The Montreal Canadiens could kill two birds with one stone if coach Martin St-Louis is willing to give said stone a try.
When the Montreal Canadiens were manhandled by the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, it was obvious they could have used more grit and physicality and needed more balance on the blueline. To truly contend, Martin St-Louis needs a defense corps he can trust and to spread ice time across. Overplaying the likes of Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson can work in the regular season, but deep in the playoffs, when everyone is playing through bumps and bruises, there needs to be more players the bench boss can rely on.
Arber Xhekaj didn’t play a single game against the Hurricanes in the third round. St-Louis preferred to use Jayden Struble, which shouldn’t have surprised anyone since the coach gives him more ice time than Xhekaj. While he may trust Struble more, the fact is that the Canadiens really could have used Xhekaj’s physicality in that series.
St-Louis has often said that he doesn’t want his players to take themselves out of the play by chasing the big hit, and while that’s something number 72 was often guilty of in previous years, he tidied up that side of his game this past season. That wasn’t enough to really earn him the pilot’s trust on the back end, though, and with Josh Anderson out of the lineup with an illness and Alexandre Texier injured, the blueliner made it clear he’d be willing to play on the wing if the team needed him to.
On March 29, St-Louis took him up on the offer and played him on the fourth line against the Hurricanes. The Canadiens won that game 3-1 with Xhekaj skating on the fourth line with Joe Veleno and Brendan Gallagher. The winger for the day spent 5:11 on the ice across six shifts and didn’t look out of place, landing five hits and blocking one shot.
The Sainte-Flanelle have a congested blueline, and they need some sandpaper up front. If Xhekaj gets into a fight and must sit for five minutes, it’s easier to handle if he’s a fourth-line winger than if he is on the blueline, especially if there’s another defenseman in the box.
At 25, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound defenseman would no doubt like to establish himself as a regular NHLer rather than a fringe player who needs to sit every now and then, alternating with fellow blueliner Struble. This would also open the door for Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher to enter the rotation.
So far this offseason, Kent Hughes has been unable to get some outside help to improve his roster, but if the Canadiens manage to reach a new deal with Xhekaj, moving him up front might address two of their big issues: getting tougher and having a more balanced blueline that the coach trusts and can spread the ice time more evenly. It worked for Dustin Byfuglien and the Chicago Blackhawks back in the day; why couldn’t it work for the Habs? Of course, Xhekaj won’t end up on the first line as Byfuglien did with Jonathan Toews and Patrik Kane, but a transition to the fourth line would still help the Canadiens.
It could also be interesting to see what a line featuring the Xhekaj brothers would look like in the NHL, but it would certainly bring a lot of physicality and grit. If training camp starts without the Canadiens getting any outside help, this is an idea worth exploring for the Habs.
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