MONTREAL – Vinzenz Rohrer swears he was once an Austrian national junior tennis champion... or something like that.
“It’s funny that you bring that up,” he laughed. “My brother and I always debate whether it was a national championship or a Masters title.”
Dad would probably know. He, too, was a tennis player. Professional, in fact. Rohrer’s father, Stefan Lochbihler, reached a career-high ranking of No. 141 and won a 1989 ATP Challenger Tour title in Sau Paolo, Brazil.
National champion or not, by age 12, Rohrer had a big decision to make –– so big, it would quietly change the course of his life.
“My dad always put a lot of value on playing a lot of sports when I was younger,” the Canadiens prospect recalled. “I wasn’t too sure if I’d play hockey — it was either that or tennis.”
Hockey won.
And nearly a decade later, that choice continues to shape his story.
Fresh off a breakout performance at the 2025 IIHF World Championship –– both personally and from a team standpoint –– the Austrian is hoping to ride that wave into a defining season in his young career.
More likely than not, that will be with Zurich in Switzerland’s National League, where Rohrer has won two league championships and the 2025 Champions Hockey League title. Last season, he totalled 25 points with the Lions –– a 31.5% uptick in productivity from his rookie campaign.
“I know I can play really good hockey,” said Rohrer, who finished fourth on Team Austria with six points in eight games on the world stage this year. “It’s obviously a good thing when you can show at a tournament like that, that you’re doing a good job internationally, too. The league in Switzerland is already pretty good but seeing the results on an international level –– that’s pretty cool too.”
Collectively, it was a historic run for the Austrians, who qualified for the quarterfinals for the first time in 31 years.
“The first thing that comes to my mind, is how cool it was for all the guys on the team,” Rohrer told canadiens.com. “There was such great team spirit, and I was just so happy for the other guys.”
Scoring on a future Hall-of-Famer in Marc-André Fleury, the Habs hopeful proved he didn’t just belong at the World Championship –– he stood out. And now, he hopes his strong showing at the event is just the beginning of what’s to come.
Already since then, he’s taken another step. On June 14, Montreal signed Rohrer to a three-year entry-level contract, a clear sign of confidence in the 2022 third-round pick. Now, it’s up to the 20-year-old to keep building.
“Overall, getting better at everything,” he said of his summer goals. “The physical part of things has been a topic for a while now, but I think I’m getting closer to where I want to be.”
One of the places he’s hoping that progress leads him? Montreal.
Rohrer is expected to be at Canadiens Training Camp in September, where he’ll reunite with friend and countryman David Reinbacher –– someone he says he’s known for about a decade.
“We grew up really close to each other. I already knew him when I was younger from the selection camps in Austria. We’re friends. He got drafted a year later than me, and I was waiting for him at development camp [in 2023]. When he arrived the day after the draft, we sat in a steakhouse together, and we said, ‘Wow, it’s pretty cool, to be honest, to now have two Austrians sitting here in Montreal.’”
Cooler still, perhaps, would be suiting up in Habs jerseys together –– something that could happen as early as the Prospect Showdown hosted by the Canadiens at the Bell Centre in mid-September.
Ahead of that, Rohrer has spoken to his Zurich teammates and former Habs, Sven Andrighetto and Yannick Weber, who told him, “Montreal is exciting. Hockey is really popular there in a way where everything is about the sport.”
“I think they said something about a nice city, too,” he finished.
Truth is, there’s no better hockey city in the world. If 21,000 fans packing the Bell Centre for an exhibition game isn’t proof of that, we’re not sure what is.
And chances are, Rohrer will get a taste of it during the team’s second Prospect Showdown presented by IGA in collaboration with Voisin, set for September 13 and 14.
TICKETS TO THE PROSPECT SHOWDOWN
