Pascal Vincent Has A Plan For David Reinbacher

After all the stuff that Reinbacher has been through since being drafted, it’s no surprise that he needs help on the mental side of the game. Since being taken 5th overall, he has had so much pressure to work out as the Habs skipped over a skilled forward in Matvei Michkov to take him. To make matters worse, he’s had two years in a row in which he’s struggled with knee injuries. Now, dealing with a broken finger that will keep him out of the lineup for the next month. He won’t miss any significant time this time around, but it must be frustrating and hurting his confidence that these injuries keep occurring.

Luckily for him, he has a coach in Laval who is ready to help him deal with both the physical and the mental challenges that will be coming his way, in hopes that he can finally have some consistency with his health the rest of the way.

Anthony Martineau mentioned that the psychological challenges for Reinbacher go as far back as the moment he was drafted, when fans started using political insults towards him and his family just because he wasn’t the flashy pick that everyone was hoping for that draft. It was really unfair to the kid who just wanted to prove himself to the Habs fan base.

In hindsight, as Nicolas Cloutier once mentioned on the Sick Podcast with Matt Ohayon, Reinbacher has all the tools to be a star shutdown defenseman in today’s NHL, it’s just he’s had to deal with more obstacles than most soon to be 21-year old defensemen have to deal with. By working closely with someone to get back to where he once was in his draft year, there is a chance that he could still be the guy the Habs were hoping for. It’s like Pascal Vincent said in his interview on Wednesday: we will see how things go, but he believes that Reinbacher will eventually get it figured out. He also mentioned that the young defenseman is extremely coachable and wants to learn so that he can get better and achieve his goal of playing in the NHL someday.

It shouldn’t be long before Reinbacher skates again in Laval and gets in game shape for the AHL season. As worried as many of us, including myself, were, a broken finger shouldn’t prevent Reinbacher from being ready to play at the end of October. Now that the overreactions of seeing him get injured yet again are over, it’s time to truly see the injury for what it is. Just pure bad luck for the Austrian defenseman. Hopefully, with Pascal Vincent and his staff’s help, Reinbacher can turn his bad luck around.

There are a lot of people who write him off, but it’s clear that when healthy, he can be a very good defenseman. It’s definitely not the time to write him off just yet. If he can’t stay healthy again this year, I could understand, but there is a lot of untapped potential that is within reach for him.

Do you still believe that Reinbacher can make it to the NHL?