St-Louis and the Montreal Canadiens reveal the identity of Arber Xhekaj's replacement and it's the talented Justin Barron
Looking at the ice time stats for the Montreal Canadiens' defensemen, it's quite clear that initially, only two defensemen were used by Martin St-Louis on the power play, and then a third was added recently.
Of course, first there's Mike Matheson, who plays an average of 4 minutes and 2 seconds on the power play (per game).
Then, there was Arber Xhekaj, who played an average of 1 minute and 33 seconds on the power play (per game).
However, following Xhekaj's departure, first due to an injury and then because of being sent down to the AHL, Justin Barron took over his minutes on the power play. (1 minute 27 seconds per game for him)
And these are really the only three defensemen who have been considered by Martin St-Louis for the PP, as the fourth on the list is Kaiden Guhle, but only at 9 seconds per game.
In short, knowing all this and considering their use, it translated as follows:
- Matheson has 10 points on the PP
- Barron has one point on the PP
- Xhekaj has no points on the PP.
Has Barron permanently replaced Xhekaj on the power play?
It will be interesting to see, but even if we rely on the distribution of minutes 5 on 5, and the roles given, it's clear that the one who really took Arber Xhekaj's "seat" is Justin Barron, not Jayden Struble.
Barron, a 1st round pick (25th overall) by the Colorado Avalanche in 2020, has 8 points in 23 games this season with the Habs, including 5 goals.
In his career, we're talking about 25 points in 69 games.
He seems to be a solid acquisition by Kent Hughes, even though the departure of Artturi Lehkonen obviously hurt.
| POLL | ||
Which one is the most useful to the CH, in your opinion? | ||
| Xhekaj | 488 | 76 % |
| Barron | 154 | 24 % |
| List of polls | ||
