I was honestly confused by sending X down, initially I thought it was a conditioning stint but it does not look that way now. I personally thought he was playing well defensively compared to last year and had even made strides offensively. The only thing that was a little issue was him taking penalties which I thought he could’ve dialed down the carelessness a little bit. These underlying numbers aren’t bad at all, plus he brings toughness and physicality so I’m not sure why he is exactly in the AHL right now. Curious to hear what everyone on this sub thinks !
by Few-Quiet-283
28 Comments
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I don’t think he was playing great defensively, Struble has seemed way more stable defensively than Xhekaj was and in a young dman I think that’s more important than the occasional goal as neither are offensive powerhouses
Guhle X Matheson Barron Struble Kova should be the six Rn. When Harris comes back you can rotate him and X I guess
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance
X will get better, let him find his game on the AHL. Let the current Habs toughen up without him a bit.
X gonna be back soon.
I thought he was really poor to start this year, interesting to see those stats. I still think he’s a part of the team long term.
That’s why you need to watch the games and not just look at advanced stats. Xhekaj was just not playing well, no matter what numbers you can find. He wasn’t necessarily horrible-must-be-returned-to-the-AHL-at-all-costs level, but anyone who is confused by this move has not been paying attention. The same could very well happen to Harris if he wasn’t injured.
Here the way I see it and I could be wrong.
Xhekaj have had ups and down this season (which is to be expected) and just came back from an injury. He show each season that he have more potential than we think. I can see the management believing that Xhekaj with his rare set of skill would be a perfect longterm 3rd pairing guy that might be able to get into a top 4 when needed.
With all that in mind and the fact that we probably gonna have to trade one of our young LD at some point. I can see the management trying to deal with two problems at the same time.
1) Send Xhekaj in the AHL to improve his game (At the end of the day he is still young, I doubt he have nothing to learn from the AHL).
2) Showcase other young D in the big club so we can trade them this season or next off season.
He definitely deserves to be in the lineup over Kovacevik
Having a player under 23 play in the AHL should never be considered a negative. It’s all about development
A lot of this comes down to roster limitations around who can be sent down and who can’t. Let X build up his game in Laval, it won’t hurt him. We need to showcase some of the tradable pieces like Savard, Lindstrom, etc. We have a surplus of NHL calibre D men and this is a very good position to be in.
Does this take into account quality of opposition?
Marc Dumont is legit
It is what it is.
I think barron has taken a step past the others, but we have a group of guys in xhekaj, Harris, kovacevic, struble, lindstrom, and norlinder who are all close in age and 5th or 6th dmen in the nhl.
The habs are best to rotate them in to show they cam play in the nhl and then move some of these guys for other needed assets.
Arber also gets way more offensive zone starts than anyone else on that list
Arber has the highest offensive zone start % of that group and is one of two defenders on this team with oZS% higher than 50, and he almost certainly gets easier matchups
xGf% isn’t that useful on it’s own
I am not undermining his hockey play but after last night we need X in NHL. It’s headhunting season if he isnt, we have seen that time and again.
We shouldn’t have to rely on Slaf to take the sting out of game.
I know there was an entire thread dedicated to this a couple days ago, but:
Matheson
Guhle
Xhekaj
Struble
Harris
Hutson
Engstrom
That’s a lot of LH defensemen, too bad that a lot of teams are stacked at LD. Hard to see how this will shake out in 2 years time. Also, guys like Trudeau will likely never see time in the NHL with this organization.
The one thing I miss Xhekaj for is breakouts. He’s suprisingly good at finding the weak side winger and can use his body and skating to not be perpetually resetting breakouts with lazy backhand passes to no one in particular. When it clicks that he’s a damned good hockey player that needs to put in a lot of work and not just the sheriff, we’ll start to see what he can really do. On another note, would it be too much to ask for our young guys that havn’t even played a full season to not be involved in media outside of team obligations? It would be easy for it to go to a young guys head, especially someone that no one really believed in, that they “made it”. They will have plenty of time to do endorsements once they find their place in the league.
I’d have him on the team just to prevent what happened last night. No reason slaf needs to be throwing fists.
I think he is being punished for something and it almost seems like they told him not to fight because he seemed to skate away from the scrums in Laval. I don’t like it because having him on the ice, players stay away from his side and know when he’s on the ice to keep their heads up.Without him our D are not very physical.Coach seems to have a lot more patience for some of the other young guys
How is it exactly calculated? The expected part is not clear for me haha.
I still really like Struble, he is not far off from X with a snall sample.
I’m warming to the idea that management just wants to rein-in this “Sherriff ” business…the big wide brimmed hat, the Sheriff Burger etc…he’s coming back soon, and he’s permanent…but dude, tone it down a bit, this is the Montreal Canadiens…we’re classy here.
Sheltered minutes.
Guhle is obviously better than Xhekaj, but plays against the best forwards.
With that said, he’s good and has potential to learn and become a really solid core player. Needs more discipline. Offsetting 5 minutes is one thing, but giving powerplays to the opponents is bad
Not to mention he has a different D partner every night. He deserves to be playing
He was clubbing it out in Laval last night. He doesn’t seem too bummed out about it.
While the Canadiens have this incredible glut of waiver exempt defensemen, there may be a lot of call ups, this is still a development focused season, so it would make sense if they did.
Among Mtl defencemen, he has dbl the PiM of the next-closest Mtl defender- in 9 less games, is 8th in TOI/GP, and has three points.
I believe that xGF% can be viewed as a right time-right place stat in his case. He was sent down to settle down.