Vancouver Canucks’ recent draft pick Anthony Romani is coming off his best season in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) where the forward scored a league-leading 58 goals and second-best 111 points behind Seattle Kraken prospect David Goyette. The North Bay Battalion forward put together a season for the ages but fell to the Canucks in the sixth round due to him being an overaged player that went undrafted in 2023. Vancouver made Romani’s NHL dreams a reality by selecting him in Vegas and the 19-year-old hopes to become a big piece of the team’s future and make a good impression at the U-20 Hockey Canada camp he will take part in from July 28-Aug 3 in Windsor, Ontario.
Draft Day and Development Camp
Draft day is obviously a nerve-wracking day for all players involved. It is the day that your life can change as it determines which team you could potentially play for in the NHL. The worst part is the waiting in your chair. In Romani’s case, he waited for five whole rounds without hearing his name. He started to get a bit nervous while sitting in the stands. “You get a little antsy while sitting there,” Romani said waiting to hear his name get called. “I was confident that I would hear my name get called but I just wanted to know when and where so that was a little nerve-wracking.” But once Romani heard his name he felt so much relief and excitement about joining the Canucks organization. He had a few conversations with the Vancouver staff prior to the draft so the team was on his radar as a potential landing spot. “When I heard it was [the Canucks] I couldn’t be happier.”
Once the draft concluded, Romani was sent on a short flight from Vegas to Vancouver for Canucks development camp. While at camp, Romani was able to learn from members of the player development staff like the Sedin twins and Mikael Samuelsson. He referred to the experience of being at development camp as wanting to “be like a sponge” so that you can suck up every little detail and lesson from all the staff involved. “It was a big learning experience for me,” said the forward. “You’re just trying to soak in everything and try to be a sponge and try to soak in everything [the staff] is teaching us.”
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Romani and the rest of the rookies got the amazing opportunity to work with the Sedin twins and learn from their experiences. As a kid who grew up in the 2010s, Romani was in disbelief that he was standing next to both twins. “It was pretty surreal,” Romani said about learning from the twins. “Sometimes I thought ‘I’m beside Daniel and Henrik Sedin’ and I just could not believe it.”
Romani also mentioned that the Sedins were able to complete the famous Grouse Grind in much faster times than the rookies. The camp was a great experience for Romani, he learned a lot and soaked in as much information as he could. One thing that he took from camp that he hopes to take with him into his next season in North Bay is to focus on the present and not the future. “[You need to] make sure that you come into the gym or the rink every day ready to be the hardest worker and just focus on the things that you can do to get better and not focus on things too far ahead.”
Hockey Canada Camp
On July 16, Hockey Canada announced their list for their upcoming U-20 summer camp that will take place in Windsor, Ontario. This camp is just a small taste of what Canada’s World Junior Team may look like come Christmas time and Romani was lucky enough to be invited to the camp. He will have the chance to learn from and compete with some of the best U-20 players from all of Canada like Brayden Yager, Matthew Wood, and Calum Ritchie. The camp is by no means a tryout for the team, but with Hockey Canada inviting him means that the coaches like his game.
“I’m super excited, It’s an honour to represent your country…hopefully, I can be on the team come Christmas time.” With this just being a camp, Romani does not have the stress of potentially being cut as if it were a tryout. So he has the chance to leave a good impression on the coaches before he goes back to North Bay and is potentially given the opportunity to try out for the World Junior Team in December. “I want to showcase myself and prove what I am capable of doing. My number one goal is to show what I can do and I want to learn from what the Hockey Canada guys have to say.”
Romani will also be attending this camp with a few familiar faces. He played minor hockey with the Toronto Junior Canadiens along with Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf, Blue Jackets prospect Luca Pinelli, and new Flames top prospect Zayne Parekh. All of those players were also named to camp as well. “I still keep in touch with them all the time, we’re all close friends still so it’s pretty cool that the four of us all got invited to camp.” It’s always nice to come into a camp like this with familiar faces and for Romani to link up with some old friends may create some old chemistry for both him and his former JRC teammates.
Romani proved his doubters wrong last season as he put together one of the best OHL seasons for an undrafted player in many years. He was rewarded by being selected by the Canucks and will now look to accomplish more goals in the 2024-25 hockey season.
