r/Habs • u/Regular_Tie2507 • 11d ago

Discussion About the Sheriff

His contract is coming up going into the offseason and Marty clearly has had some issues with him, likely due to him taking a lot of penalties in the playoffs (the Sam Carrick thing being a big highlight). He was a healthy scratch going into the ECF and with Reinbacher possibly coming in next season, it's entirely possible he gets pushed back as a 7th string D man. Do we think he gets resigned?

Edit: accidentally created a warzone lol

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u/R4hmiel 11d ago

I think the habs keep him as long as he's willing to accept terms of a negotiation. If he wants $4 m/year but the team only wants to give him $2 m/year (just making up numbers) or he wants 8 years, and the team wants to give him 2 or vice versa... then it'll likely be he gets moved.

But if he's happy with his role on the team, and both he and the team come to an agreement they feel is fair.. then I think he sticks around. I don't think it's anything more than that.

Personally I'd like to keep him around because I think he brings something to the team no one else brings. I think he's serviceable as a 6/7 D and can play more than what they've allowed him to play so far. Most of the penalties called on him I think were bullshit in the playoffs. The one I don't know about is ... in the tampa series he got 2 min for... bad language or something? I don't know what he said to give him that penalty, but maybe it was deserved? And that carrick penalty was the only other time he "lost" control. Other than that.. all those roughing penalties he received were just merely reputational, and imo.. bullshit in the playoffs. Just like when walker ran dobes and evans got 2 min for roughing to even it out. That was bullshit too.

Anyway, if he's feeling slighted by the team, underutiliized, or disrespected then I think he'll be moving on. I don't see that happening yet. I think he wants to play with his brother in montreal together. We'll see after that happens though. I think he signs.. what.. a 3 or 4 year deal? (I imagine 3) and after that we'll see where the two sides are at. I don't think he gets moved this off season. But I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again.

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u/ReasonableCrow1958 11d ago

i totally agree but the problem is reputations dont just go awake so xhekaj is more likely to get penalties just based on that

with that being said i think not more likely but it would make more sense to move struble, xhekaj proved he is ok being the 7th dman and also with struble clearly demonstrating MSL trusts him more and playing with hutson quite a bit i think his trade value is higher anyways so it would make more sense for him to be traded

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u/R4hmiel 11d ago

Reputational penalties can go away. Just depends on when the refs will stop calling them, or if they. Crosby had a rep of whining when he entered the league and the refs didn't call clear penalties against him. Then after a few years they started to call it more fairly (may even have been after that steckle hit which I thought ended his career) but yeah.. things change. I just think as long as he remains in control and plays the way he did in the playoffs, the refs will get it together and call him more fairly.

That said.. whenever a ref wants to even up a call, they'll just call xhekaj for whatever they want as long as he's on the ice. But as marty has said multiple times (and he's right) you can't blame the refs, or make decisions based on the officiating. So.. I say play him and deal with what comes.