Injuries have plagued the Montreal Canadiens throughout the season, but as soon as it looked like the team would be fully healed heading into the playoffs, they were hit with arguably the worst injury possible. The Canadiens were already dealing with injuries to Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier when Noah Dobson went down with a broken finger in the game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Dobson's injury opened the door for David Reinbacher to make his NHL debut, who had a very good year with the Laval Rocket. Both Guhle and Carrier should be back for the start of the playoffs, but Dobson is most likely going to miss the start of the series. The Canadiens practice lines suggest they will go with Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble as the bottom pairing, but with both having struggled this season, it is entirely possible we could see Reinbacher make an appearance in the playoffs.
Time to buy Reinbacher stocks
When the Canadiens took Reinbacher with the fifth overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, the selection was not well-received. Many fans wanted the Canadiens to take Matvei Michkov, who was falling in the draft due to his contract situation in Russia. Reinbacher’s availability has not done him any favours. After finishing the 2023-24 season with the Rocket after coming over from the National League, Reinbacher only played 10 games in his first full season in the AHL due to a knee injury that sidelined him for most of the year. The injuries continued at the start of this season, when he missed a month after breaking a bone in his hand during a preseason game.
Reinbacher made his season debut on Halloween and rarely left the Rocket’s lineup after that, playing 57 games, recording five goals and 24 points. While Reinbacher’s game is not as flashy as someone like Lane Hutson, he is a very responsible defender and can move the puck up the ice in transition with his vision and passing.
He finally made his much-anticipated NHL debut with two games left in the season, which appeared to be because of Dobson’s injury, but reports were that the Canadiens always planned to give him a trial run at the end of the season, despite the injury. Reinbacher looked good in the two games he played this season, averaging 13:09 time on ice per game and picked up his first career point in his debut against the New York Islanders. Reinbacher’s future in Montreal looks promising, and if he could just work on using his 6’3” frame to his advantage, it will not be long before he becomes a regular in the Canadiens lineup.
Canadiens' lack of right-handed defencemen with Dobson out
The Canadiens have an abundance of left-shot defencemen, but when Carrier and Dobson were out of the lineup at the end of the season, Reinbacher was the only one out of Montreal’s defensive group who was a right-handed shot. With Carrier, more than likely making his return to the lineup when the Canadiens take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Montreal will be deploying five left-shot defencemen in their lineup. We have seen the Canadiens play defenceman on their off-hand side all season, but against a Stanley Cup–seasoned roster, it could be something that they try to expose to their advantage.
If the Lightning embarrasses the Canadiens in game one, specifically Montreal’s bottom pairing of Xhekaj and Struble, they will not have a lot of time to let the players figure it out until Dobson hopefully returns to the lineup and could reintroduce Reinbacher as a way to balance out their defence. It is asking a lot for a defenceman who has played just two games in his NHL career. We have seen the Canadiens do it before, as recently as Ivan Demidov last season, who played two games before making his playoff debut. We also saw it in the 2009-10 season when a young P.K. Subban entered the lineup with just two NHL games played and became a crucial member of a team that went to the Eastern Conference Final. It is asking a lot from the young Austrian defender, but if he is called on, the Canadiens will need him to step up in a big way.
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