Canadiens prospect David Reinbacher finds footing after injury skid
David Reinbacher should reach a milestone this weekend. The Laval Rocket defenceman is expected to play his 12th regular-season game on Sunday at Hershey.
Although Reinbacher is almost two years into his pro career, he only has 44 career games — including playoffs — to his credit due to injuries. He hasn’t played more than 11 regular-season games in any season.
Selected fifth overall by the Canadiens in 2023, the Austrian suffered a serious knee injury that required surgery in an exhibition game against Toronto last season and didn’t return until February. This year, in another pre-season match against the Maple Leafs, he suffered a broken hand after blocking a shot.
Reinbacher, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, missed four weeks, making his AHL debut on Oct. 31 against Rochester. Reinbacher is coming off a productive weekend against Belleville. He had a goal and an assist last Friday and he scored twice in Laval’s 7-2 victory on on Saturday.
“One or two times you think, ‘Why is it me?’ ” Reinbacher said this week after practice. “But it’s not in your hands. It’s God’s decision. One door closes and another opens up. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Make the best of it. Stand up again.
“I wouldn’t call these setbacks,” added Reinbacher, 21. “For sure, I missed some time, but you learn on the other side. You grow as a human. You grow from a kid to a man. That was important, for sure, for my development.”
Reinbacher has three goals and seven points in 10 games and can expect to be counted on heavily this weekend and perhaps beyond. Laval’s two-game road trip begins Saturday night against Lehigh Valley, and the team is without Adam Engstrom, who was promoted to the Canadiens and made his NHL debut on Wednesday against Utah.
Reinbacher knows his time with the Canadiens will come as well and, as a right-handed shot, will provide a useful commodity on a team stacked with left-shooting defencemen. But Reinbacher needs to gain experience and stack some AHL games. He has been paired with William Trudeau of late.
Laval Rocket defenceman David Reinbacher shoots during practice in Laval on May 27.
“I see the big picture,” Reinbacher said. “It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. You have a long career, hopefully. I don’t want to go up there and get sent down again. I want to go up and stay for a long, long time. Go up there and have success with the team.
“For sure, it’s still a long way to go. I think we’re getting there slowly; time will tell. If I continue to be consistent on the ice and have good performances — especially in the defensive zone — make plays and bring my A game, I think it will come sooner rather than later. I don’t want to look too far into the future. That’s not good for yourself.”
While Reinbacher’s knee has fully recovered — he also suffered a knee injury at the start of the 2023-24 season while playing in the Swiss League — he admitted at the Canadiens’ training camp last September that the injury remained in the back of his mind.
Laval head coach Pascal Vincent denied the prospect is injury-prone.
“The first one, he’s making a play and gets hit,” Vincent explained. “He’s willing to take hits to make plays. It was in the neutral zone. The other one, he’s blocking a shot. That’s what we ask from all of our players. He just got unlucky. He’s pretty tough on himself and his body. It just happened that way. I hope in five years, we won’t even remember this.”
There’s no doubt Reinbacher can create offence and it was one of the primary reasons he was selected so high. Now, he must develop a thorough two-way game and become sound defensively. Reinbacher also realizes there will be pressure to meet expectations, but appears mature enough to handle those.
Vincent said Reinbacher is intelligent and easy to coach.
“He gets the expectations,” Vincent said. “We have to leave that on the side and look where we’re at today, considering what he has been through. If we want to judge somebody, we might as well have all the facts in front of us so we can have a real clean, honest evaluation. He has been injured for almost a full year. And he’s a young player adapting to North America.
“The last game, he scored two goals. That’s pretty good, in my opinion. And he’s getting better. Let’s give him games before we can truly evaluate him. I don’t want to put a timetable on it.”
