The Canadiens Hits Leader May Not Be Who You Think

If you watch most Montreal Canadiens games, you know that Arber Xhekaj normally brings plenty of physicality. That's what he likes to do and is part of his job description. After Saturday night's game against the Florida Panthers, the gritty defenseman is no longer the Habs' hit leader.

Thanks to a 5-hit performance against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, Juraj Slafkovsky has taken the lead with 162 hits to Xhekaj's 160. Surprisingly, the two players have played the same number of games. The former was made a healthy scratch a few times earlier this season while the former dealt with a minor injury in the early weeks of the season.

Of course, Slafkovsky has more minutes on the ice, he's averaging 17:06 while Xhekaj only skates an average of 15:02, but the former first-overall pick still plays a much more physical game this season than he did in the past. Last year, he had a total of 151 hits in 82 games. This season, he still has 16 games to improve on his 161 total.

In his rookie season, he only had 53 in 39 games for an average of 1.36 hit per game, compared to 2.57 this season. It shouldn't come as a complete shock, since the big Slovak was drafted with the hope he would become a real power forward and be able to use that big frame of his, but as Slafkovsky said himself after the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, he aspires to play like Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk.

As luck would have it, Tkachuk and the Sens are the next visitors at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night, we'll see how Slafkovsky measures up. Right now, the Sens' leader has 211 hits on the season in 64 games with 53 points. As things stand, the Habs' winger only has 41 points, but he has picked up the pace of late with the top line looking unstoppable. He's currently on a 53-point per 82 games season, which would beat his 50-point total from last year.

Slafkovsky is improving and he's doing it in a lot of ways, when the Canadiens are ready to contend, I fully expect him to be a big factor, just like Kent Hughes hopes and hoped he would be when he made him his first pick overall.