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Without Edmundson, Xhekaj would have been a perfect fit in return for Kaliyev

 Jessica Williams
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Without Edmundson, Xhekaj would have been a perfect fit in return for Kaliyev
Credit: Getty Images

For a while now, there’s been talk of Arthur Kaliyev being traded to the Habs. He doesn’t seem to be the club’s #1 target, but he’s the kind of player the Habs like to target.

A young forward who seems to need a change of scenery, doesn’t that remind you of Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook?

The question now is, what would a deal involving Kaliyev look like?

And in a piece for The Hockey News, Austin Stanovich, who’s been covering hockey in the Los Angeles area for a while, also finds the Habs a logical destination… but there’s one part of his text that’s a little surprising :

This is where the Joel Edmundson signing starts to hurt. […] The club wanted physical players, and Arber Xhekaj would have been a perfect fit. – Austin Stanovich

In his text, Stanovich notes that he knows that Tricolore management loves its defenseman and that he doesn’t know if the Habs would have been willing to trade him.

I think I can answer that question pretty easily: the Habs would never have traded Xhekaj for Kaliyev. Considering that Kent Hughes traded Alexander Romanov, no mean comparison for the Sheriff, for a 13th overall pick, let me doubt that he’d be willing to trade Xhekaj for Kaliyev, who seems to be on his way to becoming a third-line player (at best).

That said, Stanovich is right when he says that Xhekaj would probably have been a better option than Edmundson on a third pair. But as he adds, Edmundson’s arrival is the final nail in the coffin of that possibility.

For much the same reason, he believes that Adam Engström is no longer a logical target for the Kings… but he wonders if the Habs would be willing to give Emil Heineman or Florian Xhekaj in return for Kaliyev.

The idea would be to go for a prospect who seems “safer” playing on a supporting line, basically.

I understand why Xhekaj is seen as a guy who would have been a logical target for such a deal… but I have a feeling it would have been pretty poorly received in Montreal.

Without putting him among the untouchables, the Habs can at least hope to get a higher-quality player if they trade Xhekaj, right?


Overtime

– Good words for Jacob Fowler.

– The subject continues to be the talk of the town.

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