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David Reinbacher: the Coyotes visited him 27 times in Europe

 Manuel Sperandio-Lemay
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David Reinbacher: the Coyotes visited him 27 times in Europe

Now that the 2023 draft is behind us, it’s time to analyze everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours. Earlier this afternoon , Igave you alengthy analysis of my impressions of the CH draft.

Clearly, when we look at the 2023 vintage with the Habs, we agree that it’s going to pass or it’s going to break depending on two things: will one of the three goalies drafted today become the team’s goalie of the future and will David Reinbacher become a true #1 defenseman.

If these two criteria are met, it will be a satisfying draft. If not, it won’t be. It’s as simple as that.

And since he was the fifth pick of the auction, Reinbacher may be the one under the most pressure right now. Many fans wanted Matvei Michkov or Ryan Leonard in the fifth spot, but the CH opted for a defenseman, without having decided to go down in the draft.

We suspected that the Coyotes wanted him sixth, which explains why the Tricolore didn’t want to go down. But how badly did they want him? In fact, on today’s Tellement field hockey podcast, Alexandre Gascon revealed that the Arizona team went to see Reinbacher play no less than 27 times in Europe.

Clearly, the Coyotes had every intention of selecting him if he fell into their laps at No. 6. You’re not going to see a player that often if he doesn’t interest you very much, we agree.

In the end, the Coyotes had to focus on Dmitri Simashev, another good defenseman but a notch below Reinbacher. But the Arizona outfit likely believes in the scenario where Reinbacher has the potential to become a player in the Moritz Seider mold.

Because his ceiling, if all goes well in the best of worlds, is to be a player in the genre.

And when Reinbacher is compared to his idol Roman Josi and David Jiricek, he continues to look good. Thubaud Chatel notes that the CH’s new prospect had, by his model, a better pre-draft season than those two and Seider.

In terms of advanced statistics, everything is a green light in his case.

Reinbacher is a real quality prospect on the blue line. At worst, he should be able to hold his own on a top-4, but he also has the potential to be a good #1 defenseman.

Still, everything has to go right, and I still think the CH needed a big forward prospect more than anything, but Reinbacher remains a guy with big potential.

And it’s clear that Montreal loves him. All the team’s scouts agreed to select him fifth overall, and we’ll recall that they pushed Kent Hughes to keep his fifth pick last night in order to select the defenseman.

The decision was truly unanimous, according to Martin Lapointe.

I can’t wait to see what Reinbacher can offer the CH over the next few years. While I’m still not completely sold on the selection, I’d love nothing more than to see him prove me wrong.

And if he does (and Michkov and Leonard don’t live up to expectations), I’ll be the first to apologize.


In bursts

– Speaking of Reinbacher.

– I’m thinking the same thing.

– That’s right.

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