{"id":895557,"date":"2026-09-14T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895557\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T15:32:10","slug":"montreal-canadiens-closing-on-new-deal-with-rfa-arber-xhekaj-before-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/895557\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens closing on new deal with RFA Arber Xhekaj before camp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/montreal-canadiens\/8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/montreal-canadiens\/8\" target=\"_blank\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are progressing on a new contract with restricted free agent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/arber-xhekaj\/8482964\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/arber-xhekaj\/8482964\" target=\"_blank\">Arber Xhekaj<\/a>, TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">LeBrun adds that while no deal is done yet, the expectation is Xhekaj will be signed and on the ice for training camp this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Xhekaj, 25, recorded a goal, four points, and 116 penalty minutes in 65 games with the Canadiens last season while averaging 11:25 of ice time. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He added a goal and two points in 13 playoff games as the Canadiens were eliminated in the Eastern Conference Final. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 6-foot-4, left-shot defenceman is coming off a two-year, $2.6 million contract that carried a cap hit of $1.3 million. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Canadiens in 2021, Xhekaj has 10 goals and 33 points in 230 career games.<\/p>\n<p>Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Montreal Canadiens are progressing on a new contract with restricted free agent Arber Xhekaj, TSN Hockey Insider&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[712,49,48,2338,78846],"class_list":["post-895557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-canadiens-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895557","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=895557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}