Arber Xhekaj talks about what the Canadiens mean to him

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Arber Xhekaj talks about what the Canadiens mean to him
Credit: Arianne Bergeron/NHLI via Getty Images

Over the weekend, as you may know, Arber Xhekaj was spotted in public.

Even though he doesn't have a contract yet, he represented the Canadiens at an event that gave fans the chance to meet some of the team's players.

It was at HockeyFest in Joliette.

Naturally, he was asked what the Canadiens mean to him. That's only to be expected, given that he's a restricted free agent.

He said that playing for the Habs means everything to him. That he feels the club is like a family. That the guys in the locker room are like his brothers. That they love playing together and have fun doing it.

So basically, he played the same old tune.

Note: I'm not saying the player doesn't mean what he says—quite the opposite. But we can all agree he couldn't exactly say the opposite in front of the cameras either.

My colleague Maxime Truman mentioned this recently (in an article about Zachary Bolduc, who keeps saying not to worry about his contract situation): the guys will say what's expected of them publicly.

That's normal—they're trained that way. Xhekaj isn't going to badmouth his GM or his coach in front of the cameras at an event like this.

The point this morning isn't to be a killjoy. It's just to remind everyone that, despite the fact that Xhekaj has publicly praised the Habs, it doesn't change the fact that he's still looking for a contract.

And so is Bolduc.

Back in July, it wasn't the end of the world. But the closer training camp gets, the more we realize that the Canadiens—who haven't met their summer goals to improve the team—could be missing two players from camp.

And that wouldn't be good news.


In a nutshell

– When will about ten teams get the first pick?

– Wow.

– Dylan Larkin is making headlines again.

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