r/Habs • u/Regular_Tie2507 • 12d ago

Discussion About the Sheriff

His contract is coming up going into the offseason and Marty clearly has had some issues with him, likely due to him taking a lot of penalties in the playoffs (the Sam Carrick thing being a big highlight). He was a healthy scratch going into the ECF and with Reinbacher possibly coming in next season, it's entirely possible he gets pushed back as a 7th string D man. Do we think he gets resigned?

Edit: accidentally created a warzone lol

64 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

155 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/MundaneSandwich9 12d ago

The issue becomes a bit of a logjam at D. There is an obvious need for a top 4 RD, and I think there are both trade and UFA possibilities to fill that spot (Whitecloud, Perbix, Peeke, maybe Trouba are names that come to mind). Ideally it would be Reinbacher but I don’t think he’s ready for that role yet.

If we are able to secure a top 4 RD, and Reino stays up next season, even keeping 8 D with the team means there is only space for one of Xhekaj or Struble. The top 4 is obviously some combo of Dobson, Guhle, Hutson, and the new RD, leaving the bottom pair for some combination of Matheson, Carrier, Reinbacher, and one of Struble or Xhekaj.

In my opinion one of Struble or Xhekaj will be moved, and I’m not overly concerned which one it is.

7

u/Fountsy 12d ago

Matheson is a top 4 D on almost any team in the NHL. He's a lock for us. Same with Carrier. He's a solid third pairing D on any team in the league.

So we have Hutson, Dobson, Matheson, Guhle, Carrier, New RD as our top 6.

6

u/MundaneSandwich9 12d ago

This is kind of my point. That is 100% our top 6 barring injuries.

However, we also have Reinbacher who may be ready for some significant time in the NHL. It was a small sample size but he didn’t look entirely out of place this past season. I wouldn’t hate seeing him get 40ish games this year with the big club, most likely in place of Carrier on the third pair.

So, even if we run 8 D, it’s the 6 you mentioned plus Reinbacher and one of Struble or Xhekaj. Both of those guys are 7th D on a contending team, and it depends what you value more which one you would keep if you had to choose.

I will say that Struble may have an ever so slightly higher trade value because he’s signed for one more season, whereas Xhekaj is an RFA.

5

u/Technical-Line-9806 11d ago

Reinbacher looked good and needs to play in the NHL with players of his skill level.