Prominent Montreal Canadiens Analyst Is Certain Arber Xhekaj Is on His Way Out Of Montreal

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Julien Trekker
October 25, 2024 (1:13 PM)

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A respected Canadiens analyst is certain that young defenseman Arber Xhekaj is not in Montreal's future plans and could find himself on the way out soon.

In 2021, the Montreal Canadiens hit a home run when they signed Arber Xhekaj, who went undrafted, to an entry-level contract. Fans were happy to finally get a physical player who's not afraid of stepping up for his teammates with an offensive edge. Unfortunately, things took a bad turn for him this season.

After a controversial preseason, where Xhekaj was ejected from two games, it looked like Martin St. Louis had enough and decided to scratch him for the past two games, replacing him with Jayden Struble instead.

Xhekaj was widely criticized for the lack of improvement since he came to Montreal, especially defensively. He's making more mistakes and seems far from his usual aggressive style at the moment, and he looks like he's in his own head instead of being on the ice, making more people turn against him.

Arber Xhekaj's Growing List Of Critics

Jean-Charles Lajoie of TVA Sports, recently published an article regarding Xhekaj's future in Montreal entitled 'The Future of Arber Xhekaj Is No Longer in Montreal' and explained that the polarizing defenseman hasn't shown he belongs on the team and isn't going to factor into their future plans.

"Clearly, he hasn't had the start of the season he was hoping for. Why? Obviously, primarily due to his own mistakes, but it would be simple to blame it all on him.

He entered the preseason like a bull in rut he wanted to impose his rule he broke everything in his path.

Do you think everyone was thrilled with Arber's actions? You can believe it if you want, but I refuse to drink that Kool-Aid."

Lajoie continued, touching on Xhekaj's defensive lapses and undisciplined behavior:

"The actions taken by Arber were not exactly bright I think the traces of his behavior are visible on the ice when he plays this season.

I like Arber a lot, but I am convinced that he is not in the organization's medium-term plans.

There isn't a player or manager who likes losing a game due to pure and simple acts of indiscipline from one of the team's players."

Lajoie wasn't the only expert to believe the Canadiens could trade Xhekaj. TSN's Pierre LeBrun also believes the Canadiens could be looking at their options to move Xhekaj. Trades early in the season don't happen often but if Montreal is desperate to move on from Xhekaj they make take swift action.

In my opinion, it's still too early in the season to think about trading a promising and young defenseman. Xhekaj deserves a chance to show what he can bring to the table. We saw during the Canadiens' last game that Montreal needs Xhekaj. Following Jacob Trouba's controversial hit on Justin Barron, Mike Matheson stepped in to defend Barron and got himself ejected. You can't let your top defensemen drop the gloves and risk injuries defending a teammate when you have Xhekaj for that specific reason.

Xhekaj may not be as reliable defensively as others, but he brings a unique skill set that would be missed in Montreal if he were to be traded.