The story of Arber Xhekaj is a crazy one, and we've just learned a major new piece of information about his arrival with the Canadiens. We know that the colossus was never drafted, and that no one was talking about him, until he was invited to camp by the CH in 2021. He finally signed a contract then, thanks to his perseverance and Luke Richardson. <q>When he arrived at the Habs' main camp, after the rookie camp in 2021, Xhekaj confessed that he was far too impressed by some of the Toronto Maple Leafs' best players (and he really played a bad game), so the next day he went to see assistant coach Luke Richardson, after his very difficult game, and asked to play one last game. I asked the coaches, because I knew they were going to send me home and maybe I'd be released afterwards, because I'd played a really bad game, Xhekaj confided. He added. I asked them to play one last game, before they released me, I told them I needed one last game to prove to them what I was really capable of. I had nothing to lose by asking them. If they said no, too bad, I'd have tried somewhere else, but if they said yes, well, I was going to have one last chance to convince them to sign me. In the end, they gave me one more game, which was my best ever, and the rest is history. I ended up signing a contract with the Canadiens. - Arber Xhekaj</q> So, one of the crowd's favorites almost missed the boat, but his tenacity and the fact that Luke Richardson and the coaching staff at the time were willing to give him one last chance, resulted in a contract and he's now a member of the Montreal Canadiens. <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/HabsOnReddit/status/1712502406469075176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1712502406469075176%7Ctwgr%5Eac0948b34aeacc109e78185b88e6c414d59c0de8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.habsetlnh.com%2Fcanadiens-de-montreal%2FWOW-le-Canadien-de-Montreal-a-un-seul-match-davoir-perdu-Arber-Xhekaj'> </a></blockquote></div>