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Habs Season Thread: 2024-25 Regular Season

GEEMAN said:
Unreal he goes undrafted with his skill set

Teams draft soft small finesse wingers every round but bypass WIFI

Teams are always looking for size and grit especially for the playoffs

Watched him in the O a few games and was delighted Habs gave him a shot

If he gets his head straight and plays a simple game he has a decade career ahead of him
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Oh please, just stop.

The CHL is littered - littered - with what Xhekaj was in his draft year: Big d-men with no attributes. Because that's what he was in 2019 with his three points in 59 games. In his draft +1 year, marginally better, but tougher.

If you don't believe me, go look up any single 2019 or 2020 draft guides and find me one paragraph about Xhekaj. To quote the great Kurt Cobain, Take your time, hurry up. Choice is yours, don't be late.

Xhekaj wasn't some top line prospect everyone saw coming but had off the ice issues either. He's a player that came around late, much to his credit.
 
GGpX said:
Oh please, just stop.

The CHL is littered - littered - with what Xhekaj was in his draft year: Big d-men with no attributes. Because that's what he was in 2019 with his three points in 59 games. In his draft +1 year, marginally better, but tougher.

If you don't believe me, go look up any single 2019 or 2020 draft guides and find me one paragraph about Xhekaj. To quote the great Kurt Cobain, Take your time, hurry up. Choice is yours, don't be late.

Xhekaj wasn't some top line prospect everyone saw coming but had off the ice issues either. He's a player that came around late, much to his credit.
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Sure but to get bypassed completely is a miss

I get it if he was 5`10" but not at this size , wheels and frame .

Teams throw picks away or take flyers on projects all the time
 
He wasn't a project. He wasn't even a real prospect at the time.

Name me the long list of 6'4 d-men with 3 points in their 18 year old season that got drafted. They don't get drafted unless they're giraffes, end of story.

Xhekaj's name wasn't mentioned anywhere or by anyone in either of his first two draft eligible seasons. It's not like he was a divisive prospect or a keep-your-eye-on-him type of prospect, he wasn't.

There are players that get bypassed all the time. There are 19 & sometimes 20 year old players that get drafted in the 3rd/4th round every year. Xhekaj's one of those players.
 
Yup. He's an extremely rare type of player.

What I find most interesting about him is how fast he's progressed from his 18 year old season to what he is now. There's an incredible jump in ability, and I have been skeptical about him for years. While it's not the same type of player, or even position, Xhekaj's the type of player that proves why picking players like Tom Wilson in the first round is worth the risk for some teams. For every single Tom Wilson types, you have a dozen of Greg Niemsz, Michael McCarron, Colton Gilles, etc types. But even then, Xhekaj wasn't even seen as a draftable player with pro hockey prospects.

We'll see how he turns out, but his accomplishments so far have been incredible.
 
I guess it depends on whether your outlook is more cynical, but I don't find it to be putting Barron down at all.

He uses Barron as an example of a first round pick d-man that was in Laval and who is now in the NHL, and thinks Xhekaj has greater potential than him.
 
GGpX said:
I guess it depends on whether your outlook is more cynical, but I don't find it to be putting Barron down at all.

He uses Barron as an example of a first round pick d-man that was in Laval and who is now in the NHL, and thinks Xhekaj has greater potential than him.
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Barron's greatest asset is his offense, and he's saying the goon has better potential. That's a bit of a put down, and is wrong IMO.

Even if he's right, you don't say that publicly, that's living room talk.
 
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