goal came from 35 feet. 2% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 81% from beyond forty.