After being my #10 prospect for the Montreal Canadiens in the summer, forward Florian Xhekaj has now moved up to being #9 at the Olympic break. Unlike the majority of the players who moved up on this list, Xhekaj hasn’t done anything that has really propelled him to be a better prospect for the Canadiens. For Xhekaj, a lot of the reasons for moving up are just that Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov have graduated to the NHL, and the players that were behind him haven’t done enough to pass Xhekaj just yet (watch out for #10 Logan Sawyer). In fact, the main reason Xhekaj is #9 on my list is that he seems like a good bet to be an NHL player in the near future.

Florian Xhekaj’s 9th of the season.

Filip Mesar picks up his second assist of the game on the play. pic.twitter.com/9PWUGbR9qV

— William Dubé (@williamdube_) February 7, 2026

It’s a well-known fact that the Canadiens still lack grit and toughness in their bottom six forwards outside of Josh Anderson; with that being said, Xhekaj can fill that role with a little more development on his overall game in the AHL. He is still another year or so away before he can potentially be a full-time 4th liner in the NHL.

Hilarious reaction of mom and family as 🇦🇱Florian Xhekaj beats the opponent on the ice rink 🏒 pic.twitter.com/wZabXGCMya

— Epirote Report 🌕 (@EpiroteReport) December 2, 2025

Although in his brief stint earlier this season in the NHL, Florian managed to make a positive impact as a 4th liner, showing that he is definitely on track to become a solid bottom-six energy guy at the NHL level. However, the Canadiens want to see him produce more offence on a more consistent basis, like he did last year with the Rocket. The Habs will never expect Xhekaj to be a 20-goal, 40-point scorer in the NHL, but they are hoping that they can get a player who can contribute his fair share of offence from lower in the lineup.

Last year in his AHL rookie campaign, he put up a remarkable 24-goal season with next to no power play time, despite finishing tied for the 2nd most goals on the Rocket behind only Laurent Dauphin’s 26. What Xhekaj showed is that he can produce offence even if that isn’t the main part of his game, which likely led to everyone believing he truly had a chance to make the NHL. Now this year, he is only on pace for 14 goals in 67 games, which is a far cry from what he was able to do last year. Still though, Xhekaj is usually playing his role as a bottom-six solidly this year, as he is consistently a menace on the forecheck and continues to play the role of an energy player extremely effectively.

With that being said, considering what he is expected to be according to his projectability, we can’t dock him for not being as offensive. In all honesty, he continues to be a very good penalty killer and physical presence, which is what is expected of him. Plus, he has shown that he has a good shot that can allow him to score his fair share of goals.

There are other players in the pipeline that are lower on the prospect rankings, such as Hayden Paupenakis and Tyler Thorpe, who are below Xhekaj because they haven’t had as much success at the pro level or are still in junior hockey in the case of Paupenakis. At the end of the day, Xhekaj is far from the flashiest prospect, but his physical game that allows him to be a menace for the opposing team is what makes him so intriguing as a player for the Habs in the future.

The biggest knock on Florian Xhekaj’s game is likely the fact that he sometimes picks the wrong times to fight, and it can put his team in trouble, similarly to how he tried to get a player to fight who didn’t want to on Saturday against the Cleveland Monsters, which led to him taking a bad 5-minute major penalty, while the other guy only got a 2-minute roughing call. With that being said, Xhekaj needs to work on picking his spots better. Once he can do that, he will be a much better player. His older brother Arber Xhekaj had the same issues earlier in his career, and as he has matured, he’s been better at picking his spots. The same thing should eventually happen with Florian as he matures.

(1/2)
Close to NHL-ready:

– Adam Engström
– Jared Davidson
– Florian Xhekaj
– Owen Beck
– David Reinbacher
– Jacob Fowler

Needing a chance or a new start:

– Sean Farrell
– Joshua Roy
– Filip Mesar
– William Trudeau#GoHabsGo #Habs #GoRocket

— GrumpaDotCA (@GrumpaDotCA) February 8, 2026

It wouldn’t be surprising if Xhekaj gets passed by other prospects come summertime after the draft on this list, but the one thing we know is that Xhekaj has a very good chance at being an energy guy for the Canadiens, and because of that, he is the 9th best prospect in the Habs pipeline for the time being.

Click here for yesterday’s article on the 10th best prospect, Logan Sawyer.