Since he often defends his teammates after questionable shots or simply adds a dose of aggression to a game, Arber prepares for this.

In the National Hockey League (NHL), it’s often the forwards who stand out with big arms. Just think of Ryan Reaves, Mathieu Olivier or Nicolas Deslauriers. Defenders taking on this role are rarer, but they do exist.

• Also read: Escalation of aggression against the Senators: It’s Ridly Greig’s fault

• Also read: A stroke of luck: Arber Xhekaj is not banned

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Xhekaj falls into the latter category. However, the sturdy Ontarian hasn’t helped the CH’s cause by offering retaliation to Cédric Paré or engaging in a fight with Brady Tkachuk in recent days, often leaving him without a defender.

Would the solution to not constantly having to have five defenders be to send Xhekaj into attack? At least that’s what Tony Marinaro asked himself on the show JiCWednesday, citing the cases of Brent Burns and Dustin Byfuglien.

“When you play with seven defenders, you can use Xhekaj as an attacker from time to time,” explained Jean-Charles Lajoie’s associate. “When you play with seven defenders, you take a few minutes [Mike] Matheson and [David] Savard. You don’t have to worry about development [Justin] Barron because he’ll be out of the game; he would be in training.”

“The Canadian needs Xhekaj in training, but someone has to teach him how to do his job and make these decisions,” Marinaro concluded.

Watch the Colosseum section of the main video.

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