Canadiens call up David Reinbacher with Noah Dobson out at least two weeks

The Canadiens aren’t going to have defenceman Noah Dobson when the NHL playoffs start next weekend.

The team announced Sunday morning that Dobson suffered an upper-body injury during Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Bell Centre. Dobson blocked a shot with his left thumb during the second period and didn’t return to the game.

The Canadiens said Dobson will be re-evaluated in two weeks, which means he likely broke his thumb. The Canadiens also announced Sunday morning that they have called up defenceman David Reinbacher from the AHL’s Laval Rocket.

Reinbacher, the fifth overall pick at the 2023 NHL Draft, has 5-19-24 totals and a plus-18 differential in 57 games this season with Laval. The 21-year-old defenceman will likely make his NHL debut Sunday in New York against the Islanders (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS). The Canadiens will play their final regular-season game Tuesday in Philadelphia against the Flyers (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS).

The Canadiens still don’t know who their first-round playoff opponent will be. After Saturday’s loss, they were in third place in the Atlantic Division with a 47-23-10 record, tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning (49-25-6) in points and two points behind the first-place Buffalo Sabres (49-23-8). If the playoffs started Sunday, the Canadiens would play the Lightning in the first round.

The Sabres and Lightning both have the day off Sunday.

The loss of Dobson is a big one. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound defenceman ranks third on the team in ice time, averaging 22:29 per game. Fellow defencemen Mike Matheson (24:08) and Lane Hutson (23:45) are ahead of him.

In 80 games, Dobson has 12-35-47 totals and he leads the NHL in blocked shots with 188.

“He plays big minutes,” head coach Martin St. Louis said about Dobson after Saturday’s game. “Great on breakout, transition. He kind of can do it all. I was surprised that he leads the league in block shots, which is another element. So he brings a lot.”

The Canadiens are also missing defencemen Kaiden Guhle and Alexandre Carrier with injuries.

With Dobson leaving Saturday’s game in the second period, defenceman Arber Xhekaj logged a season-high 19:44 of ice time, while Hutson logged 26:43.

“I know he played like 19 (minutes), but there was a lot of good minutes in there, which is good,” St. Louis said about Xhekaj. “It’s encouraging. I thought he played to his identity. He was physical.”

The Canadiens acquired Dobson from the New York Islanders last summer in exchange for forward Emil Heineman and two first-round picks (16th and 17th overall) at last year’s NHL Draft. Before the trade was completed, Dobson agreed to an eight-year, US$76-million contract with an annual salary-cap hit of US$9.5 million, making him the highest-paid player on the Canadiens.

When asked what the team’s young defencemen have been able to learn from Dobson this season, St. Louis said: “I don’t know if it’s one thing. Guys might pick up different things because I feel like he can do pretty much everything. So I don’t know if it’s one thing. It might be different from every defenceman based on kind of their identity. But I feel he can help out in all our defencemen.”

Now the Canadiens are going to be without him for at least two weeks.

[email protected]

x.com/StuCowan1

The post Canadiens call up David Reinbacher with Noah Dobson out at least two weeks appeared first on Montreal Gazette.