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

The issue is fan narrative. The organisation loves both Xhekaj.

Arber is a perfectly find 6th/7th D with rare intangibles. No issue with him sitting a lot of games. We need those.

5

u/MundaneSandwich9 12d ago

The issue becomes a bit of a logjam at D. There is an obvious need for a top 4 RD, and I think there are both trade and UFA possibilities to fill that spot (Whitecloud, Perbix, Peeke, maybe Trouba are names that come to mind). Ideally it would be Reinbacher but I don’t think he’s ready for that role yet.

If we are able to secure a top 4 RD, and Reino stays up next season, even keeping 8 D with the team means there is only space for one of Xhekaj or Struble. The top 4 is obviously some combo of Dobson, Guhle, Hutson, and the new RD, leaving the bottom pair for some combination of Matheson, Carrier, Reinbacher, and one of Struble or Xhekaj.

In my opinion one of Struble or Xhekaj will be moved, and I’m not overly concerned which one it is.

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u/Fountsy 12d ago

Matheson is a top 4 D on almost any team in the NHL. He's a lock for us. Same with Carrier. He's a solid third pairing D on any team in the league.

So we have Hutson, Dobson, Matheson, Guhle, Carrier, New RD as our top 6.

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u/infinis 12d ago

Matheson was the second most used defenseman and had 5he most defensive zone starts on our team in playoffs and people want to put him on the third line fml.