Montreal Canadiens: Luke Richardson Praises Nick Suzuki, Arber Xhekaj

The Montreal Canadiens will face off against the Chicago Blackhawks this afternoon. It is a rare weekday afternoon game but it is Thanksgiving weekend in the United States so there are many games going on at the same time.

This will see the Habs face a couple of familiar faces as Max Domi is suiting up for the Hawks and has an impressive 14 points in 19 games so far this season. He played two seasons with the Canadiens before being traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Josh Anderson.

Former Canadiens assistant coach Luke Richardson is also a member of the Blackhawks now. He was behind the Habs bench for four seasons before being hired to be the bench boss in Chicago. This will be the first time he faces his former team since leaving Montreal in the summer.

Ahead of his contest against his former team, Richardson met with the media and heaped some praise on a couple of current Canadiens.

He referred to Canadiens captain and first line centre Nick Suzuki as a star in the National Hockey League and mentioned that Arber Xhekaj is the exact type of defender that everyone in the league is looking for.

He would extend his thoughts on Xhekaj to say he was pushing for the Canadiens defender to play in the American Hockey League a year ago. Richardson coached Xhekaj when he first arrived in Montreal at rookie camp and then was invited to the team’s main training camp.

You may recall that the then 20 year old made quite an impression in his first NHL camp and was signed to an entry-level contract before being returned to the Ontario Hockey League for his overaged Junior season.

Apparently Richardson was suggesting to the management group that Xhekaj could join the Laval Rocket right away and play in the AHL, starting his pro career instead of playing a final Junior season.

Of course, we know now that Xhekaj was sent back to Junior, traded to the Hamilton Bulldogs and helped lead them to an OHL Championship. He was exceptional at both ends of the ice and played a top pairing role as well as big minutes on both special teams units.

He surprisingly made the Canadiens out of training camp this season, so sending him back to Junior was no mistake. It does show Richardson’s keen eye for defensive talent that he wanted this previously unknown player to sign and play in the AHL before anyone knew he was going to be good in Junior.

Richardson also mentioned at the end of the interview that he has nothing but good things to say about the Canadiens organization and he wishes them well. Except for this afternoon’s game where he said he would love to shake hands with Martin St. Louis after beating him.

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