Canadiens draft decision on David Reinbacher explained by co-director of scouting Nick Bobrov

Publish date: 2024-06-06

BROSSARD, Que. — Nick Bobrov sat down and exhaled.

Canadiens development camp was over, exit interviews with the prospects — most of whom he had no part in drafting — were winding down. His second draft as Canadiens co-director of amateur scouting was in the rearview mirror. The time to relax had arrived, right?

Wrong.

“We’re already looking at next year’s names,” Bobrov said with a grin.

The Hlinka Gretzky tournament — the kickoff to the draft cycle — starts at the end of the month in Czechia and Slovakia. And that list of names is already cultivated. Our prospect expert Corey Pronman already has a 2024 mock draft out, for crying out loud.

This is not meant to be some sort of pity party for the scouting community — they do what they do because of their passion for the job and wouldn’t have it any other way — but it is rather a way to look at the Canadiens taking David Reinbacher at No. 5 in the NHL draft last week and signing him to his entry-level contract just before he left to go home to Austria for the summer, as touching a contract signing as you’ll find.

quel moment incroyable 🥹

who's chopping onions?#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/OYODwCVLLb

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 5, 2023

The fact is a year ago at this time, that moment seemed impossible. Reinbacher was not on the Canadiens’ radar. He wasn’t on anybody’s radar, really. Which is unusual. The process Bobrov described of going over next year’s names would not have included Reinbacher’s name a week after the 2022 draft.

“Well, his first emergence was at the World Junior in Edmonton, which was after Hlinka,” Bobrov told The Athletic Tuesday. “So it was in August. So that was his first big stage emergence, I would say. We noticed him there. We talked to the coaching staff about him at that time. So we felt that we were pretty early in on him.

“And then, from September on, guys were watching him, both live and on video and he kept climbing. The bells were ringing early in the season on this player. Maybe the market caught up a little bit later, but we had guys talking about him very, very early.”

Very early compared to the market, perhaps, but still late in terms of when teams typically start eyeing prospects for the draft. Last October, when NHL Central Scouting released its players to watch list for the 2023 draft, Reinbacher was given a B grade, which signifies a second or third-round pick projection.

Last year, the Canadiens used the No. 1 pick on another late riser, Juraj Slafkovský. In 2018, a different administration used the No. 3 pick on another late riser, Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Reinbacher makes it three-for-three on top-5 picks for the fanbase, which might be why some are concerned about it.

So, is there some added risk when it comes to late risers? Is their evaluation suffering from a smaller sample size? Bobrov readily admits no one saw Reinbacher play in 2021-22 because he was playing in a league — the second division in Switzerland — that no one scouts because NHL prospects typically don’t play there. Is that a problem?

“Well, I think the early developed kid who dominates at 12 and wins every tournament, the majority of them end up following that path and emerge and end up staying the course and becoming good players,” Bobrov responded. “And then you have whatever other percentage, say it’s 30 percent of emerging kids that are coming from different environments, not just in Europe, but in the U.S. and Canada, predominantly Canada and Europe. So there is a portion.

“You take Owen Beck as an example, he kind of came through a double-A environment and (emerged in his) first year in the (OHL). Patrice Bergeron was another example of first year in the league, kind of a late riser in comparison to his peer group. So, you know, it happens. It happens enough times where you pay attention to it.”

This is not an attempt to justify the Canadiens picking Reinbacher. It is an attempt to have them justify it. I don’t know if they made the right call, but no one will for at least two years, likely three. If it were me, I would have taken Ryan Leonard at No. 5, and I believe the Canadiens were quite high on him as well. Everyone has a right to their own opinions, but no one can say the Canadiens did not have a fully informed opinion. Every European scout the Canadiens employ — Christer Rockström, Hannu Laine, Tommy Lehman and Michal Krupa — saw him play multiple times, Bobrov said. Martin Lapointe and Bobrov saw him live multiple times. American scouts Billy Ryan and Albie O’Connell saw him play multiple times. Even goalie scout Vincent Riendeau saw him multiple times.

“Everyone who travels to Europe would be asked to see him,” Bobrov said.

The general sentiment from the fanbase is that the Canadiens have not had a game-breaking offensive talent in decades, so how could they pass on taking a forward in a forward-rich draft, especially, as Pronman’s 2024 mock draft exercise demonstrated, next year’s class is richer in defencemen? It’s a fair question, so I asked Bobrov, and his answer was not that different from what Kent Hughes said on draft night when asked essentially the same question.

“Well, I would say we have players right now on the team who are developing every month, every year, whether that’s Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Kirby Dach, with Alex Newhook coming and he can score goals, Slaf, so we feel we have scoring that’s going to rise with the rise of these still very, very young players. So there is an upward trend there in scoring ability,” he responded. “So I would push back against the notion that we have no scoring. We have very young players who always scored, and they’re getting better every month. And then, you know, how many 40-goal scorers did Vegas have this year? You start looking at the playoffs, right? The playoffs.

“Once you look at that, some things become a little bit clearer, and so we try to remind ourselves of that every time, every year, every cycle and not get caught up in, you know, shiny objects, I guess.”

I didn’t mention the name of Matvei Michkov, and Bobrov didn’t either. But it was pretty evident Michkov was the shiny object he was referring to, and it was equally evident he was aware of what a portion of the fanbase is quite upset about. And it’s clear Bobrov and the Canadiens don’t consider shiny objects to be a path to a Stanley Cup. They might be wrong, but that’s what they think.

But what Bobrov wanted to make clear is that determination comes after an exhaustive process, multiple opinions from multiple people to make sure blind spots are eliminated to the best of their ability.

“I think whether it’s last year or this year, the process is the same,” Bobrov said. “We battle, we try to see every angle, we try to stress test it versus other players as well, trying to talk ourselves into other players as well. And it happens with each player. So say there’s a set of three players. We’re trying to convince ourselves that each one of them is our guy. And then stress test, what could go wrong? What the downside might be with each player, and not just David. The process is the same, whether it’s a first-round pick or sixth-round pick, there’s still a group of three guys that we’re trying to convince ourselves and convince ourselves to take somebody else at the same time. And then you end up going back to player A or player B.

“Through that process, we realize where the majority of the passion is living. Because if there’s no passion that we can feel about a player from the room, from different parts of the staff, whether it’s the coaches — because everybody is watching these kids, we involve everyone. So sometimes there’s a lot of passion, sometimes the passion disappears quickly and you kind of feel it.”

Therefore, that passion was felt about Reinbacher, despite their own attempts to convince themselves of other options.

Analytics is something the Canadiens lean on heavily in their draft process. Director of hockey analytics Christopher Boucher and his department have a seat at the decision-making table, and his thoughts are respected and considered, which wasn’t necessarily the case with the previous administration even if they had a meagre commitment to analytics. And Bobrov has always had an analytical bent to his process.

“David’s numbers are extremely high in several categories,” Bobrov said. “Obviously his (play) kills, his breakouts. I don’t think any analytics expert would dispute where he comes out extremely high on some of the player comparisons from the past. We had similar numbers on some of the biggest names on defence that we’ve seen. So from that perspective, he’s right up there with some of the biggest names. So we felt very comfortable with that.”

And this notion that Reinbacher was drafted to play with Lane Hutson, a notion that was only reinforced at development camp, is something Bobrov pushed back on pretty hard.

“We felt with David, he’s the type of a D who can play with anyone,” he said. “If you look at our defencemen, he would be great with pretty much everyone that we have. He can play with Logan (Mailloux), he can play with Arber (Xhekaj), he can play with (Kaiden) Guhle. So you don’t have to worry about trying to match it perfectly because when a player is that well-rounded, every D will want to play with him, because he kind of does everything right in terms of positioning, in terms of his stick, defence, passing, putting pucks on tape, support, coverage, reads, both offfensive and defensive.

“So we felt you can stick him with anyone, and he’ll be great.”

And when asked to address his comment at the draft that Reinbacher fits the culture the Canadiens are trying to build, if it was something specific Reinbacher said or did that led them to believe that, Bobrov pushed back just as hard.

“There is nothing he said in particular,” he said. “He shows it on the ice with his play.”

The one thing most of the public discourse about Reinbacher kept bringing up as a drawback was a lack of offensive upside in his game, despite him having the most productive season for a draft-eligible defenceman in the history of the top Swiss league and the second-highest overall after Auston Matthews. Better than Reinbacher’s idol Roman Josi by a longshot.

His coach in Kloten, Jeff Tomlinson, feels those concerns are somewhat unfounded.

“I don’t think he’s going to do it with the flair that maybe some people like, I think he’s going to do it with his simple passes,” Tomlinson said on draft night. “I think he’s going to be kind of the guy that’s just going to keep it simple and create offence that way. He’ll move up the ice. He’ll want to lead the rush or help the rushes. And I do think he’s got some upside in every part of his game because this is all new for him and he’s made a big step. And I think we expect him to take even more.”

Bobrov and the Canadiens clearly agree, and that is, at the core, why they drafted Reinbacher, and why they drafted Slafkovský last season as well. It was a growth play. They believe Slafkovský has so much to add to his game that will make him successful in the NHL, and that his profile as a big, skilled forward was a rare commodity. Reinbacher, as a right-shot defenceman, a premium position, is no different. They see growth potential in him, and they believe the development infrastructure they have put in place will get that potential out of both of them.

“Players add to their game,” Bobrov said. “But if you were to say, yes, offence comes from a good first pass, pass on tape, good players would want to play with a D that gets them the puck and places it well.

“David has all of that in spades.”

Again, this is Bobrov’s perspective, and it’s important to remember that he will obviously defend the Canadiens’ decision because he and the franchise are heavily invested in it. This is presented as an opportunity to get a window into their decision-making process and either embrace or scrutinize it. That is up to you.

I don’t know if they made the right decision here. What I do know is that I am not well-equipped to make that determination right now. No one else is, either.

But Reinbacher at least deserves a chance to prove the Canadiens right or wrong.

(Photo of Kent Hughes, David Reinbacher, Martin Lapointe and Nick Bobrov: Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k29tcm9jaHxzfJFsZmlvX2WDcK%2FAp5idoZWjwG6w0ZqdrWWUlsOqsIyrnKKmkpawqbHRZqqcp6Wptq%2BzjKegnKNdl7yjvs6vZg%3D%3D

SyncVibe

Canadiens draft decision on David Reinbacher explained by co-director of scouting Nick Bobrov