Arber Xhekaj still doesn't have a contract, and heading into the final month before camp, the Montreal Canadiens are running out of quiet time to figure this out.
Daily Faceoff's Anthony Di Marco went on TSN Radio in Montreal this week and floated a theory that has nothing to do with Xhekaj's game.
He pointed to Pittsburgh handing Ville Koivunen term well beyond what his track record says he's earned, and suggested that number is now the one agents are pointing at across the league.
So is Xhekaj's camp asking for more simply because someone else got paid? That's the read from Montreal right now.
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His last deal carried a $1.3 million cap hit, modest money for a defenseman coming off a season with four points and a minus-8 rating over 65 games.
He was a different player in the playoffs. Two points and a plus-five rating over 13 games as the Canadiens beat Tampa Bay, then Buffalo, before Carolina ended their run.
Agent Brian Bartlett said back in July both sides wanted this solved in Montreal. "There's no panic," he said then.
Ville Koivunen's contract may be reshaping the Xhekaj talks
That was July. It's almost September now, and the panic clock is starting to tick louder than Bartlett let on.
Younger brother Florian already got his first taste of the show last season, picking up an assist in five games with the big club.
Letting a $1.3 million shutdown defenseman drift into a staring contest over pocket change is a bad way to run a negotiation, plain and simple.
It's a bit like a used car lot where the guy next door just flipped his beater for double the sticker price. Suddenly everybody on the block wants more for theirs, whether the car deserves it or not.
Multiple teams have called Montreal about Xhekaj, and the Canadiens have said no every time. The Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames reportedly pushed hardest, though Calgary's appetite cooled after they added Jake Middleton on the back end.
Kent Hughes hasn't blinked yet. He doesn't have to, not with Xhekaj still under team control and no offer sheet on the table.
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But defensemen are getting paid strange money across this league right now, and every day this drags, Xhekaj's camp has one more data point to lean on.
Should the Canadiens pay Arber Xhekaj more to avoid losing him to another team?
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