The Canadian loaned defender David Reinbacher to the Laval Rocket on Monday, so we can expect him to join the team quickly. He will practice with the Rocket on Tuesday and he won’t have to wait long to play.
“He will practice with the team this week and we expect him to play at the end of the week,” confirmed to colleague Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports, general manager Kent Hughes who is in a meeting with his peers at Palm Springs, Florida.
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After a difficult season in Switzerland with poor Kloten HC, the Canadian was eager to see his first pick in the last draft come to town.
“We had been following the series in Switzerland for a few weeks, hoping that we would have the results we wanted so that David could come as soon as possible,” said Hughes, who also said he doubted that Reinbacher would play in Montreal this season.
“He’s solid. He is already a mature player for his age, said Kaiden Guhle, who played with Reinbacher during training camp. He is effective everywhere on the ice. He defends well, he has an offensive touch. It will be fun to see him play professional hockey in North America and see how he does in Laval. »
In development
The Rocket’s defensive brigade is quite young and developing, it hasn’t always had it easy this season. It has allowed 209 goals in 60 games, which places it penultimate in the AHL.
The Rocket’s six defensemen are aged 20, 21, 22, 23, 26 and 27 years old. If we remove Olivier Galipeau and Tobie Paquette-Bisson, who are the last two in this list, that makes a defense that is on average 21.5 years old.
This is a defense that has allowed four or more goals 29 times in 60 games.
But it is also a defensive brigade that is improving. Aside from an awful outing that resulted in a 7-1 loss to the Marlies in Toronto on Sunday, the team has looked better over the past two weeks.
She has only allowed eight goals in her last five games. The first game of the sequence was the most generous with three goals scored by the Syracuse Crunch, but the Rocket lost in overtime. He then won four consecutive matches.
They are progressing
So that brings us to the progression of young defenders. We will focus on them since the two veterans, Paquette-Bisson and Galipeau, offer performances worthy of veterans. The former has collected 24 points this season in addition to having a differential of +15, just like Galipeau, who has collected 16 points.
Logan Mailloux is obviously the prospect who has progressed the most. He has gained a lot of confidence and we see the maturity in his game. More incisive in his climbs, he makes better decisions and his defensive game has particularly improved, his differential being in the positive for five games. And he is sixth among the best defenders with 39 points. It’s a safe bet.
Behind him is William Trudeau, who is slightly behind his statistics from last year, but there is nothing alarming there. He is a young defender who is progressing well and developing his game.
Right there, we say that Reinbacher will be well surrounded to begin his North American career. Paired with one of the two veterans, he would be in a good seat to make a good first impression.
They worry
It’s when we take a look at the other two young defenders that we worry a little and say to ourselves that one of them could lose playing time to Reinbacher.
There is the case of Justin Barron, a young 22-year-old defender who remains enigmatic. It’s true that he’s had a few good games over the past couple of weeks, but he doesn’t seem to have seized this move to the minors the same way Arber Xhekaj and Joel Armia did before him. He doesn’t play badly, but he lacks consistency.
Finally, Mattias Norlinder comes with a lot of questions. For a defender who was with the Canadian until the last cuts last fall, he had a big slump and posted a resounding -18.
His offensive statistics have also declined. Last year, he had 2 goals and 17 assists in 67 games while he has 2 goals and 5 assists in 44 outings this season. Even if he has regained momentum recently, it is perhaps he who will suffer when Reinbacher arrives.
