Arber Xhekaj was the name echoing around a dinner filled with Canadiens royalty this week, and the message coming from those Stanley Cup winners was hard to miss: Montreal needs more toughness.
About 20 former champions gathered at the Mirage Golf Club, and from Serge Savard to Larry Robinson to Patrick Roy, the conversation kept circling back to the same idea. If the Canadiens want to give Lane Hutson, Cole Caufield and Ivan Demidov better protection, adding muscle has to be part of the plan. Those former players believe that would improve Montreal’s odds of winning its first Stanley Cup since 1993.
It was a pointed reminder for Kent Hughes, but also for Martin St-Louis.
Jean Perron, who coached the Canadiens in 1986, described one of the more revealing exchanges from the evening.
"Serge was asking why the team wasn't playing Xhekaj more.
They have an extraordinary team, but two of their best players are five-foot-six or five-foot-seven.
They're going to have to surround them, or they're going to get banged up."
- Jean Perron
Patrick Roy, who has long valued that same edge, was part of the chorus as well. The former Canadiens goaltender had pushed for similar toughness when he coached the New York Islanders.
Savard, meanwhile, drew a direct line to his own 1986 team and said the current group shares some of the same traits.
"The team has several of the same strengths we had.
Maybe our team was a lot tougher.
Your best player, nobody should be allowed to try to run him over."
- Serge Savard
Robinson also weighed in with praise for Hutson, while making it clear he has one concern: the young defenseman’s physical safety.
"I love watching Hutson play, he's so smart...
As long as he uses his head and avoids getting flattened by the NHL's big bodies, I expect him to do very well."
- Larry Robinson
For the former Canadiens in the room, the conclusion was plain. Montreal does not have many players built for that kind of heavy-duty protection, and Xhekaj stands out as the exception. Their message to management was unmistakable: before thinking about another championship run, the Canadiens need to get bigger and tougher.
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