{"id":161489,"date":"2025-09-22T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161489\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:33:07","slug":"matured-arber-xhekaj-ready-to-be-the-player-canadiens-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161489\/","title":{"rendered":"Matured Arber Xhekaj ready to be the player Canadiens need"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 This was Arber Xhekaj<\/a> in full flight, executing at high speed and with precision all over the ice. He was decisive, dominant, and, quite frankly, like we\u2019ve never seen him before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely did work on my feet, and I lost some body fat as well,\u201d Xhekaj confirmed after his second of two standout performances in scrimmages to start Montreal Canadiens<\/a> training camp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel more mobile out there, like I can move better,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

And then Xhekaj identified that other element that has given him an edge on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the big thing is just confidence,\u201d Xhekaj said.<\/p>\n

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He flashed a lot of it at 21, when he first came up as an undrafted, relatively unknown alpha dog looking to mark his territory. He was big, bad, willing to fight anyone, eager to hit anything in his path, keen to show off skills you wouldn\u2019t expect a player of his profile to have \u2014 and he succeeded. At six-foot-four, 240 pounds, with strong skating and an equally powerful shot, he often got past traffic and on net, and with hands that could just as easily bloody his opponents as they could deceive them, Xhekaj immediately established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the NHL.<\/p>\n

And then he was less and less of one over each of the next two seasons.<\/p>\n

Learning how to really play hockey in the world\u2019s best league humbled Xhekaj, just as it had many young defencemen before him.<\/p>\n

There was the demotion to the AHL in 2023-24. And then all those short-shift games that led to no-shift games in 2024-25, with Xhekaj scratched from the stretch run that finally clinched the Canadiens\u2019 playoff berth before being scrubbed from the first two games the team played against the Washington Capitals in Round 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of it was painful for him to go through.<\/p>\n

But it was also formative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It shaped the most productive summer of Xhekaj\u2019s professional career, and it prepared him to tap much further into his massive potential.<\/p>\n

We saw the signs at the start of Canadiens camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see he\u2019s very, very, very engaged,\u201d the coach said on Saturday. \u201cHe\u2019s working hard, and we\u2019re seeing something fun happening with Arber through these first few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeing an athlete nearing his physical peak. And in a great headspace.<\/p>\n

He said not having to rehab a major injury for the first summer since starting his NHL career \u2014 he had right shoulder surgery in February 2023 and left shoulder surgery in April 2024 \u2014 was a big factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference is after the last two summers I came into camp unsure of my shoulder,\u201d Xhekaj continued. \u201cI would have to use camp to get my shoulder back into it instead of just showing up and already being okay and having that confidence going into camp rather than coming in trying to build that confidence through camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my mind is just clear,\u201d Xhekaj said.<\/p>\n

Experience has removed the fog.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just maturity,\u201d said Xhekaj. \u201cYou\u2019re learning from Marty, you\u2019re watching guys every day and learning from them, learning from (assistant coach St\u00e9phane Robidas), learning from (David Savard), who was my D partner for the last couple of years. You just learn from guys and learn what you need to do to stick around in this league and become an everyday NHL player. That\u2019s what I\u2019m shooting for.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s what his summer was about. It\u2019s what motivated Xhekaj to make 6 a.m. runs to the rink, to take advantage of every second of ice afforded to him and his brother, Florian, and to push through the gruelling 90-minute workouts that followed. It\u2019s what inspired significant dietary changes. And it\u2019s what enabled him to really sharpen his focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I would go home in the summers before, I wouldn\u2019t necessarily know specifically what I had to work on. I\u2019d go home and be like, \u2018Alright, I\u2019ve gotta get faster, stronger, and get my hands going quicker, shoot pucks,\u2019\u201d Xhekaj said. \u201cBut this time, it was like, \u2018No, I\u2019ve got to work on specific areas of skating; the corner speed coming out of turns. Work on gapping up and surfing, flipping your feet and your stick, and all that kind of stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n

I watched a ton of video (Canadiens director of development) Adam Nicholas sent me this summer to work on my specific game, and I think it\u2019s going to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is already showing, and it should continue to do so.<\/p>\n

Not that there won\u2019t be hiccups along the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As St. Louis cautioned, Xhekaj is still a young defenceman. He\u2019s still only 24 years old and just 165 games into his career.<\/p>\n

But the Hamilton, Ont., native has entered a new phase of that career. A critical phase all players of his experience must navigate precisely to reach \u2014 or even exceed \u2014 their potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a maturity both on and off the ice and they really (must) figure out how they need to play to take 150 games to 700, 800 and, in some cases, 1000,\u201d said St. Louis, who entered the NHL undrafted, played 1241 games (regular season and playoffs combined) and retired a Stanley Cup-winning, Art Ross Trophy-lifting Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that happens during that time where I feel like Arber\u2019s tracking right now,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think maturity\u2019s a big part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other part is even bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I like about Arber is he constantly wants to get better, and I think that\u2019s the most important skill you need to have if you do want to play for a long time,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cI see it with my own eyes right now. He\u2019s worked on stuff and it\u2019s paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the dividends keep coming in, it could pay big for Xhekaj at the end of this final year of his contract for $1.3 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if that happens, it\u2019ll be profitable for the Canadiens, too, because they can really use the player that Xhekaj looks like right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD, Que. \u2014 This was Arber Xhekaj in full flight, executing at high speed and with precision all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-161489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}