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Instant Analysis: Canadiens David Reinbacher Pick A ‘Safe’ Choice

Published

10 months ago

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Montreal Canadiens david reinbacher

It’s official, the Montreal Canadiens picked Austrian defenceman David Reinbacher with the 5th overall pick at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

The defenceman spent the last two seasons playing professional hockey in Switzerland, featuring on Kloten HC’s blueline. He projects as a solid two-way defenceman with limited offensive capabilities.

He can read the play quite well and is known to play with the confidence of a 10-year veteran. At times, he’s a little too confident, which leads to turnovers, but all young defencemen tend to have issues to work through at that age.

He’s not a particularly physical defenceman, even though he does have a 6’3″, 195 lbs frame. He will need to work on his core strength if he’s to thrive in the NHL, however, his impressive wingspan should serve him well.

His presence in the offensive zone is hard to ignore. Reinbacher has a heavy shot and is not afraid to use it. One thing Canadiens fans should hope to see is Reinbacher provide some help by quickly corralling and redistributing pucks, one of the most important aspects of any team that finds success in transition. He’s not what I would describe as an elite puck-moving defenceman today, but considering he’s quite young, there’s still a lot of time to develop his skillset.

His vision is excellent, though not necessarily to the point that we should compare him to Andrei Markov, but given the Canadiens were one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL over the last two years, it’s understandable the team would want to add a player of Reinbacher’s ilk to their prospect pool.

Questionable Pick?

Reinbacher projects to be a good player.

In fact, he projects to be a VERY good player.

The question becomes, did the Montreal Canadiens make a mistake by ignoring arguably the second-most talented player at the draft?

A player like Matvei Michkov is hard to come by, and to win a Stanley Cup you absolutely need several star players in your lineup.

Reinbacher is a ‘safe’ choice, but as it stands, it feels like the Canadiens took the riskiest decision of them all by ignoring Michkov

Time will tell whether Hughes and Co. made the right choice, but if Reinbacher fails to develop into an impact player, it will surely stain his tenure as general manager of the Canadiens.

Juraj Slafkovsky is also part of that equation. That’s not to say he’s a bust. He was used poorly last season and there’s ample time for him to become an impact player.

But if neither Slafkovsky nor Reinbacher reaches their potential, the Montreal Canadiens will have essentially thrown away an opportunity to add the type of talented players they desperately need at the NHL Draft.

And that’s a sin for any general manager.

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