David Reinbacher has climbed the ranks to become the best defenseman for the 2023 NHL Draft

When the 2023 NHL Draft season fully kicked off in October, there weren’t many that expected David Reinbacher to be a first-round prospect.

Second round? Even that seemed like a stretch to some scouts. He played well in the second league in Switzerland a year ago, but he was one of the oldest prospects in the draft. And that meant high expectations.

Fast forward to June, and there’s a very good chance Reinbacher is not only the first defenseman taken, but taken in the top 10. Some scouts think a team might even be willing to bet high on him like Detroit did with Moritz Seider in 2019.

And, really, there are some similarities there. Both played heavy minutes against men at a young age, while also carrying their respective national teams whenever called upon. Both have solid offensive traits, and, unlike many other high-end defensive prospects, they’re both solid in their own zone – actually playing defense. Stylistically, they’re close.

Neither was a projected first-rounder at the start of his draft year, either. And for what it’s worth, Reinbacher played a heck of a lot more in a better league, too.

Reinbacher is Daily Faceoff’s top defenseman for the 2023 NHL Draft, sitting eighth. Axel Sandin Pellikka out of Sweden and Dmitri Simashev are the only other defensemen in the top 15 in a year dominated by high-end scoring forwards. Reinbacher started to put himself on the map after an impressive summer world junior tournament in 2022, where he dealt with heavy workloads every single night. He then turned pro, putting up an impressive 22 points in 46 games while playing 18-plus minutes a night with Kloten in Switzerland. The National League is one of the best in Europe, but very few high-profile prospects ever come out of there. Reinbacher can change that.

“They’re more experienced (than me), everyone knows how to play the game up there. Everyone knows their role, everyone knows what to do. To step in as a young kid there, you have to respect your role. You’ve got to be very focused.”

On the ice, Reinbacher is as confident as they come. Off the ice, he says he’s a humble person who is just enjoying the process. He’s a small-town kid out of Hohenems, Austria. It has a population of 15,200, a town with exactly zero NHLers of record. So Reinbacher doesn’t take anything on his journey so far for granted.

If Reinbacher goes in the top 10, it’ll be the third time in four years an Austrian player was taken that high behind Marco Rossi (ninth in 2020) and Marco Kasper (eighth in 2022). Only three Austrian defensemen have ever played in the NHL – Thomas Pock, Dominic Lavoie and Emanuel Viveiros. Of the three, none of them was drafted. Three Austrian blueliners have been drafted in NHL history, with none ever making it to the big leagues.

No Austrian has matched the impact that Thomas Vanek made during his time with Buffalo. The big winger was drafted fifth overall in the stacked 2003 draft, putting up 789 points in 1,029 games over 14 seasons. He was the first true Austrian star – there’s a reason why you see so many Vanek jerseys in the crowd when Austria plays.

“He’s like Arnold Schwarzenegger there,” Reinbacher said.

Maybe, just maybe, there will be hordes of No. 64 Reinbacher NHL jerseys in the crowd one day.

Reinbacher likes structure, both on and off the ice. His daily routine is dominated by school, work and hockey. While attending the United School Of Sports in Zurich, Reinbacher acts as a headhunter to find business analysts for big companies in the school. He likes having that experience from a business school in his back pocket in case hockey doesn’t work out.

It’s never a bad idea to have a backup plan, even if you’re one of the best young defensemen in the world.

Playing against older, more difficult competition has never been an issue for Reinbacher. There aren’t many other first-year eligible prospects with 73 games of pro experience while playing top-line minutes for their country at the junior and senior national team level in the same season.

But that’s precisely what Reinbacher did. He was Austria’s best player at the World Junior Championship before representing the senior team at the World Championship last for the first time last month. Reinbacher suffered an MCL injury against Sweden in the second game, forcing him to miss three games.

He’s still dealing with a bit of pain nearly a full month later, but that didn’t stop him from playing 23 minutes against Hungary in the final game. Reinbacher’s play was a big reason why Austria avoided relegation over Hungary, a significant moment for a team that has struggled to stay in the top division for two years in a row.

Scouts consider Reinbacher to be the most well-rounded blueliner in the draft. He can score, hit, direct the power play and, most importantly, he’s strong in his own zone. There isn’t a glaring flaw in his overall game, which is why many consider him the best defenseman in the draft. It’ll be tough for a defenseman to crack the top 10, but Reinbacher has the best chance.

“He’s a top three defenseman in most important categories,” a scout said. “Reinbacher shuts things down in his own zone. He gets the puck up the ice well. He can skate and can shut top lines down. He’s strong on the transition. He’s active with his stick. There’s just a lot to love here, and he probably would go much higher in most other drafts.”

Nobody will mistake Reinbacher for being a creative mastermind with the puck. But as the season went on, his confidence in handling the disk looked much more apparent. His first focus is his defensive-zone coverage, but Kloten coach Jeff Tomlinson gave Reinbacher full freedom to do whatever he pleased.

“It’s always a good sign when a young defenseman is thriving in a top European league,” a European scout said. “You’ll often see guys either playing limited minutes or getting sent back to junior. But Reinbacher has plenty of experience in one of the best leagues in the world and didn’t look out of place. You love to see that.”

Reinbacher won’t need to wait long to hear his name called on draft day – he’s the best bet to become a top-pairing defenseman. He isn’t far from being NHL-ready, either. While the team that selects him will ultimately have the final decision, it’s likely he’ll spend a year in the AHL before trying to force his way into full-time duty for 2024-25.

Put it this way: if you liked Seider, you’ll like Reinbacher. And quite a few teams loved Seider.

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David Reinbacher has climbed the ranks to become the best defenseman for the 2023 NHL Draft

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