The Montreal Canadiens selected defenseman David Reinbacher fifth overall in the NHL Entry Draft on Wednesday night in Nashville.
Reinbacher, from Austria, played in Switzerland with EHC Kloten last season. He collected three goals and 19 assists in 46 games, leading the Swiss league in points by a player under the age of 20.
Reinbacher is the seventh Austrian to be selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft, and the third since 2020 after Marco Kasper (8th in 2022) and Marco Rossi (9th in 2020).
Last year, the Habs selected Slovak forward Juraj Slafkovsky with the first pick of the draft, held at the Bell Centre.
It's the fourth time since 2012 that the Habs have had a top-five draft pick. It also selected Alex Galchenyuk (2012) and Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2018) third overall. The last time the Habs spoke at No. 5 was in 2005, when they selected goaltender Carey Price.
Price was scheduled to announce the Habs' selection on Wednesday night, but appeared to have forgotten Reinbacher's last name. General manager Kent Hughes came to Price's rescue to announce the pick.
The Habs also had the second-to-last pick of the first round, the 31st overall, when the team staff arrived in Nashville earlier this week. Instead, Hughes traded that pick and a second-round pick, 37th overall, along with defenseman Gianni Fairbrother, to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday in return for forward Alex Newhook.
The draft continues on Thursday. The Canadiens will begin the day with a third-round pick (69th overall), three fourth-round picks (101st, 110th, 128th), two fifth-round picks (133rd, 144th), a sixth-round pick (165th) and a seventh-round pick (197th).
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 28, 2023
