The Montreal Canadiens started the 2020-21 season with two rookies on their roster. Through the first five games, Alexander Romanov and Jake Evans have looked like anything but. However, their roads to the NHL could not have been more different.
While Romanov ascended quickly up the prospect rankings (both for the Canadiens and league-wide), Evans took the slow road.
At 24 years old, Evans is on the older side to be a rookie. In fact, of the 62 rookies to play a game in the 2020-21 NHL season, only 12 are older. He is closer in age to Jonathan Drouin and Artturi Lehkonen, in their seventh and fifth NHL seasons respectively, than he is to Romanov.