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Arber Xhekaj: his brother Florian will get him out of Montreal
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Arber Xhekaj: his brother Florian will get him out of Montreal
Credit: Getty Images
Arber Xhekaj won’t be playing tonight.

At the end of the season, Martin St-Louis chose to leave his sturdy defenseman out more often than not. He obviously didn’t like his reliability (that must be one reason for his repeated absences, anyway) and Jayden Struble was preferred to him.

The result? Right now, the Sheriff isn’t 100% ready to play when needed. He only played once in April, on the 6th against Nashville.

Of necessity, seeing Xhekaj sidelined more often than not makes it easy to wonder about his future. Does the CH still see him as part of the solution for the future?

The question arises.

Do his on-ice decisions make him an unreliable player for the CH? Does the fact that he’s become too popular (for a player of his stature) mean that the CH wants to break him? #Burgers

Remember when the CH coach made a point of saying that the Sheriff wasn’t his nickname in the dressing room…

All of which is to say that, considering all of this, it’s fair to wonder, at the very least, what the CH sees for Arber Xhekaj in the future. These are questions that we have, more than ever, the right to ask ourselves.

That’s why we’re going to ask ourselves: what makes Xhekaj indispensable?

Obviously, the first thing that comes to mind is his physical game and the respect he commands on the ice. The CH guys are taller when WiFi is dressed, and opponents are calmer.

But as a defenseman, seeing him fight and get penalized doesn’t help his cause, as you know.

Of course, the CH could turn him into a forward (maybe this summer, who knows?), but that doesn’t seem to be Montreal’s priority right now with #72.

Which is whyArber could be traded if the CH has an interesting offer on the table… and the club might consider replacing him with a guy with similar qualities – and the same last name.

Florian “La Licorne” Xhekaj has scored 24 AHL goals (at age 20) this year, and likes to play hard, as evidenced by his 175 penalty minutes. At 6’4 and 195 lbs, according to Hockey DB, he can defend himself well.

Is it utopian to think that little brother could make big brother less indispensable? I don’t think it’s far-fetched. Quite the contrary, if you ask me.

If Jeff Gorton, who lost his job in New York because his Rangers were getting shuffled around too much, decides to put his foot down in terms of toughness, he could turn to Florian.

Why would he do that? Because, with so many left-handed defensemen in town in Montreal, we’re seeing less and less of Arber’s place. And the last few weeks have shown that the CH isn’t keen to do everything possible to play him in the most important moments.

The more time goes by, the fiercer the battle on the blue line will become. David Reinbacher is going to push, which will eventually cut one more spot on the club’s blue line.

It’s almost as if, listening to a member of the Habs organization, Reinbacher has a better chance of playing in the NHL playoffs than WiFi. We don’t expect Reinbacher to be recalled and we know Pascal Vincent talked about it as a formality, but you know what I mean.

The more I think about it, the more I tell myself that the guy who’s going to get Arber out of Montreal is Florian, who has a perfect profile for the fourth trio of the future. It’s probably not what he wants, we agree, but by necessity, it could happen.

Especially if, according to Chris Pronger, THE defenseman’s great quality (his toughness) can’t make the difference right now for the CH, a defenseman who loved the physical game in his day.


in a row

– Wow.

– Indeed: you have to hit.

– Ivan Demidov wants to improve.

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