Montreal Canadiens
Montreal Canadiens Pick Reinbacher 5th Overall At The 2023 NHL Draft
The Montreal Canadiens have made their long-awaited first-round pick at the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. There’s been much ink spilled as to their intentions, with the drama slowly escalating in the days prior to the draft.
With Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, Leo Carlsson, and Will Smith chosen with the first four picks, the Canadiens were left with a few interesting options, including Matvei Michkov, Ryan Leonard, David Reinbacher, and Zach Benson.
They also had the option to trade down, given that several teams were reportedly interested in acquiring the Canadiens’ 5th overall pick.
But the Canadiens opted to make a choice, selecting defenceman David Reinbacher.
Reinbacher is a very talented defenceman with a well-rounded skill set. He was not originally considered a top prospect at the 2023 Draft, but he quickly jumped up the rankings in the second half of the season. He is the highest-drafted Austrian in the history of the NHL Draft.
He spent the entire season with Kloten in the Swiss league, which means he’s adept at playing professional hockey. In 46 games, the defenceman scored 3 goals and 19 assists.
We’ll publish an in-depth report on his strengths and weaknesses very shortly, stay tuned!
More to come…
The Montreal Canadiens moved two of their best picks this draft, the 31st and 37th overall picks, in exchange for Alex Newhook, which means they will not make any picks in the second round of Thursday’s draft. Newhook, 22, is joining the Canadiens from the Colorado Avalanche. He should serve as a depth forward for the team, however, given his age and style of play, there could be significant potential left to tap.
With the two picks removed from their draft list, the Canadiens have eight picks remaining in the 2023 NHL Draft: the 69th, 101st, 110th, 128th, 133rd, 144th, 165th, and 196th overall picks.
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As I wished for! Love it! Filled the biggest need on this team.
Actually, I was hoping they would trade down and get a haul for that #5 pick, but I guess all those “rumors” were just crap invented by the media or GMs to overinflate their picks.
Reinbacher’s junior stats compare closely to that of Erik Karlsson’s junior stats, maybe just a tad lower. Not saying Rein will become Karlsson, but they are somewhat similar at the same points at that age. Karlsson was probably a bit more dynamic offensively, but Rein is bigger and hits more and plays D better.
Wow, imagine Rein/Mailloux as 1A and 1B on the right side D for years to come…
and thank the hockey gods they did not take Mich!
And exactly what are his junior stats?
You can feel free to look them up on your own. Karlson’s offensive stats were a little better but Reinbacher is bigger and plays D better.
I thought he played the last 2 seasons in the swiss pro league
Major disappointment for me in THIS draft. Considering we already have Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj, Barron, Mailloux, Hutson and Engstrom (among others) in the system, and are desperate for elite finishers, passing on Michkov, or even Leonard, is just the wrong pick for what our team needs.
Our team desperately needed a right shot right defenseman. Or haven’t you been following the events of the past couple of seasons? Ever since Shea Weber went down and Petry was traded, there was almost nothing on the right side. And at this point, other than Mailloux, the cupboards are pretty much dry on the right side. It proves my point that experimenting with defenseman moving them from one side to another on their offhand, doesn’t always work.
Our defense now and the pipeline of Engstrom and Hudson and Mailloux and Reinbacher, that is as deep as you can get on defense. In two or three years, that’s going to be something special. Until then we all have to be patient. We have to clean up our salary cap too and get rid of unwanted players who are overpaid and don’t fit the program. I’m sure next year the Elite Sniper that we all want and desire will be number one on the radar.
We’ll have to disagree on “desperation”. I think the whole left shot/right shot debate is so overblown. All we need to do is put 6 good D on the ice that can do the job. We already have that and much more. Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj, Barron, Mailloux and Kovacevic, not to mention a star in Matheson already here and two pretty great looking ones on the way in Hutson and Engstrom (plus a whole bunch of others). Defence is the position we have the greatest depth at, whereas elite finishers is an area that we truly are desperate to add. Caufield isn’t enough on his own. Adding a guy like Michkov is going to also help our woeful PP more than Reinbacher will. I have nothing against Reinbacher, but he’s just not the player we needed at this time and especially from this draft. As for finding an elite finisher in next year’s draft, it’s very unlikely we’ll be drafting in the top 5 again. Next year’s draft is flush in great D prospacts and this year it was offensive players. We just did it backwards.