There’s no denying it: David Reinbacher’s first post-draft season could not have gone worse. His team in the Swiss National League, EHC Kloten, went through two coaching changes and had to stave off relegation, and Reinbacher had to deal with systems that just didn’t work for him.
For more info on that, I invite you to read Patrik Bexell’s season review, the work of the amazing Thibaud Chatel, and the in-depth analysis of David St-Louis on Reinbacher’s season in Kloten (paywalled). On my end, I’ll focus on a different matter: what comes next? The objective is to come up with a game plan for his immediate and long-term future that maximizes his odds of reaching the peak of his potential.
After watching Reinbacher play a dozen times for Kloten, I took some time this weekend to sit down and watch his first three games in a Laval Rocket uniform, against the Belleville Senators on Friday and Saturday, then against the Toronto Marlies on Sunday. Talk about a baptism by fire.
We’ll start with a breakdown of the performances themselves: a beautiful game-tying goal, a secondary assist, a ton of great defensive work, and contributions in all three zones leading to Laval sweeping a three-in-three on the road for the first time in franchise history. Not bad.
Despite playing on a “third pair” with Olivier Galipeau (all three defence pairs were being rotated fairly equally by Jean-François Houle), Reinbacher left a great first impression. As expected, he struggled in his first shifts to figure out the balance between aggression and poise, but that didn’t last long. A couple of conversations with Houle on the bench, along with Reinbacher’s inherent adaptability, led to a consistently better output in his second and third periods.
Reinbacher also played his best game on Sunday against the Marlies, a match that started only 21 hours after the second game of a back-to-back. He showed no signs of exhaustion, pacing himself well throughout the match and frequently jumping into offensive rushes, which led to him being on the ice for three of the four Rocket goals in a 4-1 win.
These offensive activations aren’t anything new. With Kloten, Reinbacher would jump up in the neutral zone to intercept a pass, skate the puck up, drop it off at the offensive-zone blue line, and then continue his route to the net. The difference is that now he’s playing with stronger finishers who can capitalize on the advantages and confusion he creates.
This is an element that has been present since last year, but Reinbacher didn’t further explore his activation game this season due to Kloten’s static blue-line system; a dump-and-chase style that didn’t utilize neutral-zone speed. His passing improved, however, especially from the offensive-zone blue line. He’s been pushing up the boards after making a high slot pass to get the puck back, popping up and timing his runs on the weak side more frequently and accurately, and has improved his overall accuracy.
What’s next?
What makes Reinbacher an interesting prospect is how clear the development objectives are with him. He’s a mobile, rangy blue-liner who plays with aggression on both sides of the puck. His reads are solid, he has decent vision, and he makes quick decisions with his back to the play. These areas don’t need much polishing.
But don’t let his first non-empty-net goal of the 2023-24 season fool you: Reinbacher’s handling still needs to take a step up. Although his top-hand elbow is much less frequently glued to his hip, allowing him more range of motion, he’s still figuring out what to do with that increased range. Improving his ability to catch pucks inside pivots or while accelerating will greatly improve his breakout game and offensive-zone connectivity.
I don’t think Reinbacher will ever be an offensive dynamo. The shot is decent, the passing, vision, and accuracy are solid, but both are unspectacular. Trying to make Reinbacher something he’s not would be a waste of development time and energy. Tweaking these things in small ways that make him more effective — teaching him how to blend fakes and look-offs into his passes, helping him learn to hide his intentions offensively, and more — is the way forward to unlocking 40- to 50-point upside. And that’s where Lane Hutson comes in.
I think Hutson is tailor-made for Reinbacher’s game. The intentional aspects in which Hutson excels are exactly the things that Reinbacher needs to be pushed to develop. Activating offensively, extending his puck touches, drawing players into him to open up passing lanes, creating advantages with every move and pass, these are elements Reinbacher can watch up close and incorporate into his game.
Hutson’s habits might also entice Reinbacher to try things he normally wouldn’t. The Habs’ 62nd overall pick in 2022 has an uncanny ability to give his teammates cues with his body language and posture. He can show Reinbacher when and where to activate by directing him into the right spots in the offensive zone, offering him the time and space to explore his offensive game with frequent puck touches near the dots. We saw glimpses of that when the two were paired together at the Habs’ 2023 rookie camp, Reinbacher moving off the puck and Hutson setting him up, and sometimes the opposite.
As far as the immediate future goes, I would glue the two at the hip — at least at the AHL level. Give them both six to nine months to test things out, build chemistry, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and call them up together. If the pair doesn’t work at the NHL level, there are options. Hutson-Kaiden Guhle, Mike Matheson-Reinbacher, Guhle-Reinbacher, Hutson-Jayden Struble … lots to choose from and figure out once they’re there. But as long as the two are playing in the AHL, there’s no reason to split them up.
Hutson and Logan Mailloux would be way too chaotic. It might also put either one of them in a situation where they’re on their heels, wondering what the other is going to do. William Trudeau – Reinbacher could work and might entice Reinbacher to go on offensive adventures more consistently, but that means your two most defensively cerebral defencemen are on the same pair. That’s going to leave holes in the D core when it comes to reliability.
Hutson-Reinbacher is the solution, both to develop the pair and offer competitiveness throughout the Rocket lineup. It’ll require patience, but it’ll result in considerable dividends development-wise for the Habs’ two best prospects.
On his own, I’d put an emphasis on drills that force Reinbacher to hold onto pucks and make plays in motion. Blue-line reception, lateral movement to attract coverage, give-and-go to the hashmarks, inside deke to the mid-slot, pass or shoot, if he can incorporate these motions into his habits frequently and accurately, there’s considerable room for growth. On the defensive side, teaching Reinbacher to add forward skating to his defensive arsenal — “surfing” the carrier instead of pinching on him — would allow Hutson to get back in plays and help him improve his ability to slow down opposing transitions.
That’s my game plan, but then again, I’m just a scouting director with a passion for player development. I’m sure Adam Nicholas has his own plans forming, and he’s proven to be a genius.
Either way, the Habs’ pipeline is in great hands, and it’s only up from here for Reinbacher. All he needs is half a year or a full season getting familiar with Hutson’s game, and the Habs could have one of their top two pairs locked down for the next 15 years.
Thanks for reading — follow me on Twitter @HadiK_Scouting for more prospects-related content, and to keep up with the rest of my work!
