Quoting: jaok3
Why is he in the minors?
Cause its his 2nd years Pro? is that a serious question or an aneurism ?
We have Matheson eating up 25+ minutes, Savard eating up 20+ minutes with Guhle and Barron/Harris averaging 18-19 minutes a night
He's be left with the 14-15 minutes Struble gets a night rather then the 22+ minutes he got in the AHL as one of the top pairs in the entire AHL.
Before he got there playoffs werent an option and Goaltending was hung out to dry nightly. Since they were 12-3-1-1 with Xhekaj snapping a 7 game losing streak when he joined laval
Struble is a Francis Boullion or Alexi Emelin type #5 type who can play top 4 during injuries in the short term.
He's a role player there is nothing more for him beyond that but he will be one of the best in the league at his role IMO
Xhekaj is a Subban type guy who lets himself get baited.
People forget his first 4 years Subban drew a LOT of Penalties to the point Coaches didnt trust him
Michel Therrien came in putting the fear of God into him with a Benching straight out the gate and Subban learned
Thats what Xhekaj is going threw now with MSL as he tries to make Jake eye understand the line between playing tough and playing with Skill.
Arber Xhekaj is a punch first type Personality in contrast to his brother
Florian Xhekaj who draws more penalties then he takes while kicking the crap out of more people
These adjustments lead to Florian unlocking his shot early to the point he's a top role player in his league
50th in Goals in the OHL with multiple multi Goal nights he's another from being top 25 again as the margin in the OHL is only a few goals and doesnt get competitive until top 10 really, but still good for FX. He's been moved to Center now where he's adjusting but Florian is an Example of evolved way of thinking Tactically to accomplish the same things Arber takes penalties doing. So if we can just get him to be a little more Bark and a little less Bite then Arber will continue to grow and improve the same as his Brother who's an all around threat.
My point is for us we know what we got in these two 6'4 brothers , Neither is going anywhere.
Only 5 D are not being moved in in Guhle, Hutson,Reinbacher , Mailloux and Xhekaj
Size , Skill Team, Speed, Leaders and Special Teams Leaders Galore
Outside those 5 we're pretty open to moving the rest over the next 2 years
We still got Engstrom , Captain Kony in the KHL , Kostenko tearing up VHL(AHL but Russian) and Sobolev from Suzuki's Mem Cup Run now on Florian Xhekaj's team for their run. Sobolev is Run as he lays the boom and is a stout 210 at 6'0 without giving up no speed either as i watched him grow quite a lot from his speedster days as a young gun on the Suzuki Run. Lots and Lots to look forward to and thats beyond what i overlooked in our system and labeled as expendable