Hockey

Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj: no, there’s no controversy over their salaries
Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj: no, there’s no controversy over their salaries
Credit: Getty Images

Jayden Struble signed a two-year contract this week. The American defenseman, who was eligible for arbitration, avoided the unpleasant process of going before an arbitrator by signing a contract worth $1.4125M per year. The fact that he earns slightly more per year than Arber Xhekaj was raised (the Sheriff earns $1.3 million per year from 2024 to 2026), which is normal under the circumstances. That was to be the end of the story. But it's not normal for it to be controversial. As Nicolas Cloutier pointed out, there's too much talk for what it is.But right now, there's too much talk.

Because in reality, it's normal for two players not to earn exactly the same salary. Few players on the Habs have exactly the same cap hit…But above all, as Nicolas Cloutier reminds us, Struble had arbitration rights and the salary cap has gone up in the last year. When you look at it from another angle, you can turn the situation around. After all, you know as well as I do that it's easy to make numbers mean whatever you want. Take the cap percentage at the time of signing and you have another picture, for example

  • Arber Xhekaj: $1.3M on an $88M cap hit… that's 1.48% of the mass
  • Jayden Struble: $1.4125M on a $95.5M cap hit… that's 1.48% of payroll

In fact, both guys have the same percentage when they sign. It's not a round number that Struble signed, which leads me to believe that Arber's contract was used as a comparable. No, there's no controversy in my eyes between the two defensemen.

'Overtime'

– Still.

– To be read.

– Aatos Koivu stands out. [BPM Sports] – Really?

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