With the Montreal Canadiens’ season winding down, we start looking toward the draft. One of the top climbers of the year is Austria’s, and Swiss team Kloten’s, defenceman, David Reinbacher. In order to understand what the player brings to the draft table, we speak to Central Scouting’s Thomas Roost.
Reinbacher is being described as a well-rounded defenceman, with more of an offensive upside than previously thought. He is well-built, has good size, and has a good reach. However, the calling card, and the best asset, is his composure and patience, something that typically makes up the Hockey IQ category.
There has been some talk that he watches the play a bit too much; that he is a bit too calm, but Mr. Roost explains that it is part of Reinbacher’s personality, and the patience that has already been mentioned. It is something that would have to be worked on as the tempo becomes a lot faster in North America due to the level of opponents; Switzerland has mixed rinks as some of them are NHL-sized.
This season, Reinbacher’s first in the NLA, has seen the defenceman add another dimension to his game as his offence has been brought forward, especially the fact that “he gets pucks on net.” Last year, when Reinbacher played in NLB, he played a safe, sound game, especially as a 17-year-old in a pro league. The offence that has been seen this season has been an interesting development. The drawback with Reinbacher is that he has no standout skill. That’s neither positive nor negative, and it does mean that his projectability is good.
Having an NLA contract with Kloten means that he can go to the NHL or AHL already next year, but there are benefits to leaving him in Switzerland: short travels, and different-sized rinks will start the process of adjusting to the North American style of play, while still getting a lot of training in during the season. This, along with Kloten’s, new head coach being Montreal-born Gerry Fleming, means that a team could leave him in Switzerland in order to help Reinbacher’s development.
The next time Reinbacher will be in the spotlight is during the 2023 World Championship in Riga, Latvia and Tampere, Finland. While most scouts have made up their minds about the defenceman, it will still be a good way to re-evaluate him against more difficult competition.
You can listen to the full evaluation and explanation from Thomas Roost below:
