After last night’s Game 4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens announced that they’ve reassigned defenseman David Reinbacher to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. The Rocket will begin the Division Semifinals against the Toronto Marlies on Wednesday.
Reinbacher, 21, was recalled with only a few games remaining in the regular season. The former fifth overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft debuted over that time, registering one assist in two games while averaging 13:09 of ice time. The Canadiens sheltered him quite a bit, as Reinbacher began 75.0% of his shifts in the offensive zone.
In the postseason, Montreal has expectedly relied on more veteran options. Even if the team experienced an injury or two, it was unlikely that they would have relied on Reinbacher in any meaningful capacity. The Canadiens are already without Noah Dobson for the time being, but have used depth defensemen Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj instead. Furthermore, Montreal still has youngster Adam Engstrom on the roster, who likely would have been the next man up.
If Laval is eliminated from the playoffs by the Marlies, or if the Canadiens suffer additional injuries on the blue line, then a case should be made for Reinbacher to return to the NHL as a Black Ace at the very least. He had a solid season in the AHL after recovering from injury, scoring five goals and 24 points in 57 games with a +18 rating.
Regardless, he’ll now help the Rocket defeat their North Division rivals. Since relocating to Laval ahead of the 2017-18 season, the Rocket have advanced to the Eastern Conference Final twice, losing to the Springfield Thunderbirds in 2022 and the Charlotte Checkers last year.