The Arber Xhekaj contract watch is moving fast, and the signs are getting harder to ignore.
Two reporters are now pointing toward an agreement between Xhekaj and the Montreal Canadiens, with both sides sounding confident a deal can be wrapped up very soon. Marco D’Amico reported that the contract extension could be officially announced by Wednesday, based on sources from both camps, and he added that it might even happen as early as today. He also said the announcement could come sooner than expected.
Nicolas Cloutier was just as direct.
“For Xhekaj, I expect it to be today or tomorrow unless there is a dramatic turn of events.”
That lines up with what had already been floating around on Monday. Jeff Gorton said he was confident the player would be at camp, and Pierre LeBrun reported that talks were going well between the two sides.
Xhekaj is now the last restricted free agent in the organization without a contract, while Zachary Bolduc signed a four-year deal over the weekend.
Training camp opens Wednesday, so the timing naturally adds pressure. The biggest issue in these talks has reportedly been ice time rather than money, and the question now is whether both sides have found common ground there.
That matters because Xhekaj was taken out of the lineup 23 times in the Canadiens’ 101 games last season.
Still, the rugged 25-year-old defenseman spent the summer training in Brossard despite the uncertainty, and all signs now point toward this situation reaching a finish line soon.
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Arber Xhekajs Deal Puts His Canadiens Future Under A Brighter Spotlight
Arber Xhekajs latest contract situation says as much about timing as it does about the player himself. According to Nicolas Cloutier, the one-year deal was not something imposed by the Canadiens, but a choice made by Xhekaj and his agent after a summer spent waiting to see whether a trade would ease the congestion on Montreals blue line. His ice time last season never fully matched the long-term role many had imagined for him, which only added to the sense that this was a player trying to keep his options open.
Medium-term contract ideas were also reportedly in the mix, which makes the eventual short-term route even more revealing about where things stood. For Xhekaj, the next season now carries real weight: a stronger year would not only help him re-establish his place in the lineup, it could also put him in a better spot when the next round of negotiations comes around. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes Fowler worth tracking is less about immediate hype than the path he could force if his development keeps moving the right way. The rookie race is always shaped by opportunity as much as talent, and for Montreal the real question is whether Fowler can arrive at the point where the Canadiens have a decision to make about how quickly to bring him into the picture. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens May Have An Unexpected Arber Xhekaj Plan
With Kaiden Guhle unavailable and Montreal still sorting through its blue-line depth, Martin St-Louis is keeping the door open to a different kind of lineup wrinkle for Arber Xhekaj. The Canadiens still view Xhekaj mainly as a defenseman, especially after he recently signed a one-year contract, but the coaching staff is clearly thinking about ways to keep him in the mix as roster needs shift from night to night.
Xhekaj has already gotten a brief look on the wing once before, and the idea is no longer being treated as a one-off curiosity. For Montreal, the appeal is simple: a physical, versatile player who can help in more than one spot gives St-Louis another option while the team waits to see how the rest of the lineup settles in. [Read more 🡒]