{"id":493992,"date":"2026-03-09T01:58:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/493992\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T01:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T01:58:17","slug":"arber-xhekaj-and-jayden-struble-at-center-of-martin-st-louis-trust-debate-after-canadiens-quiet-dea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/493992\/","title":{"rendered":"Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble at center of Martin St-Louis trust debate after Canadiens’ quiet dea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t \"Montreal <\/p>\n

Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble now find themselves at the center of a storm after a rather quiet trade deadline for the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

Several observers are seriously wondering why Kent Hughes did not make a move to acquire a depth defenseman for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Let’s be honest with ourselves: the performance of the young defensemen raises important questions about the level of trust with the head coach.<\/p>\n

We can agree that if management had full confidence in its current core, rumors of dissatisfaction would not be surfacing so intensely.<\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj has posted a -3 rating over his last five games, which is starting to weigh heavily on the big defenseman.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Jayden Struble appears to be searching for his footing on the ice, and his average ice time has dropped below the 14-minute mark.<\/p>\n

Simply put, execution in the defensive zone is not smooth, and quick breakouts are becoming increasingly rare.<\/p>\n

Lack of trust is affecting the breakout<\/p>\n

“Still scratching my head on why Montreal didn’t add a depth defenseman. Clearly a mistrust between coach and Xhekaj\/Struble, which is gravely effecting their play.”<\/p>\n

– David Calabretta<\/p>\n

Without an effective breakout, the Canadiens are shooting themselves in the foot and exposing themselves to repeated attacks from opponents in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

Management chose not to shop for a veteran, preferring to let the young players learn the hard way in the heat of NHL action.<\/p>\n

In March, every mistake is costly, and the lack of offensive production from the defensive corps is becoming a major issue.<\/p>\n

You cannot expect to win with zero goals from defensemen over a stretch of three consecutive games – it’s simply math.<\/p>\n

Fans are now waiting for a direct response on the ice to prove that this rebuild is moving in the right direction without immediate reinforcements.<\/p>\n

Previously on All Montreal Hockey<\/p>\n

POLL<\/p>\n

35 MINUTES AGO|26 ANSWERS<\/p>\n

Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble at center of Martin St-Louis trust debate after Canadiens’ quiet deadline<\/p>\n

Did the Canadiens make a mistake by not adding a defenseman?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images Arber Xhekaj and Jayden Struble now find themselves at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[407,2216,265,5,410,1749,412,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-493992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-arber-xhekaj","9":"tag-atlantic-division","10":"tag-canadiens","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jayden-struble","13":"tag-kent-hughes","14":"tag-martin-st-louis","15":"tag-montreal","16":"tag-montreal-canadiens","17":"tag-montrealcanadiens","18":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116196744871419379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493992","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=493992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}