Montreal Canadiens asked top NHL Draft prospect, Sam Dickinson, if he would hypothetically fight Arber Xhekaj
A prospect like London Knights defenseman, Sam Dickinson, who brings the total package along the blueline, naturally will have a lot of NHL teams desiring to draft him. One lucky team on Jun. 28th will drastically improve the future of their defense core when they announce his name as their selection in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.
With all those fixated eyes from NHL scouts on him comes a plentiful of draft interviews. Dickinson sat down, via a video call, with TSN’s Mark Masters to discuss what his experience was like interviewing with NHL teams, which included a spicy question from the Montreal Canadiens.
The OHL Champion said he interviewed with 20 teams and went through their hard-hitting questions to get to know the young man better. But the Habs made things interesting by asking him a hypothetical question involving their enforcer defenseman, Arber Xhekaj.
“They asked ‘If you got into a bag skate race with (Arber) Xhekaj and you were beating him a good amount of times and then he told you that you were going to let him win the last race, what would you do on that?’ ” Dickinson told Masters what the hypothetical question was.
What did he answer with? “Obviously, I had to say that I’d win the race.” But the Habs weren’t done with their fun little hypothetical just yet, “Then they asked, if we were scrimmaging the next day and he asked me to fight, how that would go down?”
Masters followed up by asking the question we all want to know the answer to, what was Dickinson’s answer? “Well, I kind of had to say at that point I would have to fight him. I don’t know how it would go down for me, but you know, I think I’d get a little bit of respect for you know, just having a fight with him,” Dickinson answered.
Dickinson does not have a fight on his resume and although the big 6-foot-3 defenseman isn’t afraid to stare down his opponents after the whistle, he doesn’t engage in much more than that.
Now, a fight during practice with Xhekaj isn’t maybe a moment he’d be looking forward to. But being drafted by the Montreal Canadiens would be a dream come true. “I’m from Toronto but I’m actually a Montreal Canadiens fan, so a little bit different than everybody else in Toronto.”
“My dad was a Montreal fan, so I was kind of forced to be a Montreal fan I guess. We had a bunch of Montreal Canadiens stuff, jerseys, and memorabilia down in our basement and didn’t have any Toronto stuff. He hates the Leafs so he kind of said me and my brother have to hate the Leafs as well.”
Montreal pick fifth overall in the first round of the NHL draft and Dickinson could be an option for them. Xhekaj surely would welcome him in open arms instead of throwing his fists in his face, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to teach Dickinson some fighting tactics to defend himself in case he ever does get into a scrap.