By most conventional methods, Arber Xhekaj probably shouldn’t inspire this level of devotion.
With the Montreal Canadiens’ season opener tonight, Habs fans are aglow with excitement with a confirmed lineup consisting of their favourite players, including Caufield, Suzuki, Slafkovský, and, of course, Demidov. A young team full of offensive talent and the addition of Chris Kreider just prior to the start of the season only adds to the feeling that Montreal has legitimate playoff potential before the puck even drops in Toronto.
But plenty of Habs fans were looking for one name in particular: Arber Xhekaj.
The Montreal Gazette
Yes, he’s on the list, and frankly, it seems there would be riots if he wasn’t. Habs fans love to see him play. They love his aggression and protectiveness on the ice. They became visibly frustrated by his limited minutes during both the regular season and playoff run last year. They wanted him on the ice. They wanted him signed. They wanted him on their team.
But why?
Because if we are basing it solely on hockey metrics, the answer isn’t very obvious to, well, anybody.
Xhekaj, born in Hamilton, Ontario, went undrafted in both of his bids in the 2020 and 2021 NHL Drafts but received a training camp invitation from the Canadiens prior to the 2021–2022 season, after which he signed an entry-level deal for three years in October 2021.
Management initially had him pegged for a Laval Rocket fixture, despite his aggressive style of play and reputation in the OHL for what The Hockey News described as “[a blend of] the old-school enforcer with the modern-day defensive blueliner.” He established a regular spot in the Canadiens’ lineup after injuries to Mike Matheson and Joel Edmundson left vacancies for defensemen ahead of the 2022–2023 season and managed to pick up 5 goals, 8 assists, and 101 penalty minutes over the course of 51 games played.
And those numbers haven’t exploded.
In fact, offensively, they’ve gotten worse.
Over the course of the 2025–2026 season, Xhekaj played a total of 65 games, managing only 1 goal and 3 assists and securing a team-high 116 penalty minutes. A healthy scratch for quite a few of those games in place of other Habs defensemen like Jayden Struble, he was fighting for a roster spot amongst proven producers such as Lane Hutson, Kaiden Guhle, or Mike Matheson. Xhekaj played only 1:52 during the Game 7 bout against the Buffalo Sabres and was then replaced with Struble for the first game of the next series against Carolina.
Some fans felt he was disliked by the coaching staff, especially Martin St. Louis, who they feel keeps the defenseman on a “shorter leash” compared to other players who get more minutes or a more consistent place on the roster. St. Louis responded, “Arber knows I love him, although the perception can sometimes cloud things. Playing defense in the NHL is one of the most difficult positions, especially as a young player…I know his main asset is his physicality & I don’t want to remove that but it doesn’t mean that every shift you’ll have an opportunity to be physical.”
Despite this, many fans still feel there is a distrust in Xhekaj’s play from the bench and feel it might be difficult to overcome in terms of cohesiveness of the team. Could be a risk vs reward idea, and, if you listen to a lot of the Arber-haters, the risk of his play heavily outweighs the rewards the score might receive.
It’s difficult to dismiss that argument outright.
So, if he’s not a top-producing defenseman, doesn’t secure high minutes, finished fifth in the league in penalty minutes, and played only 65 out of 82 games last season, why do Canadiens fans want him out there so badly?
It’s to the point where William Bourget, writing for The Hockey Writers, brought forth the idea of Xhekaj playing as a fourth-line winger to keep him in the mix more often, using his size and aggressiveness offensively instead of in front of the netminder. That’s also a lot easier said than done.
And it raises the larger question anyway: why are we trying this hard to find somewhere to put him?
Sure, he’s got size on his side at 6’4” and 240 lbs., and he can fight like a pit bull, but to what benefit is this when the Habs are currently dealing with a “steak too juicy, lobster too buttery” situation? They’ve got three goalies in rotation, multiple players fighting for a spot with the forwards camp, and now, with Reinbacher and Engström right there as possible defensemen, too many blueliners in the mix.
Some of these players are statistically better skaters, better scorers, have better hockey IQ, and can play a game without causing a brawl at center ice. At some point, “but he can punch a guy really hard” stops being a sufficient argument for keeping someone out on the ice.
But Xhekaj is on the roster as a fourth-line defenseman, and honestly, I’m not even a little bit mad about it.
I know why the fans love him, because I do too — the kid has The Stuff™.
It’s a combination of old-school grit, a lovable underdog story, and the simple fact that he’s so loyal to his teammates he’ll skate out onto the ice and get his head bonked in by former Hab (and arguably similar player) Nicolas Deslauriers. You couldn’t pay me a million bucks to do something like that.
For some fans, Xhekaj recalls an era when players like Dave Williams and Bob Probert occupied a very specific role in hockey. The enforcer wasn’t necessarily there to score twenty goals. He was there, at least in part, to make opponents reconsider laying a massive hit or slashing one of the smaller, more skilled players on the ice.
You don’t see that anymore, but that doesn’t necessarily mean deterrence has become completely worthless.
This especially rings true for a team like the current Habs, who carry the likes of Cole Caufield (5’8”), Lane Hutson (5’9”), and even Captain Nick Suzuki at 5’11”. And while you can certainly make the argument that skill, pace of play, and hockey IQ are all more important to winning games than size and weight, I’d also make the proposition that if one of those damn Senators sends Lane Hutson into the bench, I’d like to see his head get knocked a few times.
Arber Xhekaj is pretty good at that.
His story matters, too. Working at Costco during the closure of the 2020–2021 OHL season also leaves a lot of fans feeling a little closer to him than other players. Some might even relate a bit to the story of playing pretty good hockey as a youngster, maybe even making Major Junior, but never seeing the draft stage and their name in lights because of injury, finances, or even lack of skill. Some might also see it as a lesson in sheer willpower—if you want to, you can; it’s just about the work you’re willing to put in. He wasn’t a phenom destined for the NHL from age fourteen. He went undrafted twice, worked at Costco, earned an invitation, earned a contract, and fought his way onto an NHL roster. People pay good money to see a movie with that sort of storyline, let alone cheap nosebleed hockey tickets.
It’s also apparent if you consume any Montreal sports media that the guy is a locker-room staple. Xhekaj has spoken several times about playing for the franchise and how important it is to him, and it’s very clear he wants to play here, especially with the team at present. “It means everything. We feel like a family,” Xhekaj said. “All those guys in the locker room, they’re brothers to me. We truly love playing for each other and we have a lot of fun together.”
His former coach in Kitchener and Hamilton, Jay McKee, made a similar point to Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette. “He allows the guys around him like [Juraj] Slafkovský and [Cole] Caufield to play their game [with the Canadiens] without fear and knowing he’s got their backs. There’s a lot of value to what he brings to a team,” McKee stated. “…We wanted to give him a shot. He just kind of grew on us. He’s got a great personality, he’s a great room guy.”
While it may sound a little cheesy to want a player on your team because he’s a great guy, in Montreal right now, that is exactly their status quo. They’re not only building a team around good players with high ceilings; they’re also building a team culture that is focused on supporting each other, playing hard for each other, and winning for each other. In a hockey era where everyone is pretty dang good, you need to have a team that is in sync with one another, not simply a team that plays well. Cole Caufield reported that “…sometimes we’re too close I think. It’s not a bad thing to have. You probably don’t see this around too many locker rooms, it’s such a tight group. We’re all doing the same thing every day, grinding it out together, it’s been a lot of fun.”
A Ted Lasso moment, if you will.
In today’s NHL, where essentially everyone is violently talented, a roster isn’t as simple as throwing the best statistics together. Players affect how their teammates play. They affect how their opponents behave. They create expectations and identities and aspirations for one another.
Stuff like that is frustratingly hard to measure and even harder to quantify into a stat line.
Because of this, keeping a player on the roster because he drives his teammates to do better, supports them in their plays, and has their back when things get feisty is a perfectly reasonable and respectable decision in the Habs organization.
So, where does Arber Xhekaj really fit into all of this?
As succinct as it is, we might not really know.
McKee said that “Arber is definitely a unicorn. He brings a lot on the ice and off the ice as well as to the dressing room.”
A unicorn might be, as stupid as it sounds, the right description.
He isn’t an old-school enforcer. He isn’t a power-play anchor or a league-leading defenseman. He might not ever see top-line minutes or a full 82-game season. But we might be seeing Xhekaj through the lens of “best player mathematically” instead of “best player for this team,” and that isn’t how this club operates.
He’s what he needs to be. And fans love him for that.
I can tell you from watching games, highlights, interviews, and more that Xhekaj loves to play hockey, and he loves to play hockey in Montreal. I’m certain he would rather work at Costco than be shuffled back down to Laval or be sent to the Blue Jackets on a risky trade. He’s loyal to the club and is as hungry as ever to prove himself, and that, combined with fitting into this tight-knit circle of a team, is a pretty good start.
The Habs will have room for him for the rest of this season after Xhekaj signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract just prior to the start of the preseason, but it seems that Montreal itself will have room for him for a long, long time.
Unicorns are pretty rare, you know. Especially ones that eat Senators.
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