Canadiens Sign Arber Xhekaj To One-Year Deal

The Montreal Canadiens have gotten their final restricted free agent signed ahead of the 2026-27 season. On the eve of training camp, the Canadiens announced they have signed defenseman Arber Xhekaj to a one-year, $1.5MM contract.

Xhekaj, 25, has been with Montreal for his entire professional career. Despite going undrafted throughout his Major Junior career with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and Hamilton Bulldogs, Xhekaj landed with the Canadiens in 2021 after earning an invitation to the team’s training camp.  At the time, Xhekaj impressed Montreal’s staff with his unique combination of being a tough enforcer while also fulfilling his role on the defensive side of the puck.

Under normal circumstances, Xhekaj should have spent the first year, if not several years, of his professional career working his way up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket. Due to injuries to key defensemen Mike Matheson and Joel Edmundson at the start of the 2022-23 season, Xhekaj has been with the Canadiens since then, except for a brief 17-game stint with the Rocket during the 2023-24 campaign.

To the ire of several fanbases around the league, Xhekaj has remained the same player he was at the Canadiens’ training camp several years ago. Since the beginning of the 2022-23 season, Xhekaj has scored 10 goals and 33 points in 230 games with Montreal, posting a -24 rating while averaging 14:07 of ice time per game. In that same stretch, Xhekaj has racked up 416 PIMs. He’s not an overly skilled defenseman, but the Canadiens have continued to trust his work on the defensive side of the puck.

Still, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Xhekaj would remain wearing the “bleu, blanc et rouge”. At the start of summer, trade discussions increased around Xhekaj, with the Calgary Flames mentioned as a potential suitor. A few weeks ago, Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette even speculated that the Canadiens were weighing sign-and-trade options for Xhekaj and fellow RFA Zachary Bolduc to make the big improvements they had their eyes on at the start of the offseason. Instead, Montreal has retained both players.

Regardless, the Canadiens still have time to make further additions. The roster should be nearly identical to the team that got to the Eastern Conference Final last season, with another year of growth from many of their younger players. Additionally, PuckPedia projects that the Canadiens will have approximately $13MM to work with at the trade deadline, more than enough to acquire another impact player or two.