BROSSARD, Que. — The edges of Florian Xhekaj’s rugged character were sharpened in a hospital bed, in San Sebastian, Spain, where he lay battling for his 14-year-old life.
You think the fight the 21-year-old is in for an NHL job right now is tough? It pales in comparison to the one Xhekaj faced after an incident in an international hockey tournament left him in critical condition.
The trauma, and its terrifying aftermath, may have happened seven-and-a-half years ago. But Xhekaj remembers it like it was yesterday.
“A guy came in and hit me with a butt end and ended up rupturing my kidney,” he said Thursday. “It was a weird experience that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
“My mom wasn’t even there. No one from my family was. I was there with a family friend, and then my mom had to fly out, and I was there for a couple of months. I couldn’t fly home with all that going on. I was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t even walk. It was a crazy experience that I think shaped me into who I am now.”
Who Xhekaj is now makes him a force to be reckoned with. He’s a six-foot-four, 220-pound menace, who’s determined to make his first American Hockey League season — a 24-goal, 175-penalty-minute, 2024-25 campaign — his last one.
A couple of years ago, Florian was just known as Arber’s baby brother — a middling Ontario Hockey Leaguer who was seemingly drafted 101st overall by the Montreal Canadiens just because of his DNA.
But Florian began emerging from Arber’s six-foot-three, 238-pound shadow immediately after that June day in 2023. He scored 34 goals and 65 points and recorded 81 penalty minutes in the 63 games of his 19-year-old season with the Brantford Bulldogs, and then used that performance as a springboard into professional hockey.
Xhekaj hasn’t come down since, and has no intention of moving in any other direction but up.
The player’s enormous resolve was solidified back in that hospital bed in Spain all those years ago.
It was tested to extremes in that wheelchair he was stuck in thereafter, but it was never defeated.
“I had seven or eight surgeries, and it was tough,” Xhekaj said. “But I learned that I’m a fighter, and that I’ll fight through anything.”
He fought through having his platform to the OHL swept out from under him by that horrible injury. He went undrafted in the league but still managed to eventually become an impact player in it after clearing the mental and physical hurdles of returning to contact hockey — and to his specific brand of it, which isn’t for the faint of heart. Xhekaj’s battle was straight uphill, and he never shrunk from it.
“You overcome that stuff and build up the strength,” he said, “and then it shapes you into the person and player you are today.”
That person is as kind as they come off the ice.
Xhekaj is calm, and he describes himself as “very friendly.”
Laval Rocket assistant coach Martin Laperierre said during Wednesday’s rookie camp-opening media availability that Xhekaj is “really well-liked in the room,” and is “an excellent person.”
“There’s leadership in him,” Laperierre said to reporters in attendance, and that was after he labeled Xhekaj one of the players who could upset the apple cart in Montreal.
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Who Xhekaj is on the ice makes that a not-so-bold prediction.
Sure, there are at least 12 established NHL forwards ahead of him in the Canadiens pecking order. But we can’t think of a single one of them that plays the brand of hockey Xhekaj does.
He’s got silk-smooth hands, touch, mobility, sense, and a shot that’s good enough to net him goals at any level. And when you combine all that with the edge Xhekaj brings, you get a player made to impact the game in ways few can.
You think of Sam Bennett with the Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers, or Washington’s Tom Wilson — not because Xhekaj plays exactly like either one of them, but because his fearlessness and unpredictability on the ice can also make him an intimidating opponent — and it’s easy to understand the value he potentially possesses.
“Everyone watches playoffs. It’s big-boy hockey. It’s really physical out there and everyone’s trying to hit everything, and you’ve got to be willing to put your body on the line for the team,” he said. “I try to play like that every single game, even in the regular season. I think that’s something I definitely bring.
“It’s an edge. I’m a normal guy out here, very friendly. But on the ice, I flip a switch and want to win. I don’t want to lose any puck battle or race. Every shift, I’m trying to prove something.”
What Xhekaj proved to himself after what happened to him in Spain makes that task seem immediately achievable to him.
“I highly believe in myself,” he said. “I’m a confident guy. I’m coming here to try to make the roster, so I’m going to push myself to the limit.
“I have everything to gain. I can gain my dream. It’s my dream to play in the NHL, and that’s everything I’ve been working for since I was a kid. I’m going to do whatever I can to make it.”
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