David Reinbacher’s arrival: Mattias Norlinder too much in training

That’s it: David Reinbacher is in Laval.

The Rocket defenseman (do you like those words to describe the Habs prospect?) not only took part in the club’s official photo, he also took part in the team’s training session.

The aim of the game? To prepare him for Friday’s game in Belleville.

Obviously, there were more journalists than usual in Laval. With a prospect of this calibre coming to town, there’s bound to be different media coverage.

Here are some images, courtesy of Jeremy Filosa.

First images of Reinbacher training with @RocketLaval

Topo to come on the news and with @kick1972 around 3:20pm. @985Sports pic.twitter.com/QBEovJOeZc

– Jeremy Filosa (@JeremyFilosa) March 19, 2024

It was going to be interesting to note which defender the Austrian was going to train with. Would he get a big playing partner for his first training session in town?

Even if it was only a training session, his training partner was a clue as to the club’s intentions.

It’s worth noting that the young defenseman trained with Tobie Paquette-Bisson. This leads us to believe that he will get quality minutes.

After all, Paquette-Bisson has a good role to play at Laval.

Not surprisingly, Logan Mailloux and William Trudeau, two excellent Laval defenders, were still together… and that pushed Justin Barron along with Olivier Galipeau.

Galipeau and Barron look like a third pair. Barron (the only Rocket right-hander to have played in the NHL) must be pleased this morning…

But above all, Mattias Norlinder was surplus to requirements. That’s not to say it will be the case on Friday, but this morning he wasn’t in the top-6. He must be angry too.

The man sold as a future Norris is living on borrowed time in Quebec.

I can’t wait to see how much playing time each pair gets (if it stays that way), how much playing time on the power play (Barron should be ahead of Reinbacher at this point, in my opinion) and how Reinbacher’s time off will be handled.

This is just the beginning.

In gusto

– Rick Bowness has a health scare.

– Still.

– With good reason.