Martin St-Louis May Have Already Made His Decision on Arber Xhekaj Ahead Of Upcoming Season
Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images
The head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Martin St-Louis, is said to have already chosen his seven defensemen to start the 2025-26 season.
It was none other than Jayden Struble who let it slip, revealing that St-Louis seems to have already made his decision on the seven defensemen who will begin the upcoming season.
All the details are in the excellent article by Nicolas Cloutier, but among the revelations is the fact that St-Louis has already reached out to his seven defensemen.
Martin St-Louis Would Take His 7 Defensemen Over Any Other Group of 7 in the NHL
Here's an excerpt from the article:
During the summer, the Canadiens' bench boss picked up the phone to blitz-call his players and take the pulse following the acquisitions made by his general manager, Kent Hughes.
He told the guys:
"I would take our group of seven defensemen over any other in the league," Struble said in an interview with TVA Sports on Thursday night.
He told the guys:
"I would take our group of seven defensemen over any other in the league," Struble said in an interview with TVA Sports on Thursday night.
Hearing that, it's pretty easy to conclude that Montreal's seven defensemen are already chosen, though for caution's sake, we'll still treat it as a rumor.
The seven defensemen in question are, of course: Kaiden Guhle, Noah Dobson, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson, Alexandre Carrier, Arber Xhekaj, and Jayden Struble.
That means the real battle would be between Xhekaj and Struble (and not Xhekaj, Struble, and Reinbacher). Either way, both physical defensemen are likely to see plenty of ice time this season.
That's excellent news.
And if this proves true, it wouldn't be a bad thing for young David Reinbacher to continue developing further with the Laval Rocket.
| POLL | ||
AOUT 25 | 1874 ANSWERS Martin St-Louis May Have Already Made His Decision on Arber Xhekaj Ahead Of Upcoming Season Which defenseman do you think is the best right now? | ||
| Reinbacher | 398 | 21.2 % |
| Xhekaj | 1133 | 60.5 % |
| Struble | 343 | 18.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
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