Just looking at the Reinbacher thread the night of the draft, virtually everywhere had him as a top-4 d-man & some as top pairing potential:
David Reinbacher - Elite Prospects
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Corey Pronman from The Athletic
Thoughts on the pick: In Reinbacher the Canadiens get a true premium defense prospect, a player with top pair potential and a chance to become a star if he really hits. Reinbacher immediately becomes the best defense talent in the Habs organization, and a future blue line with him, Kaiden Guhle, Logan Mailloux, Lane Hutson and Justin Barron looks like potentially a very good group. Reinbacher is a mobile, competitive defenseman with size and offensive upside.
Future Considerations had him #10:
Reinbacher is a big, right-handed two-way defenseman with strong skating ability and the potential to become a top pairing defenseman in the NHL. He is calm and confident when handling the puck, showing good awareness and problem-solving abilities in the defensive and neutral zones. Reinbacher has solid puck skills and can make accurate passes in all situations. While he may not have elite offensive potential, he could develop into a point man on the second power play with his passing game and ability to get shots off quickly. He uses his size and agility to beat forecheckers and skate the puck up ice, although his backward skating could use improvement. Defensively, he works with an active stick and makes good reads to extend possession in the offensive zone or break up plays early. He is also in a good supporting role off the puck, making himself an option or skating as a screen to create more time and space for the puck-carrier. However, he could be more aggressive in stopping the play on the defensive blue line and is not physically very strong for his size, making him less effective along the boards, though this can be improved with maturity. Reinbacher is a complete two-way defenseman who competes hard at both ends of the ice, although his puck skills are not elite and he mishandles the puck or executes a bad pass on occasion. Nonetheless, he possesses many above-average tools, including strong gap control and a strong shot. If a team believes he will develop into a No. 1 defenseman, he may go well above his draft projection.
Elite Prospects had him ranked 9th:
We placed the two top defencemen of the draft class after the three USNTDP forwards, as we believe there is a gap in upside between the two groups. The three forwards could all become top-line play-drivers and, while the two defencemen could also ascend to an NHL top-pair, their chance of that seems slightly smaller.
Teams will have more control over David Reinbacher’s development than Dmitri Simashev’s. Reinbacher is also more aggressive and confident in the offensive zone. These two qualities usually lead to faster and better development. For those reasons, and because Alanen pushed for it, we ranked Reinbacher a spot ahead.
There wasn’t a lot of fanfare for David Reinbacher coming into the year, but he’s slowly but surely distinguished himself for many in the industry as the best defenceman in the 2023 NHL Draft. Talk about a glow up.
You can’t say he didn’t earn it either. A full season spent in one of Europe’s most competitive men’s leagues, the Swiss NL. A top of the lineup role with Austria at the World Juniors and then another impressive albeit short run in his country’s colours at the World Championships. There aren’t many better indicators of NHL success than experience playing ahead of your age group – better still, playing productive hockey ahead of your age group – and Reinbacher has it in spades.
Further scrutiny revealed that he wasn’t just surviving those assignments – Reinbacher was a difference-maker at every level. He led EHC Kloten’s blue line in total minutes at even strength and escaped with a team-leading plus-five goal differential. It’s easy enough to see how Reinbacher generated those results. His game rests on a projectable, rock solid defensive foundation. As opponents attack through the neutral zone, he gaps up early, builds speed going backward to match that of the puck carrier, takes away the middle of the ice with his stick, and closes with force once he’s registered support.
Standing at 6-foot-2 and equipped with a skating stride that’s already a cut-above-average with room to get better – even when you’ve got Reinbacher beat in space, you don’t really. His defensive range allows him to recover on a moment’s notice should he commit early with his feet or find himself a step behind the play for any other sort of reason.
During in-zone play, Reinbacher excels in body-on-body scenarios, matching opponents footwork, driving through their hands or working a strong defensive stick to dispose them of the puck, sealing them off along the boards, and quickly transitioning from defence to offence. At the net-front, he easily boxes out opponents and wins rebounds and loose pucks with urgency and physicality.
He isn’t quite as sophisticated away from the puck. His understanding of defensive rotations and switches still very much a work in progress. But these things can come with time and the sort of structure that he’s likely to find himself in at the NHL level.
Reinbacher is already a capable puck-mover, able to explode past forecheckers, make a good first-pass, and even activate into the rush if the opportunity presents itself. He’ll need to become more deceptive on puck retrievals and develop a better feel for pressure for him to elevate that part of his game for NHL competition.
There were some moments – particularly late in the season and at the World Championships – that convinced us Reinbacher may have the offensive chops necessary to produce offence at a decent enough clip in the NHL, too. His handling is dicey and he’s not the most creative player with the puck, but he’s intelligent and has some developed some habits that should allow him to take advantage of his considerable tools at the next level. Give-and-goes, managing space off-puck, activating from the weak side, etc.
So you may not be likely to see Reinbacher sit atop the NHL defencemen’s leaderboard in scoring, but there’s a decent chance that he’ll generate enough offence to hang in a top-four role. Perhaps even on the high-end of that range.
So, when it comes to Reinbacher, you’re looking at a contemporary defensive defenceman that can move the puck with the potential to develop into a secondary scorer from the offensive blue line. That makes him one of the best defencemen in this draft, and a damn good bet to go a bit earlier than where he’s landed on our final board.
INDUSTRY CHATTER
“Best defender in the draft for me. More stay-at-home type for today’s game. Like he’s offensive, but I struggle to call him a great puck mover because of the standard we have for that now in the game.” - Western Conference scout, May 2023
“He’s good. I think he’s one of the three best defencemen in this draft. I think if you’re looking for an all-around guy who can do everything, you’re going to go with him.” – Eastern Conference scout, May 2023
“I think he’s fine in transition. I like his first pass and I think that sometimes he can just carry the puck up the ice like a natural when there isn’t a first pass option. I don’t think he has the ability to trick opponents at the blue line – look left and go right and vice-versa. I don’t think he has that. But he’s a really good all-around package. I can see a team taking him and plugging him into their second pair at some point. He’s going to be a cornerstone on your defence.” – Eastern Conference scout, May 2023
“He is the best defenceman I’ve seen. I like what I saw. Size, length in skating. Smart player. Not high end in any one area. There’s legit top-four upside. Moves pucks well. He jumps up ice. He creates odd-man chances 5-on-5. Probably secondary power play In the NHL. Penalty kill as well. Nothing flashy. Probably a valuable NHL defenseman. He’s done it against men and was good at the World Juniors.” – NHL scout, April 2023
