Montreal Canadiens Select David Reinbacher 5th Overall

The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2023 NHL Draft with the 5th overall selection. There were plenty of rumours leading up to the pick that they were looking to move down and add a couple more picks later in the draft, but they chose not to do so.

Instead, they picked David Reinbacher with the 5th overall pick.

Reinbacher is a big, right shot defenseman who played in the top pro league in Switzerland last season. He is a defense first player who projects to be a reliable defender that can eat up minutes while shutting down the opposition.

The 6’2″ and 187 pound blue liner had three goals and 22 points in 46 games last season. He is a good skater for his size and plays a smart positional defensive game that allows him to keep the opponents from creating offensive scoring chances. While he is intelligent and good defensively with good size, his offensive game isn’t as developed.

The Austrian native also played five games at the World Juniors last winter, scoring two points while playing a ton of minutes for an overmatched team.

While his overall game style and skills translate well to the NHL level, Reinbacher is not the flashiest player in the draft. His offensive skills include decent puck moving skills up the ice and good skating, but he doesn’t have a booming shot or an ability to stickhandle around defenders.

Of course, a solid, smart two-way right defender might be exactly what Lane Hutson needs beside him when he gets to the NHL level. Hutson is a super skilled offensive minded defenseman and perhaps Reinbacher is the right fit alongside him.

A couple of big right shot defenders that went early in the draft recently, like Moritz Seider and David Jiricek have proven to be better than anticipated when they made the journey to North America.

If Reinbacher can follow in their footsteps, the Canadiens will have a very steady and reliable defenseman.

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