I don't think Habs fans would complain today if they had Michkov + Dickinson over Reinbacher + Demidov. Maybe if or when Demidov tears the league apart when he joins, we can all breathe a bit more easy.
The issue wasn't Michkov vs Demidov. At the time of the 2023 draft it was: did the Habs want to add small, not very good skater Michkov to a top6 that had Caufield on it + Newhook, Suzuki, and a depth chart which featured actual real-life pygmies like Kidney and Farrell. What DR brought to the depth chart and DR's own skills and tendencies made him extremely attractive to the Habs organization. Given their valuation of DR -- they absolutely LOVED him -- it makes sense to me why they'd prefer to lean on DR over Michkov.
Was their valuation of Michkov and DR wrong? We'll know as the years go on.
Having a discussion comparing Michkov vs Reinbacher isnt fair at all.
First of all, forward are coming in the NHL earlier during their career and usually they make a positive impact earlier on their team than Dman.
Just an exemple here, it took some years to Hedman to become a dominant Dman, while Matt Duchene was already a really good forward post draft. Nobody here would take Duchene over Hedman.
It will need 2/3 years to know what Reinbacher bring on the table. I personnally think is floor is a top 4 dman, and I still think he can become a first pair. A kind of Dobson, Seider.
That kind of dman are just untouchable, you need to draft them, and this is what Mtl did.