I don’t understand the bitterness and weird ressentment from Leroux against Xhekaj in that recent clip of l’Antichambre…
Lol, where does that come from?
At least the others doesn’t agree with Leroux’s opinion.
https://www.rds.ca/videos/hockey/lnh/canadiens/antichambre-le-sherif-est-en-ville-3.1432501
The main point of discussion was; In 3 years, do you think that Arber will still be in the lineup when the Habs will be more competitive.
I think that Arber will still be very relevant and important for this team.
– What do you guys think?
by dariusman11
20 Comments
On ability alone he probably won’t be one of the Habs best options three years from now, Guhle, Hutson, Matheson, Engstrom, on the left side all project a lot better, but the Habs clearly love him so I think they’ll make space on the bottom pair by trading some D prospects away.
I love Arber but I think his perceived value will almost always be higher than his on ice value making him one of our most valuable trade chips. If we do hit on multiple of our D prospects and one needs to be traded I think it has to be him.
I think he will always have a niche with the team. It’s a little tougher to find him a spot since he’s a defenceman, but he’s very clearly a glue guy and is actually intimidating. Plus we can’t forget they drafted his brother higher than anyone expected, so they clearly love the family and their Habs passion.
Xhekaj is a unicorn type of player. The guy is 22 years old, he can fight and hold his own against heavyweight who’ve been doing it for years, he’s freakishly huge and strong and yet he skates really well, he shoots well, he can generate offence. He needs to get better defensively but this is not too hard to learn. I honestly can’t think of a similar D-man in the league.
I agree that in 2-3 years, he shouldn’t be in our Top-4, unless he develops really really well, but as #5-6 he would be extremely valuable to this team. Both on ice and in the locker room.
The line up they made is a best case scenario. All our Defenceman prospect broke out within their own ceiling as anticipated. Also, none of them is getting a second contract with astronomical cap that would push they other emerging guys outside the organization because of cap crunch.
Amber’s contract comes to end this summer, if we’re able to ink him long term to fair cap, it would be very welcome.
Arber will get an offer sheet of he become RFA, lots of team are missing that specific type of player.
If you’re to have a good team that expects to have playoff success, you need a guy like Arber.
Well since I’m pretty sure every team is envious of us for having him in our lineup, Jacko is going to be on our top 6 for years and he’s going to get paid. I agree we have a lot of depth but a lot of them are going to get traded away to patch some hole at offense.
Leroux might’ve fallen to the classic trap of overrating our prospects oversees.
I see the what you’re saying but that Leroux take isn’t *that* crazy. I don’t think X will become a top 4 D on a contending team. But could be an amazing 5-6. I would say his ceiling is a #4D in the sense that he would need a “leader” with him on a 2nd pair.
Now that being said, I personally think it’s a bad take and X should be on this team when we compete. We were talking about unicorns during the draft? Arber is a unicorn. Teams are ready to pay a big premium for that kind of players. We got him for free. Only his 2nd season in the pros and he’s showing progress. This is absolutely the kind of players you need for a playoff run.
What I love about him is that he wants to carve his place as a good D, not a fighter. This means that he’s going to keep working on his skills and not just on the fighting aspect. But for that, I think we eventually would need to get another tough guy(sorry but I don’t think Pezzetta can cut it). Someone who can share the fighting responsibility with X so he doesn’t waste prime development minutes in the penalty box or injured/concussioned.
Leroux backtracked like a pro then went hard at the end on his lack of old school measuring of hockey credentials.
I think Guy said it the best that in this division, there’s heavyweights…There’s gonna be some big battles, and that’s what 6/7 on the roster needs but in 3/4 years?? who knows
That being said I’d like to see a Max Domi vs Xhekaj with this [Domi vs Shayne Corson](https://youtu.be/cbMdoDzDCiM) vibe at Centre Bell
The archetype of Xhekaj is so bad for competing that almost everything competitive team in our division is acquiring a player just like him, but older and worse at hockey.
RDS has such a crappy website. Sorry im not going through 2x 2 mins of tv spot. Leroux however is an angry man and has a very bad reputation. Do not take any value over his opinion.
I dont hear any bitterness or resentment from Leroux. Where did you get that from?
He says that in 3 years, Habs most likely have Matheson, Guhle, Reinbacher, Hutson and Mailloux on their blueline. That’s 4/5 defensemen under 25. Savard will be 35 and gone by then. So Leroux thinks it’s more likely Montreal has another vet — implying here is a good defensemen of a contending teams’ level — to tutor the kids.
It’s nothing against Xhekaj personally. He also says that also means no Harris, Kovacevic or Barron.
I mean… We all know and are pretty excited about our depth of defensemen prospects. There’s only 6-7 defensemen spots though, so eventually guys you like might also get hedged out.
If by 2026 we have Xhekaj who can do a decent job but also Engstrom or Trudeau waiting behind who can be as good or better, and some team desperate for muscles offers a good deal for Xhekaj, I think Hughes maybe does what he did with Romanov and makes the trade knowing he has guys coming up to fill in.
You have to expect that. It’s not bitterness or resentment to look ahead and figure out things will change.
There is a real possibility that in 3-4 years maybe his value is reduced, but as long as teams keep having goons around like Ryan Reeves and keep attaching value to players going out there and trying to injure the other team, Arber has a place in the game. I remember the Habs when we were small, weak, and had no protection getting pummeled by the Bruins of old back in the early 2000s and heck, almost always. You gotta bring the size average up sometimes. Arber is a far cry from a “bad defenseman” and he is young, so let’s see how he develops.
Arber has some gifts (good skater, good hard wrister and slapper, his strength and physicality) that makes him a very unique package and a so an enticing player. Having said that, he’s very prone to over-committing, he’s not great in transition, he doesn’t have a particularly good zone exit strat and he makes some very suspicious decisions on his own zone. Unless this all changes radically, I’d agree with Leroux that he’s not a guy you want to have in your top 6 defensemen as a competing team. He’s probably a good #6-7 at that point.
It’s pretty rare for an undrafted big defensemen to have a long NHL career. With the prospects we have Xhekaj will have to fight for a spot at every training camp I imagine.
And while his skill set is pretty unique a contending team is never going to waste a defensemen’s spot for a guy that can fight. You only get to dress 6 of them a game and if he gets into a fight into the first few minutes of a period it’s going to fuck up the defense pairings for a while
While I love Arber and his story has been amazing so far unless he gets much better defensively I hope we can replace him with better players in the future if we are ever going to become a true year after year contender
The problem if we get rid of Xhekaj is that we will not have an actually menacing guy who can fight. The number of hits we recieved only because many teams hate the Habs caused too many injuries during the last years.
Really interesting discussion! In my opinion, 3 years is still far away. So far, what we’ve seen from Xhekaj is at the very least good for a defensemen of his age. People brought prospects names and what we expect from them and are right, there are young players in our pool that projects higher than him. I think we should not underestimate the fact that Xhekaj will get better himself tho.
His intimidating presence is the key factor that cannnot be ignored. Nobody in our roster and prospect pool has the same impact on the ice as Wifi.
I’d like to bring as well that I feel like Hugues and St-Louis seems to heavily value the importance to have a well connected group outside the ice that creates something special when it’s time to play real hockey, where it counts(playoff).
Am I the only one that feels like Xhekaj is already a REALLY important piece of our young core? Sometimes, removing a friend like he seems to be to everybody has a huge impact on other players.
I think the guy can have a Adam Mcquaid impact on this team. He was useful for years for the Bruins
I don’t agree with OP saying that Leroux is bitter or have any ressentment towards Arber. I agree with Leroux that at some point something’s gotta give. There will be trades because there will be a logjam on D at some point in the close future.
Now, does that mean Xhejak won’t become an even more effective player than he is now? I personally don’t think so. I think his offensive game can take several more steps. Right now, looks like Harris and Barron are the odd men out, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up staying in the end.
This is the ideal scenario for the Habs and why drafting Reinbacher was a good move for the team. Right now, they have all the pieces they will need to build a contending D, all they need is time to see who rises to the top. Once they’ll know, trade the rest and get better forwards.
I remember Leroux saying that trading Lehky for a 2nd round pick was ‘even’ for the habs because Lehky was himself a 2nd round pick. It’s a bit of a trend; Leroux puts a lot of importance on ‘draft rank’ to form an opinion on a player’s worth. So the fact that Xhekaj was undrafted probably weights unfavourably for Leroux.
He’s not wrong but he’s a little aggressive with his statement. In all honesty, he’ll be fighting for 3rd pair role IF everyone develops properly, which is never the case
It’s obvious that the team plans on having at least Hutson and Guhle as their top 2 left defensemen while having Reinbacher as their top right defenseman. Who the 2RD, 3LD and 3RD are in 3-4 years is up in the air. Is it Xhekaj, Engstrom, Mailloux, Harris, Barron, Struble, Konyushkov, etc?
I do think though that Matheson will be dealt before then. The haul you could get for a sub 5M defenseman who can play in your top 4 with his skillset is very attractive to teams