Canadiens re-sign Arber Xhekaj to one-year contract
One of the toughest kids in the NHL is sticking around La Belle Province.
On Tuesday, Montreal Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes announced that the team has re-signed defenseman Arber Xhekaj to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a cap hit of $1.5 million for the 2026-27 season.
Xhekaj came to the end of his two-year contract, which he signed in July 2024, at the end of the 2025-26 season. That deal had an AAV of $1.3 million.
The Xhekaj signing certainly won’t wow the analytics community, but it certainly means something to fans of the Original Six franchise. Ever since he broke into the league during the 2022-23 season, the Hamilton, Ont. native has proven to be a brute force in multiple facets. He’s averaged well over 150 hits per season in the league, reaching a career-high 180 during the 2024-25 campaign. In 2025-26, he registered 178 body checks in just 65 contests. On top of that, he delivered eight fighting majors, the second-highest total of his NHL career, en route to posting 116 penalty minutes, two short of his career-best 118, which he set in 2024-25.
In his four years with the Habs, Xhekaj has registered 28 fights, 14 over the past two seasons. His presence has certainly made opponents shake, as the 6-foot-4 blueliner has no issue standing up for himself or his teammates.
Offensively, the 25-year-old’s numbers are much less staggering. Despite notching 13 points during his rookie season, Xhekaj has reached double digits once over the past three years. In 2025-26, he scored one goal and four assists, the lowest production of his NHL tenure. He also posted a plus/minus of -8 while averaging 11:25 of ice time. He also appeared in 13 games during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, scoring a goal and an assist, as the Habs reached the Eastern Conference Final before the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes eliminated them.
In 230 regular-season games with Montreal, Xhekaj has scored 10 goals and 23 assists for 33 points, amassing 416 penalty minutes.
