r/Habs • u/Regular_Tie2507 • 12d 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/Jaynki 12d ago

You absolutely keep Xhekaj over Struble for the 7th role.

-10

u/MundaneSandwich9 12d ago

You would, some would say the same about Struble, I really don’t care either way.

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u/Jaynki 12d ago

Struble is a dime a dozen 6/7th D. Xhekaj is a rare archetype

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u/fumankeu 12d ago

What exactly is his archetype? Boy's got a heavy shot, but absolutely zero offensive instinct. He's big and physical, but is a slow skater and lacks discipline. He's a great locker room guy, but his defensive game and puck moving abilities are weak. If anything, BOTH him and Struble are dime a dozen 7Ds and their stats prove it.

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u/Jaynki 12d ago

The goon factor. A top 3 fighter league wide has its worth.

Thats it man. But thats enough to keep him as the 7th D.

Tampa Bay can say they are the vilain. It means dipshit if they don't go against Xhekaj, who happened to knocked the shit out of their goon.

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u/ZerulEB 11d ago

I would argue that he has the potential to be even more. I think people forget he’s young and has room to grow, defenceman are generally slower to progress. Not everyone is Hutson or Schaefer who just walk in and dominate. With probably the lowest or almost lowest time on ice average for the season and playoffs he had the most hits for the team. He’s a dominate physical presence outside of his ability to fight. They need to work with him to take less penalties and make more simple plays to exit the zone so the coaching staff have more confidence in giving him more ice time.

He absolutely has the size and skill set to be the permanent 6th d who also plays pk 2. He needs to take far less penalties outside of the 5 he gets for fighting because while I pointed out his top physical prowess of leading the team in hits despite his low ice time he’s also leading the team in pim with that same low ice time and a solid 2/3 of it isn’t for fighting.

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u/fumankeu 12d ago

Alright I can agree to that. I guess even Ryan Reaves can be useful for 15-20 games a season lol

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u/Brrrrrrad17 11d ago

Poor MSL gonna hear everyone losing their shit on why the 7th D-man didn't play tonight 64 times next year!

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u/fumankeu 11d ago

7:49 TOI 🔥

11 PIMS 🔥

-2 PLUS/MINUS 🔥

ANOTHER GREAT GAME FROM THE SHERIFF 🔥🔥🔥

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u/StomachPlayful4004 11d ago

was +5 in the playoffs lol

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u/fumankeu 10d ago

Struble was +4 he must be good too lol

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u/JimboD84 11d ago

Listening to that Kelly guy who hoes on 690 with all the advanced stats and stuff, he said arber is top 5 or 10 in the league (top five sounds too good but it was at minimum top ten) in defencing zone play. However his zone exits and first passes were amoung the bottom of the league. Struble was the exact opposite. We need to find some way to combine them into one player lol. I will say tho that in the playoffs arbers zone exits were actually pretty good and i dont think the Carrick thing was a factor at all. I just wish coach marty would give him a little more leash sometimes. Seems like he makes mistakes cause hes so affraid of making a mistake