XHEKAJ FAMILY: FROM A HARROWING JOURNEY TO CANADA TO RAISING HOCKEY STARS
Besides being brothers, there’s another thing that Arber and Florian Xhekaj have in common which is their love for hockey and being tough inside the rink. Their love for hockey is combined with being Canadian and that of their part – Czech roots. And their eagerness; their father says they inherited it from their Albanian side. The boys were born in Canada to a Czech mother and Albanian father from Kosovo.
Beneath the surface lies a lesser-known chapter of their family’s history that many Canadian hockey fans might not expect. As their father, Jack Xhekaj, watches his sons battle it out on the rink, he beams with pride. “The feeling—I can’t even put it into words, it’s unbelievable,” he says, his voice cracking with emotion during our phone conversation about this story. Arber Xhekaj, now 24, joined the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens as an undrafted rookie in 2022 and has since proven he’s a force to be reckoned with. He currently is position as the team’s defenseman. He signed a two-year extension contract in July of 2024.
Credit: Arber Xhekaj/Facebook
He and his 20-year-old brother Florian, who currently plays for the Laval Rocket, share not just an identity, an apartment but also a dream—and the hope that one day they’ll put on the same jersey in the big leagues "our biggest dream is to play together on the same team, biggest gap was the age difference because we couldn’t be on the same team but achieving our dreams together that’s number one for me" says Arber Xhekaj.
As for Arber Xhekaj’s skills on ice, Dose.ca writes “He’s big, he’s physical, he’s capable of fighting… But we mustn’t forget one aspect of his game. Arber Xhekaj is also endowed with a good shot” writes the blog.
Speaking to Arber Xhekaj for this story, I could feel his passion he has for the game, his family and communities he is involved in, despite his tough attitude on the ice, he comes through as very kind, gentle and extremely humble.
Credit: Florian Xhekaj/Facebook
His advice for young people is simple “believe in yourself, chase your dreams, my parents were big on helping me chase my dreams, and keep pushing, there's’ ups downs bump but you can aspire who you want to be and that’s why it’s great to be grown here, there’s opportunities if you put your mind and focus into it”
And his brother Florian, got quite the attention on his first NHL appearance, dropping the gloves as he became physical. He began his career as a youth with the Hamilton huskies to then joining the Hamilton Bulldogs in the OHL where he played for two seasons.
“They all support me, unbelievable, I met people who never watch hockey- its unbelievable how many Albanians are rooting me on, its very special to have that for me, they're very loyal to their people they want to see Albanians do well" says Arber Xhekaj in gratitude of the Albanian community in Canada.
For their father, watching his sons in professional hockey is nothing short of a miracle. “It’s an incredible feeling. Canada gives young people chances,” he says. He can’t help but contrast their success with his own youth in Kosovo during the 1990s, a time marked by love at home but overshadowed by fear and hardship around him in all areas of life. That’s when ethnic cleansing began to tear lives apart—starting with thousands of Albanians losing jobs and families crumbling under the strain. It was then that Jack made the wrenching decision to flee, first across Europe, before finally landing in Canada to build a new life.
Late Jack Xhekaj's mother in traditional Albanian costume
During the 1999 war, Xhekaj’s sisters would be smearing mud on themselves to look less appealing, an attempt to shield against the wartime sexual violence that preyed on so many women and girls "they still carry haunting memories" says Jack. From afar in Canada, Jack agonized over their fate and threw himself into landing a hand with the Canadian Red Cross during the Kosovo crisis. He was one of only a handful of Kosovar interpreters in Halifax, he worked at the military base where thousands of refugees arrived, airlifted from camps in Macedonia part of ‘Operation Parasol’ emergency program in relocating thousands of refugees. “It was unreal,” he recalls. “Connecting with those families, hearing their stories firsthand—not just seeing it on TV—it was beyond words, the stories I was hearing, it was something words cannot describe, you wouldn’t believe in this century they would do that to humans” Xhekaj adds “ it was eye opening, it wasn’t easy to hear and translate those stories”.
Xhekaj’s father (Jack) is from the epicenter of the Kosovo war, Drenas located in Drenica; where Albanian’s clashed with Serbian soldiers fighting for freedom which escalated into the Kosovo war. Jack Xhekaj says he had many family member fight for freedom in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to fight for that liberty. Now, he sees echoes of that same fire in his sons as they scrap on the ice—different stakes, but with the same spirit.
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged in the early 1990s as a response to the growing discrimination against ethnic Albanians and the crackdown on political dissent by Serbian authorities. This resistance took root after Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević stripped Kosovo of its autonomy in 1989, ushering in a wave of repressive policies targeting Albanians. Xhekaj says his father was arrested for 19 months for activism and political reasons something that became very common after Serbia’s prison’s would arrest people for just being Albanian, attending protests among many other reasons and torturing them in their prisons. An Amnesty International Report from 1992 writes of some of those inhumane treaments. “ For many years Amnesty International has received allegations that ethnic Albanians have been ill-treated or tortured - sometimes with fatal consequences - by police.” writes the report. The report goes on to say “In Amnesty International's view, the ill-treatment victims have described often goes well beyond "casual" ill-treatment by undisciplined members of the police force and must be characterized as systematic torture”
SOPHIA XHEKAJ: BATTLING WOODLAND WILDFIRES AS A WOMAN
Jack Xhekaj’s two daughters have also taken unique careers following their mother’s footsteps who changes tires at Costco. One is training to become a flight attendant, while the other battles woodland wildfires as a firefighter in Northern Canada, she's one of a small group of women in Canada that have taken the role in fighting woodland fires which is mostly of male workforce but the interest of women has been increasing as per a CBC story featuring Sophia Xhekaj and other women in the growing field.
Jack Xhekaj says the progress is remarkable, not just for his family but for the broader Kosovar refugee community in Canada. “They’re all thriving—lawyers, doctors, journalists, you name it. Everyone’s doing so well,” he says with gratitude and pride.