The Montreal Canadiens Could Have The Two Best Austrian NHLers of All Time

The Buffalo Sabres made history in the 2003 NHL entry draft when they selected Thomas Vanek 5th overall. It was the highest a Austrian player had ever been drafted in the NHL by far. Before that, the highest Austrian drafted was Gregor Baumgartner, by the Montreal Canadiens at 37th overall in 1997. Baumgartner did not end up playing an NHL game.

In later years, Austrians have enjoyed more and more success on the ice, and have had some high-profile prospects coming up. Michael Grabner was taken 14th overall in 2006 by the Vancouver Canucks, and enjoyed a decent NHL career.

But lately the stocks of Austrian players have continued to rise. Marco Rossi was taken 9th overall in 2020 by the Wild, and finished 6th in Calder votes this year. Two years later, Marco Kasper went one spot earlier at 8th by the Detroit Red Wings. In the third round the Montreal Canadiens also took a swing on Vinzenz Rohrer, a swing that seems to be paying off.

But it took exactly twenty years after Vanek's historic drafting that another Austrian went just as high, and that was done by the Montreal Canadiens when they picked David Reinbacher. Reinbacher has a long career ahead of him, but it will take a lot to dethrone Vanek.

Thomas Vanek had a really strong start to his career in Buffalo. He peaked early, having his best statistical season of his career in just his sophmore season, scoring 43 goals and 84 points in 82 games. Not to say that he slouched for the rest of his time in Buffalo, scoring over 30 goals in 7 seasons, and not being able to record 60 points in just one season during that time.

He was even good enough to be co-captain of the Sabres, along with fellow future Montreal Canadiens trade deadline rental Steve Ott. The problem was that the Sabres were not good, and had not been good for a little while (spoilers: they won't be good again for a long, long time; maybe ever again apparently), and hadn't made it out of the first round of the playoffs for 7 years, during Vanek's second season.

So the Sabres moved on from Vanek, sending him to the Islanders to play with a young John Tavares. He actually stated that his line with Tavares and Kyle Okposo was the best line he ever played with, but due to an injury to Tavares and the team moving from Long Island, Vanek was unwilling to resign, and was dealt to the Canadiens, who were looking at making a playoff push.

In a short time, Vanek was pretty productive for the Habs, scoring 6 goals and 15 points in 18 regular season games. His 10 points in the playoffs were okay, but a -4 and a lack of even strength production was criticized. The Habs made it far, to the Eastern Conference Final, but that was the year Price was injured, and the New York Rangers won the series.

Taken on strictly as a rental, Vanek was not signed by the Habs, but instead went to Minnesota, where he would fail to live up to his contract, and was bought out in the last season of the deal. He would then bounce between one year deals on the Red Wings, Panthers, Canucks and Blue Jackets, before finishing his career back in Detroit.

All said and done, Vanek played 1,029 games and recorded 373 goals and 789 points over his whole career. Despite peaking early in his career with the Sabres, he could still put up some decent secondary scoring, its just that everyone had higher expectations after those first couple of years.

Vanek's other claim to fame is that he tied Cy Denneny, for the most consecutive natural hat-tricks with 4 (hat-tricks where no goals were scored between the three scored by the hat-tricker).

So, what are the odds that the Montreal Canadiens have another all-time great Austrian on their roster right now? Reinbacher was selected at the exact same draft position as Vanek, exactly 20 years later.

It will be hard to compare the two, as they represent two completely different players. Vanek was an offensive sniper and goal-scorer, and David Reinbacher is a two-way defender, who shines in his own zone and can potentially put some points on the board.

Its easy to see Reinbacher translating really well to the NHL and matching Vanek in games played at just over 1,000. Points would be a different story, as its hard to see Reinbacher matching Vanek's pace in goals and points, but his worth will be measured in other ways.

Far future will always favor Vanek, as numbers always look good, and if you haven't seen either player play, you naturally gravitate to the player with the most points, and Vanek will almost certainly have that on Reinbacher. But Vanek's career was very front-loaded, and Reinbacher has all the hallmarks of a steady, minute-munching, long career defenseman. He might not reach the heights of Vanek's early seasons, but should have a more consistent career.

I don't know if Reinbacher can cleanly surpass Vanek as the greatest Austrian NHLer of all time, and Marco Rossi has had a good start to his career with the Wild, so time will tell. But having two of the greatest NHL players from a nation is not something many teams can say.