NHL Draft profiles: Reinbacher could be first defenseman selected taken in Buffalo, N.Y. (Penguins)

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

David Reinbacher speaks at the NHL's scouting combine Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- There's a pretty good chance that David Reinbacher will be the first defenseman to hear his name called when the NHL Draft kicks off on June 28 in Nashville, Tenn.

Reinbacher, 18, was one of the prospects the Penguins met with at last week's scouting combine in Buffalo, N.Y. He's expected to be a mid-first round pick later this month, and could potentially still be available when the Penguins are on the clock with the 14th overall pick.

If Reinbacher is still available at No. 14, he'd be a pretty enticing option, especially for a team that would like its pick to be available to make an impact in the NHL relatively soon.

Reinbacher is from the small town of Hohenems, Austria, which sits on the border Austria shares with Switzerland. As a child, Reinbacher's family would drive him the 20 minutes into Switzerland to play hockey there. When he was 13 and started playing in the town of Kloten -- a 90-minute drive from his home in Austria -- Reinbacher's father made the decision to move him and his older brother to Switzerland to further their hockey careers.

"It's a different lifestyle," Reinbacher said of the move to Switzerland. "They're a different country. You've got to learn new things in your life. But I really enjoy it, it's really respectful there. It's perfection."

Being in Switzerland is one of the reasons Reinbacher could be on the fast track to the pros in North America.

Players drafted out of junior hockey or college hockey are playing against players in their own age group. Players drafted out of Europe often have the opportunity to play against grown men that are older, bigger and stronger than they are, and gives teams an idea of how these prospects may hold up at the professional level in North America. It's a good way to accelerate the prospect's growth.

Reinbacher grew up playing in Kloten's system in Switzerland. He made his professional debut for Kloten during the 2021-22 season, when Kloten was playing in the Swiss League, the second-tier league in the country. At 17 years old, he split the year between the U20 junior affiliate and the pro team, and recorded one goal, 10 assists and a plus-16 rating in 27 games with the pro team.

Kloten won the Swiss League championship that year and earned a promotion to the National League, the top league in Switzerland, for this past season. Reinbacher played for Kloten full-time, recording three goals, 19 assists and a plus-7 rating in 46 games. 

"For sure, they're stronger," Reinbacher said of playing against older players at his age. "They're more experienced than you. They know how to play the game up there. Everyone knows his role, everyone knows what to do. If you step in as a young kid, you've got to respect your role, you've got to be really focused on what you have to do, what your roles are. It's respecting the line, where you have to go and where not."

Reinbacher got additional experience playing against grown men at this year's World Championship, representing Austria in the main tournament. He recorded one assist in four games before an MCL injury took him out of the tournament. The injury is healing up fine -- he's able to work out, but is just expected to deal with a little bit of pain for two or three more weeks. There aren't any longer-term concerns with it.

Reinbacher, who is a right-handed shot, has good size for a player his age already at 6 foot 2 and 185 pounds. According to the NHL's fitness testing at the combine, Reinbacher has the 14th-best wingspan of the 100-plus players who attended the combine at 77 inches. He tied for the eighth-best standing long jump, jumping 112 inches forward. He ranked 17th in the pro agility test on his right side, a test that measures speed and agility when moving side-to-side.

Reinbacher is the kind of defenseman that could be paired with an offensive defenseman as a steady supporting presence. He's not overly physical, but he has a physical dimension to his game, something that could always be improved upon once he makes the jump to North America and adjusts to the smaller ice surface and different style of play.

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The prospect scouting website Elite Prospects says that Reinbacher is "a force in transition, active in all three zones, and proficient at generating defensive stops. He's a powerful, agile skater, but where he stands out is his commitment and ability to read the play and then react as a quality defensive defenseman."

Reinbacher is as well-rounded as they come for defensemen in this draft class. The general knock on his game is that there isn't any one part of his game that he's exceptional at. He projects more as a middle-pairing defenseman, not someone who is a team's future No. 1. I asked him what he thinks it is that sets him apart from other defensemen in this class.

"I would say I'm a good breakout defenseman," he said. "Good, long, stick. I'm calm with the puck, can skate out with the puck, and a good skater."

It's his offensive game that he wants to work on improving the most, he said.

"Moving along the blue line, getting shots through," Reinbacher said of his focuses. "And for sure the D zone, I have to be strong in the corners, boxing out the guys. Those are my goals for the next season.

Reinbacher isn't under contract anywhere for next season, but he said he'd like to stay another year in Switzerland and develop there. He's also going to a business school in Switzerland while playing, because he said it's important to him to have something under his belt besides hockey for the future. But he added that he'd be open to moving to North America as early as next season too, if that's what the team that drafts him decides is best. Unlike players drafted from Canadian junior hockey, Reinbacher is eligible to play in the AHL now. He doesn't have to wait until he's 20 years old.

For now, Reinbacher is heading to San Diego for the next two weeks until the draft. His agent Andrew Maloney connected him with trainer Chris Munford at California Sports Institute, where NHL players like Noah Dobson and Liam O'Brien train.

Reinbacher has the potential to become one of the faces of Austrian hockey, something he said would be a "big honor" for him personally. He wants to show Austrian kids -- especially ones from small towns like his -- that it's possible to reach the highest level of hockey one day. For now, he's just relishing going through the draft experience, and appreciating every step along the way.

"I'm a humble kid," Reinbacher said. "I'm enjoying every minute here. It's so exciting. Especially as an Austrian kid from a small town, I'm just enjoying being a part of it. It's unreal."

This is the fourth story in a series of player profiles from the NHL's Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., focusing on potential first-round picks for the Penguins.

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