2023 Draft, Pick 101: Florian Xhekaj

[dlbalr]

The brothers have been reunited...

[GHT120]

👍

Welcome aboard LITTLE brother

 

[Helmethead]

Looks like Arber was eating little bro’s food growing up. 

[alfredoh2009]

1 minute ago, Helmethead said:

Looks like Arber was eating little bro’s food growing up. 

[dlbalr]

This feels like a bit of a reach here.  There's an expectation that he'll become more of a scorer next season which would boost his stock but I'd have been surprised if he was on the board for other teams at this point.  A round or two later, sure, but this seems early.

[DON]

Hmm. 

Reminds me of Audette being drafted with his daddy in the habs scouting dept, just seems bit wrong. 

 

[GHT120]

23 minutes ago, dlbalr said:

This feels like a bit of a reach here.  There's an expectation that he'll become more of a scorer next season which would boost his stock but I'd have been surprised if he was on the board for other teams at this point.  A round or two later, sure, but this seems early.

Possibly consistent with the emphasis on "what will the player be in 2-3-4 years" approach that HuGo seem to have to drafting.

[Commandant]

I'm adamantely against drafting a 19 year old forward who was already passed over in the draft, and didn't even score half a point per game. 

 

This is a bad pick IMO, really bad. 

[Sir_Boagalott]

I was surprised to see they picked Bluetooth in the 3rd rnd.  That seems very early.  WiFi was only 200 lbs when he was 18-19 but then he started a body building routine and gained 40 lbs.  Hopefully, Florian starts working out like crazy and can gain similar weight and end up around 215 lbs in 3-4 yrs.  

[dlbalr]

 

Winger version of Arber...that sounds about right from what I've seen. 

[Neech]

 

Compilation of his fights. Plying the family trade. Pretty fearless, but will need to put on a lot of weight to hang in the pros. 

[DON]

On 6/29/2023 at 9:53 AM, Helmethead said:

Looks like Arber was eating little bro’s food growing up. 

6'3"183lbs now, not a small fella.

Can he skate & play at pro level though, is unlikely is my guess, but makes for good story i guess.

[alfredoh2009]

1 hour ago, DON said:

6'3"183lbs now, not a small fella.

Can he skate & play at pro level though, is unlikely is my guess, but makes for good story i guess.

The next Pezzetta ?

[tomh009]

5 hours ago, DON said:

6'3"183lbs now, not a small fella.

Can he skate & play at pro level though, is unlikely is my guess, but makes for good story i guess.

Arber has shown he can do more than just brawl--surprising many of us. Can Florian do the same?

[DON]

18 hours ago, tomh009 said:

Arber has shown he can do more than just brawl--surprising many of us. Can Florian do the same?

Likely as per normal 4th rounder odds, slim. But, would be great if he can have a solid year in junior and earn an AHL deal next year.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

This pick exemplifies some emerging HuGo tendencies. E.g., the principle that if you do something unexpected that works, do that again. So, they trade assets for a 21-year-old disappointment in Dach, and get rewarded, at least in the immediate term; therefore they do it again with Newhook. In this case, they signed Xhekaj, and he rocked it; so they go and get his brother, even though none of the other 31 teams would likely have dreamed of taking this kid so high in the draft.

 

The eccentric management decisions, from hiring MSL to making idiosyncratic draft day choices, are gradually piling up. What we don’t know yet is whether they will add up to overall brilliance from a group that thinks independently and reliably makes the right calls, or whether Hugo are simply outsmarting themselves and gradually making the organization worse than it should have been. More likely, some of these decisions will pay off and others will flop, and we just have to cross our fingers that enough of them pay off to make the rebuild a success.

 

In a way, I can’t complain. I have long bemoaned that the Habs, once the league’s most innovative organization, have spent most of the past 40 years as one of the most old-school, conservative, ossified franchises around. Now we have a management group that is actually resisting NHL groupthink. The anxiety comes from the fact that we simply do not have any evidence as to whether they are taking the right risks or not.

[DON]

Still playing with house money, even if tank again this year, locals "probably" wont be getting torches/pitchforks out.

But, do like the efforts flipping picks for Dach/Newhook and new mgmt seems to be doing fine so far.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

I have zero problem with Hughes so far. He recognized that a rebuild needed to be done (finally) and he is sticking to the plan. I don't think I would use the term "idiosyncratic" to describe his draft day choices. So many fans think he should follow along with Mckenzie's listings but there is a reason a team has their own scouting staff and why would a scout who is getting paid by an NHL team give away their secrets for free.  I don't get that many fans think they know better when it comes to scouting. I was surprised they drafted Reinbacher only because I was likely caught up in the hype of some of the sexier picks. 

 

Perhaps with drafting Florian they figured a leaf doesn't fall too far from the tree and they saw the dedication Arber exhibited to fool everybody. 

 

The Dach trade is looking like a good piece of work, the hiring of MSL is looking good.  As always time will tell with the rest.  I have confidence in Hughes. 

[DON]

Just now, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

I have zero problem with Hughes so far.

WELL...i wouldnt go that far...Slafkovski not in AHL or world juniors, forcing rookie d-men to play too much, not shutting down Monahan/Caufield/Guhle...no ones perfect.

[tomh009]

11 minutes ago, DON said:

WELL...i wouldnt go that far...Slafkovski not in AHL or world juniors, forcing rookie d-men to play too much, not shutting down Monahan/Caufield/Guhle...no ones perfect.

What would have been the alternative? Trading picks for veteran D-men? Picking up more D-men on waivers? (And probably hitting the contract limit in the process.)

[alfredoh2009]

1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

[...] . In this case, they signed Xhekaj, and he rocked it; so they go and get his brother, even though none of the other 31 teams would likely have dreamed of taking this kid so high in the draft.

 

[...]

I agree with your points, but Arber was a Bergevin signing after the tryout .. his typical bottom of the barrel, pull a rabbit , kind of deal

 

If we have Parker-Jones, McKey and other muscle men in LVL, I am ok with Wifi-II being given a chance.

 

What concerns me is that Brovob and HughGort seem to be going after players they knew from Agent/NYR days more than newly scouted talent. I hope that trend vanishes

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

47 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

I have zero problem with Hughes so far. He recognized that a rebuild needed to be done (finally) and he is sticking to the plan. I don't think I would use the term "idiosyncratic" to describe his draft day choices. So many fans think he should follow along with Mckenzie's listings but there is a reason a team has their own scouting staff and why would a scout who is getting paid by an NHL team give away their secrets for free.  I don't get that many fans think they know better when it comes to scouting. I was surprised they drafted Reinbacher only because I was likely caught up in the hype of some of the sexier picks. 

 

Perhaps with drafting Florian they figured a leaf doesn't fall too far from the tree and they saw the dedication Arber exhibited to fool everybody. 

 

The Dach trade is looking like a good piece of work, the hiring of MSL is looking good.  As always time will tell with the rest.  I have confidence in Hughes. 

 

It really is too soon to tell IMHO.

 

MSL was a clear home run. Whether he proves to be an enduringly successful coach is another matter, but he very obviously was exactly what the team needed at this juncture.

 

The rest is less certain.

 

Dach looked great. In the longer run, it will depend on the extent to which he can build on his excellent half-season last year, and on how well the combination of Romy and Frank Nazar does. 

 

Newhook, well, if he tops out as a useful 3rd-liner, the merit of the trade will depend on what we might have gotten with those two picks. This one doesn’t worry me too much, since a player like Newhook represents an objectively good outcome for two 30-something draft picks.

 

Slaf - time will tell. If any of Nemec, Cooley, or Wright turn into significantly more impactful players, either his draft or bungled development will have proved to be a mistake. The same is true of Reinbacher. If he becomes a stud #1 guy, then I for one will never complain. If he becomes a #2, though, while players drafted after him become all-stars, then they made a historic error with a critical, franchise-defining pick.

 

WiFi II is a similar case with lower stakes. 

 

They’re thinking for themselves, avoiding the safe, controversy-free paths,  and deviating significantly from mainline NHL thinking as a result. In 2-3 years, we’ll have a better sense of the degree to which they were wise to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

[hab29RETIRED]

1 hour ago, DON said:

Still playing with house money, even if tank again this year, locals "probably" wont be getting torches/pitchforks out.

But, do like the efforts flipping picks for Dach/Newhook and new mgmt seems to be doing fine so far.

The year for management to truly tank was this past year. They should have been forcing At Louis hand with lineup limitations. I don’t want another year of tanking - we can’t be as worse this year anyways. Have enough good pieces to build on, but a better shot at Bedard would have been nice.

 

 

[hab29RETIRED]

1 hour ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

I have zero problem with Hughes so far. He recognized that a rebuild needed to be done (finally) and he is sticking to the plan. I don't think I would use the term "idiosyncratic" to describe his draft day choices. So many fans think he should follow along with Mckenzie's listings but there is a reason a team has their own scouting staff and why would a scout who is getting paid by an NHL team give away their secrets for free.  I don't get that many fans think they know better when it comes to scouting. I was surprised they drafted Reinbacher only because I was likely caught up in the hype of some of the sexier picks. 

 

Perhaps with drafting Florian they figured a leaf doesn't fall too far from the tree and they saw the dedication Arber exhibited to fool everybody. 

 

The Dach trade is looking like a good piece of work, the hiring of MSL is looking good.  As always time will tell with the rest.  I have confidence in Hughes. 

I have zero issue with the Florian pick. Rounds 3 onwards is a crap shoot. What I do have an issue with not going with BPA in the first two rounds. Round 1 in particular and within the top 10 picks all the time! You should always be taking BPA without any exceptions.

[BCHabnut]

1 minute ago, hab29RETIRED said:

The year for management to truly tank was this past year. They should have been forcing At Louis hand with lineup limitations. I don’t want another year of tanking - we can’t be as worse this year anyways. Have enough good pieces to build on, but a better shot at Bedard would have been nice.

 

 

Yep. They had their 2 tank years. Time to build. Start winning. I want to see more won puck battles this year. I watched almost every game last year, and I just had no confidence that they would come out with the puck after a battle. I'd like to see improvement there and improvement on defensive positioning. I don't expect to make the playoffs, but let's make it interesting at least.