Habs Assign David Reinbacher to Laval

It has been a good 24 hours for Laval.  First, they had their best game of the early season with a 3-0 victory over Lehigh Valley on Wednesday.  Then, following the game, Montreal announced that winger Joshua Roy and defenceman Marc Del Gaizo were sent back to the Rocket.

Today, they’re getting some more help on the back end.  It appears that David Reinbacher has been cleared to return from his preseason hand injury as the Habs announced on Thursday that he has been activated off season-opening IR and assigned to Laval.

The 21-year-old was injured for the second straight preseason against Toronto, suffering a broken bone, an injury that was expected to carry a recovery time of four weeks.  In the end, that timeframe came pretty close as he’ll wind up missing just over that mark.

Reinbacher has seen brief action in Laval over the last two seasons.  He got into 11 games with them at the end of 2023-24 after spending the season in Switzerland, setting him up for a full season with the Rocket last year.  However, a long-term knee injury sustained in the preseason put those plans on hold.  Upon returning, he was load-managed down the stretch, getting into just 10 regular season games before playing big minutes in their 13 playoff outings.

While Reinbacher is considered to be Montreal’s top prospect on the back end with the hope that he could play his way into some NHL time before long, the Canadiens are likely going to be cautious with him.  At this point, getting steady minutes in a prominent role with the Rocket for several months would probably be best for his development.  At that point, then they would have enough information to help assess his potential readiness for a recall closer to the stretch run.

Laval’s back end has been thinned out this season thanks to Del Gaizo’s recall, Reinbacher’s injury, and William Trudeau still on season-opening IR as well.  (Josh Jacobs, a veteran from last year, is also banged up still.)  Now, with the first two returning, that should be a significant boost for Pascal Vincent’s group as they look to get some consistency in what has been an up-and-down start to the season.