Value of: Arber Xhekaj

[Kudo Shinichi]

Are we pretending that a controlled environment is the same as a game situation?

You can't be this obtuse? If Xhekaj has one of the hardest shots in the league in a controlled environment, he's still going to have one of the hardest shots in a non-controlled environment. He might not shoot at 107.2 mph, but he's still going to have an absolute bomb of a shot.

I'm saying that having the hardest shot isn't indicative of a player's talent level or NHL impact.

Heck Martin Frk has arguably the hardest shot in professional hockey (109.2 MPH) and he's an NHL/AHL tweener.

Ok and? I mentioned many assets that Xhekaj has, and for some reason, you're acting like I said his shot is the only reason he plays in the nhl.

You seem to underestimate how ineffective Xhekaj is as a hockey player. Only the scrub teams who aren't planning on making the playoffs at all worry about forcing minutes to a nearly 24 year old enforcer for "development".

Teams trying to win are going to give minutes to either: top prospects (20 year olds who are a lot higher pedigree than Xhekaj), or the best guy who can help them win. Xhekaj is neither.

Going into tanking teams that I said Xhekaj wouldn't make:

Ducks: traded for Dumoulin for a reason, and will be playing him over better prospects than Xhekaj such as Helleson and Luneau.

Oh wait that's the only one.

Heck even MTL wouldn't give Xhekaj consistent minutes/games over veterans like Kovacevic/Savard/Matheson, so that's bullshit

Ducks will play Dumoulin over Luneau, who is 20 years old, has only played 7 NHL games, and missed almost the entirety of last season to injuries? Wow, I can't believe that! lmao

You argument is basically if a player doesn't get big minutes on a bottom 5 team, then he's not going to get minutes on a good team. Well, that has kept being proven false.

- Lehkonen was a bottom 6 player on the habs, but he was used on the top line with the Avs.
- Drouin was bad with the habs, and he also got used on the top line with the Avs.
- Kulak was not even a regular dmen with the habs, and he's been a regular player with the oilers.
- Perry was a 4th liner on the habs, and he's been good with contending teams after being traded.

A bottom pairing D who doesn’t play either special teams is not that valuable.

Well, that's not necessarily true. Most bottom-pairing Dmen tend to be vanilla, so they don't bring much at 5 on 5, so that's why you want them to be able to play special teams. Xhekaj is the complete opposite of vanilla. He brings a lot of physicality, fighting, and grit.

Xhekaj also did play special teams with the habs, so your point doesn't make sense anyways.

rebuilding teams like the habs. contending teams prefer veterans.

For the playoffs sure, but for the regular season, contending teams will prefer to develop their young players who could be part of their long-term future. If they are a contending team, then playing a young player on their bottom pairing over a veteran is not going to make or break their chance at making the playoffs.

There were times last year he didn't even make the Habs... who were considered to have one of the worst top-6 in the league.

The homerism by some of you is off the charts in this thread.

It's more like some of you are clueless about the Habs depth situation from last season.

Harris, Struble, Xhekaj, Kovacevic, and Barron who are all NHL caliber players were battling for 3 spots in the NHL lineup. So of course, Xhekaj was not going to play every game, since they will need to make rotations so that every one of them gets some action.

 

[dgibb10]

You can't be this obtuse? If Xhekaj has one of the hardest shots in the league in a controlled environment, he's still going to have one of the hardest shots in a non-controlled environment. He might not shoot at 107.2 mph, but he's still going to have an absolute bomb of a shot.



Ok and? I mentioned many assets that Xhekaj has, and for some reason, you're acting like I said his shot is the only reason he plays in the nhl.



Ducks will play Dumoulin over Luneau, who is 20 years old, has only played 7 NHL games, and missed almost the entirety of last season to injuries? Wow, I can't believe that! lmao

You argument is basically if a player doesn't get big minutes on a bottom 5 team, then he's not going to get minutes on a good team. Well, that has kept being proven false.

- Lehkonen was a bottom 6 player on the habs, but he was used on the top line with the Avs.
- Drouin was bad with the habs, and he also got used on the top line with the Avs.
- Kulak was not even a regular dmen with the habs, and he's been a regular player with the oilers.
- Perry was a 4th liner on the habs, and he's been good with contending teams after being traded.



Well, that's not necessarily true. Most bottom-pairing Dmen tend to be vanilla, so they don't bring much at 5 on 5, so that's why you want them to be able to play special teams. Xhekaj is the complete opposite of vanilla. He brings a lot of physicality, fighting, and grit.

Xhekaj also did play special teams with the habs, so your point doesn't make sense anyways.



For the playoffs sure, but for the regular season, contending teams will prefer to develop their young players who could be part of their long-term future. If they are a contending team, then playing a young player on their bottom pairing over a veteran is not going to make or break their chance at making the playoffs.



It's more like some of you are clueless about the Habs depth situation from last season.

Harris, Struble, Xhekaj, Kovacevic, and Barron who are all NHL caliber players were battling for 3 spots in the NHL lineup. So of course, Xhekaj was not going to play every game, since they will need to make rotations so that every one of them gets some action.

All of those players were members of the habs team that made the cup lmao.

Drouin was a previously proven top line player on a good team who got moved BACK there with his elite teammate from junior. Did I forget the years where Arber Xhekaj was a top pairing dman on a playoff team?

Perry was a 4th liner on the habs team that MADE THE CUP, and then has remained a 4th liner on other teams

Kulak again, a part of the habs teams that were actually good. And he actually had good results.

Again, Lehkonen was a member of the habs teams that were actually GOOD. And on that bad habs team in the year he got traded, he had an xGoals share of nearly 55%, by far the best on the team

 

[Korpse]

Xhekaj also did play special teams with the habs, so your point doesn't make sense anyways.

That’s true he has had 84 minutes of PP TOI through 95 games with 7GF and 4GA. Probably shouldn’t, but he did get a limited amount of time. 28 minutes of PK TOI through 95 games is nothing. Though the 8GA in 28 minutes is more than nothing.

I think it’s generous to say he is someone who can play special teams personally but I won’t get caught up on it. His value as a physical defensemen gets wiped out by his penalty differential. He has a long way to go before he provides value as a bottom pairing D playing 16 minutes a night.

 

[Silky Johnson]

That’s true he has had 84 minutes of PP TOI through 95 games with 7GF and 4GA. Probably shouldn’t, but he did get a limited amount of time. 28 minutes of PK TOI through 95 games is nothing. Though the 8GA in 28 minutes is more than nothing.

I think it’s generous to say he is someone who can play special teams personally but I won’t get caught up on it. His value as a physical defensemen gets wiped out by his penalty differential. He has a long way to go before he provides value as a bottom pairing D playing 16 minutes a night.

So the real question is how many firsts is this at or below replacement player worth? At least 3 right? Well two if one is top 5.

 

[Hunter368]

The question was asked, what would other fans give for the player and I think that has been answered clearly. Closed

 

[The Marquis]

A bag of Halloween candy on November 1st.


Or 1.3M for 2 years.

 

[OVO16]

He's practically the next Jared Tinordi. Probably will be passed around due to the fact that he be a heavyweight for teams needing toughness back there. But thats it. Dont see a long career for him