{"id":315907,"date":"2025-11-21T23:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/315907\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T23:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T23:32:10","slug":"canadiens-recall-florian-xhekaj-joshua-roy-remains-with-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/315907\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens Recall Florian Xhekaj, Joshua Roy Remains With Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

5:15 p.m.: In a somewhat confusing update, Montreal has amended their previous announcement by sharing<\/a> that Roy remains with the team. That gives Montreal 14 forwards for tomorrow\u2019s contest unless another move is made.<\/p>\n

5:01 p.m.: The Montreal Canadiens have recalled one of the toughest-nosed players, having yet to play in the NHL. According to a team announcement<\/a>, the Canadiens have recalled Florian Xhekaj<\/a> and reassigned Joshua Roy<\/a> in a corresponding roster move.<\/p>\n

Montreal drafted Xhekaj with the 101st overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft. He plays an eerily similar game to his brother Arber Xhekaj<\/a>, albeit on offense.<\/p>\n

He was drafted relatively high, given his playstyle, scoring 13 goals and 25 points in 68 games for the OHL\u2019s Hamilton Bulldogs during his draft season. However, Xhekaj exploded on offense the following campaign, registering 34 goals and 65 points in 63 games with a +17 rating.<\/p>\n

Even through his transition to professional hockey, Xhekaj looked back. He was one of the most exciting prospects to watch for the Canadiens last season, scoring 24 goals and 35 points in 69 games for the AHL\u2019s Laval Rocket with a whopping 175 PIMs. This season, he has managed two goals and four points in 16 games, with 44 PIMs.<\/p>\n

Xhekaj butters his bread in the crease. Reminiscent of Detroit Red Wing Tomas Holmstrom<\/a> in the early-to-mid 2000s, Xhekaj\u2019s net front presence has become exceptional in the AHL, with most of his goals coming from high-skill deflections. It\u2019ll play well in Montreal, since blue-liners Noah Dobson<\/a> and Lane Hutson<\/a> are no strangers to firing the puck on net.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Xhekaj\u2019s recall comes with some bad news for Roy. The 22-year-old forward has gone scoreless in three games for the Canadiens this season, averaging 9:47 of ice time per game. He\u2019s fared much better with AHL Laval, scoring four goals and seven points in 10 contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5:15 p.m.: In a somewhat confusing update, Montreal has amended their previous announcement by sharing that Roy remains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[5435,5,4167,21,4,465,466,405],"class_list":{"0":"post-315907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-florian-xhekaj","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-joshua-roy","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-nhl-draft","14":"tag-nhl-entry-draft","15":"tag-transactions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115590302865845785","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}