Hockey

Adam Engstrom was the Habs’ best defenseman (ahead of David Reinbacher)
Mathis Therrien
Adam Engstrom was the Habs’ best defenseman (ahead of David Reinbacher)
Credit: Getty Images

Finally! Hockey was back in full swing last night, with the first game for the Montreal Canadiens' prospects, as they took on the Winnipeg Jets' hopefuls. The atmosphere at the Bell Centre was absolutely insane for a simple prospects game, which must have left many of the Habs' and Jets' young players speechless. It was a good hockey game, which the Habs' prospects unfortunately lost 4-3.

It's a shame we lost, or that we didn't get to go to overtime, but the important thing was to see the Habs' best prospects in action so we could analyze them. And in general, the big names all had a good game, apart from Ivan Demidov, who was simply in a class of his own, as he seemed to be playing against pee-wees.

Florian Xhekaj was very good alongside Demidov, as was Oliver Kapanen, and on the defensemen's side, it went well too. In fact, for me, Adam Engstrom was the Habs' best defenseman, ahead of David Reinbacher.

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The Swedish defenseman showed great things last night, bringing out all his qualities in every appearance. His excellent skating, his vision of the game, his calmness with the puck and his good defensive stick are all elements that stood out for me yesterday. And I repeat, for me, Engstrom was better than Reinbacher.

Obviously, the Austrian defenseman didn't have a bad game, on the contrary, as we saw several flashes from him, but I found that he was caught out much more often, including on this sequence where he looked like an orange cone.

It's only a rookie game, sure, but getting pantsed like that by a 23-year-old who just finished five seasons in the U.S. collegiate ranks and has scored just 10 points, including five goals, in 37 games isn't ideal.

Maybe I'm being hard on Reinbacher, but I just have a hard time seeing him as a fifth overall pick, when a guy like Adam Engstrom (3rd round pick – 92nd in 2022) stands out more.

Reinbacher's going to be good, but will he be as good as a fifth overall pick should be? That remains to be seen. Anyway, back to Engstrom, I really loved his fluidity on skates, and especially his calmness with the puck. He never panics, and he almost always makes the right decision, without getting out of position. If he keeps this up, he could seriously muddy the waters at training camp, as he really plays like a defenseman who can aspire to an NHL position as early as this year.

'En

– Unbelievable,

– Former Habs player fined.

– To be continued.

👟

– To be noted.

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