Prospect Info: David Reinbacher

[salbutera]

You were talking about lowering expectations being a good business practice. I agree in the abstract, but there’s more factors in play here.

I thought they could have given hope to Habs fans in Wickenheiser’s abilities when Savard was crushing it. By not pumping his tires a little, it became a marketing disaster.

In Wickenheiser’s case Claude Ruel didn’t even believe in him, in fact hated him from the get go.

In Orville’s case it’s clear as day, the org thinks they pulled one over the entire hockey world - which is why they seem completely shocked by the negative reaction

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I guess we didn't need to draft a Dman with any of our picks last year... how strange is that?

Hutson? Who btw is looking like the steal of the draft.

I think the Habs felt Reinbacher was as good or even better than Michkov, so notwithstanding the top4 they had their minds made. It goes against the general consensus but nobody's ever said the Habs organization is not self-confident. Self-confidence without results, however, is macho arrogance. I get a whiff of that with Hughes already that's for sure. Let's hope we see the right results. Reinbacher isn't a 1OA, he wasn't even the consensus 5OA -- it is far from guaranteed that he makes it and becomes an impact player in the NHL. The Habs certainly think he will though, so we should hope it happens.

Why do you get that already? Wright didn’t do any better than Slaf did last year and Mich and RB haven’t played at all.

If Mich makes it the only people who'll suffer will be Habs fans; Hughes will move on, Bobrov will move on, and water will brush off the duck's back and flow under the bridge.

Hughes will move on? I’m pretty sure it matters to him if he gets fired or not.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I’m Wickenheiser’s case Claude Ruel didn’t even believe in him, in fact hated him from the get go.

In Orville’s case it’s clear as day, the org thinks they pulled one over the entire hockey world - which is why they seem completely shocked by the negative reaction

Yep. We f***ed up Wickenheiser. Brutal handling of a great prospect.

 

[Kennerback]

I’m Wickenheiser’s case Claude Ruel didn’t even believe in him, in fact hated him from the get go.

In Orville’s case it’s clear as day, the org thinks they pulled one over the entire hockey world - which is why they seem completely shocked by the negative reaction

I don’t see that at all. Timmins would prop up 5th round future busts more than they did R on Day 1.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

This was said in defence of every GM ever. It's pablum.

Not defending him. Simply stating a fact.

Results matters. Our best point producer last year got less than half the points of the NHL's leading scorer. We're critically flawed in talent and scoring ability -- it is a five alarm fire, imo. But obviously Hughes disagrees.

Absolutely results matter.

It’s too soon to see any results.

Small events and decisions add up to make a picture. The honeymoon phase is over, and with a loud bang. Hughes is standing pat in free agency so it's not likely results will be much different next season. Expect a finish ahead of 5th last but out of the playoffs.

I’m fine with finishing out of the playoffs. Welcome to rebuilding. This is what it looks like.

There will be more criticism of Hughes and I think it's perfectly good and healthy. Some will go overboard with their criticism and others will go overboard with the positivity ("toxic positivity"). Who cares?

There is always criticism. Some is valid and some is not.

It was a controversial draft pick, there will be controversy. Notwithstanding the harassment of the player online, which has been a tempest in a teapot, what's the problem?

Did I say there was a problem? Pretty sure I said I’d have drafted Mich and Wright…

The only problem I have was with the idiots posting hate tweets. But that’s to be expected in this day and age unfortunately.

You seem to think that you have to argue for it to be okay to criticize the GM… you don’t. Criticize him all you want. But people are ALSO free to criticize your arguments. That’s his message boards work.

 

[salbutera]

I don’t see that at all. Timmins would prop up 5th round future busts more than they did R on Day 1.

Hughes in his short time here is very calculated w every word that comes out of his mouth. That’s why he dances around “I wouldn’t call him 1st PP unit player” / “not sure we’d have chosen a Dman if he was LD” etc.

 

[sandviper]

Wonderful and well deserved! LFG Reinbacher!

 

[ReHabs]

Hutson? Who btw is looking like the steal of the draft.

Why do you get that already? Wright didn’t do any better than Slaf did last year and Mich and RB haven’t played at all.

Hughes will move on? I’m pretty sure it matters to him if he gets fired or not.

Hutson wasn't a first round pick. It's a long-shot prospect, the kind of homerun swing I think we all love to see. It's very cool to have him immediately become our blue chip prospect but he wasn't drafted with an excruciatingly difficult to attain lottery pick. In 2022 Slafkovsky was not the only option at 1, nor Wright. So far it looks like the Habs were wrong to have narrowed it down to those two. If a smooth transition game was so important in 2023, it should've been accounted for in 2022 as well.

I think it's BS post-hoc justification of a controversial decision. The Habs thought Reinbacher's prospect profile was better than Michkov's and they went with that. If they had Smith available at 5 they would've likely taken Smith the soft, unidimensional forward. It has nothing to do with "building out of the defence" or 'preferring to put the fundamentals of a transition game in place' or whatever rationalization we will hear in the days and weeks to come. They simply thought Reinbacher was the best pick at that position. It's perfectly fine for them to think so -- I don't even dislike the pick -- but the strategy at play is the same YOU'VE criticised or doubted in recent days so I'm not sure why the disagreeable tone with me yet again.

As for Reinbacher, four teams skipped on Reinbacher too. He wasn't a consensus best prospect. Look at 5OA picks of the last X years, a lot of busts there. It's perfectly valid to express hope for a prospect (as we all do) but to trash other prospects and act entitled to the success of our own is laughable -- ours can bust too!! Every prospect can bust.

As for Hughes... he gets fired and he picks up his stuff and goes onto his next gig, much like Bergevin did. You know exactly what I mean, so why play coy? The only long-term stakeholders in the Habs are us, who've outlasted every GM and coach and player and owner and will outlast the current ones too. If they whiffed on the Slaf pick and the Reinbacher pick it will hurt us a lot more than it hurts them. It's part of being a fan vs being a pro.

 

[ReHabs]

delete.

 

[Vachon23]

I’ll go as far as to say that I blame the Habs for this fiasco; read the room! You know your stupid fanbase will act stupid, prepare the message in advance. Préparez le terrain. Prepare the fans to Reinbacher!

I blame Chantal’s team here and the hockey division. Just like with the Mailloux draft, they were ill prepared to read the room. Basic comms 101.

I usually agree with you Dino but not here

It was pretty clear that they where not taking Michkov, some just didn’t want to see the truth

 

[Garo]

Hutson wasn't a first round pick. It's a long-shot prospect, the kind of homerun swing I think we all love to see. It's very cool to have him immediately become our blue chip prospect but he wasn't drafted with an excruciatingly difficult to attain lottery pick. In 2022 Slafkovsky was not the only option at 1, nor Wright. So far it looks like the Habs were wrong to have narrowed it down to those two. If a smooth transition game was so important in 2023, it should've been accounted for in 2022 as well.

But it was... that's why we spent two high picks on defencemen that are excellent at it.

I truly do not get your take here.

 

[salbutera]

I usually agree with you Dino but not here

It was pretty clear that they where not taking Michkov, some just didn’t want to see the truth

Basu has been dropping hints since early April.
- Newhook as a potential Dach type target
- Questionable interest in Michkov
- Trading of Edmundson & Hoffman
- No UFA activity

 

[Vachon23]

I don't know about Renaud and Luc but Arpon did prep the room for many weeks...even after the interview with Michkov.

Even in this forum, there was all kinds of discussion that the Habs likely wouldn't take him and many still acted like they got blindsided and their first born was stolen.

It's a very challenging task to calm these waters in today's society. People are so accustomed to venting publicly, instantly and often anonymously about every little thing that doesn't go right in their lives. Social media has provided a platform for the dumbest cliques from our high school days to rip into the work that former honours students and high achievers who are now professionals and specialists in their areas are doing. In the past you would never see or hear of members of these cliques again after graduation.

The Habs could certainly use your solutions though if you have any.

Stéphane Leroux was pretty clear that Michkov wasn’t an option too

Every journalist close to the Habs said it wasn’t going to be Michkov.

 

[BenchBrawl]

I’ll go as far as to say that I blame the Habs for this fiasco; read the room! You know your stupid fanbase will act stupid, prepare the message in advance. Préparez le terrain. Prepare the fans to Reinbacher!

I blame Chantal’s team here and the hockey division. Just like with the Mailloux draft, they were ill prepared to read the room. Basic comms 101.

Yes, exactly, Leak it.

Although maybe that's what Brunet was trying to do with his Michkov hit piece.

 

[HuGort]

I get impression Rainbacker won't stand the intense pressure in Montreal. If that rocked him

 

[Runner77]

Love this. Grassroots positive reaction. Again, Habfan helping this organisation, because its PR game sucks. Saving its ass for more than 110 years.

Upon closer inspection ...

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Hedman light. Not fancy, not flashy… highly effective.

Reinbacher isnt 6 foot 7 but 6’2 isn’t bad.

He'll be around 6'3-6'4 when he will be fully grown up at 22.

 

[Garo]

I get impression Rainbacker won't stand the intense pressure in Montreal. If that rocked him

It absolutely should rock him though. It's completely disgusting.

This just smacks of an attempt to downgrade it, and we really should not do that.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Nobody said that and only one poster compared him to Lafleur and that poster is widely known to go off the rails.

You're trying to extrapolate a single poster into a crowd.

I mostly said he would be the best forward since Guy Lafleur to play for this team. I don't think my point was ever that he would be as good as Guy Lafleur, although this is still a possibility imo.

 

[Schooner Guy]

I get impression Rainbacker won't stand the intense pressure in Montreal. If that rocked him

The same thing used to be said about Price and he played a more pressure filled position than Reinbacher.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Well, I think it was sarcasm. I didn’t really care about it.

I understand his point of view. My brain is wired differently. I see the flaws in a comms plan like someone scientist would see a flaw in a space shuttle that explodes and kills 8 astronauts. Not that they don’t care about the astronauts, but they think more about the why. Same here. Poor David, Daniel or the other first name Dave Stubbs gave him, is truly affected. You could see it in his scrum today.

And worse: other players might rethink their association with a market like Mtl because of the situation.


Love this. Grassroots positive reaction. Again, Habfan helping this organisation, because its PR game sucks. Saving its ass for more than 110 years.

I know nothing about comms and what you say is just f***ing obvious; yet apparently not, since they failed to address it.

 

[Adam Michaels]

I get impression Rainbacker won't stand the intense pressure in Montreal. If that rocked him

Receiving death threats and a lot of hate aimed directly at him on his social media including being compared to Hitler, yes, that's very normal for an 18-year old to have to deal with. That's just him seemingly not able to stand any pressure.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

They would not have left the arena alive. Wish a better french player has available on that year. Leblanc has our average player with out any special skill.

Timmins' time. It wasn't better with Fisher, Chipchura, Tinordi, McCaron, Sherback, Galchenyuk (but he did 30 g his best year). KK, Maxwell, Urquart, Reway, Palushai, Delarose, Thrower, Colberg (still waitin'), I must be forgetting names, All other names who were not local boys and not any better except Galch (but 3OA).

 

[waffledave]

Nobody said that and only one poster compared him to Lafleur and that poster is widely known to go off the rails.

You're trying to extrapolate a single poster into a crowd.

You gonna tell me now that people were not saying he was a slam dunk guaranteed superstar? Come on now that's revisionist history.

 

[BenchBrawl]

You gonna tell me now that people were not saying he was a slam dunk guaranteed superstar? Come on now that's revisionist history.

This is what I believe yes.

The next Guy Lafleur, in the sense of the first offensive superstar since Flower. Probably not as good though, but who knows.