The Montreal Canadiens may not have listened to fan opinions while making their selection decisions in the 2023 NHL selection, but it appears that those paid to scout may know more about young hockey players than Twitter users.
Many fans couldn’t believe the low scoring, but feisty winger Florian Xhekaj was selected in the fourth round. He is now a point-per-game scorer who stands 6’4″ and commands a powerful physical presence on the ice. Perhaps he wasn’t drafted solely for his surname.
Many questioned the Canadiens’ decision to select three goaltenders in a single draft. That is odd, but the Canadiens have suddenly become extraordinarily deep at hockey’s most essential position. Jacob Fowler stands out from the crowd following a great rookie season for Boston College, which is the top-ranked team in the country as the national playoffs approach.
Quentin Miller is another promising goaltender prospect who is performing well in the QMJHL. He was just moved to the Rimouski Oceanic, who will host the Memorial Cup next season, and they are banking on him to backstop them to victory.
The Canadiens also used a 5th round pick on Yevgeni Volokhin who had an incredible season in Russia’s top Junior league, the MHL. Since Carey Price’s career ended, there have been plenty of questions about who will play goal in the future but there are plenty of options all of a sudden.
The Canadiens’ first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft was David Reinbacher. He was chosen fifth overall, but many sceptics believed a gifted Russian winger like Matvei Michkov would have been a better pick.
Reinbacher spent this season in Switzerland with Kloten, which was, regrettably, a dreadful squad. They finished second to last in their league rankings and were almost forced to play a relegation series to test if they could even stay in the country’s top ice hockey tier.
Thankfully, Kloten did not have to play that playout series to determine what league they will be in next season. That avoided having their season drag to the end of the month and Kloten can close the book on their 2023-24 campaign now.
That means Reinbacher is free to head to North America to continue playing this season. And, there is just enough time for him to have a meaningful experience close to Montreal before next season’s training camp.
Reinbacher should join the Laval Rocket any day now. This is great because it is not one of those cases where a player burns one year on an entry-level contract just to play one or two meaningless NHL games at the end of the regular season.
After today’s contest with the Toronto Marlies, the Rocket still have 12 regular season games to play. They don’t play their final regular season game until April 20th, which means Reinbacher will have a full month to adjust to the pro game at the North American level. This will give him time to play games, learn from coaches, make adjustments and learn the speed of the game at the AHL level while learning from mistakes and getting better on the fly.
The Rocket begin today’s game one point behind the Marlies for the last playoff berth in the North Division. There are five teams vying for the division’s final three playoff positions, thus each game will have a playoff feel to it.
This should have Reinbacher well prepared to contend for an NHL position in September. Parachuting in for a game or two near the end of a team’s season does not provide a true sense of the league’s rigours. Fortunately, Reinbacher will have a full month of playoff competition, which should help him grow dramatically in a short amount of time.
Expect him to take advantage of his experience and be prepared to grab a roster spot on the Canadiens to begin next season.
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