Montreal Canadiens: Send Victor Mete back to Junior

Victor Met has had a good story with the Montreal Canadiens so far, but it may be a better idea to send him back to the London Knights.

The Montreal Canadiens blueline didn’t look too good going into this season. With Nathan Beaulieu, Alexei Emelin, and Andrei Markov not part of the organization, Claude Julien had a tough task at his hands to get the right fit for the team’s defence pairings. Karl Alzner was the big free agent signed over the summer, but the Habs also had David Schlemko who they just acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights.

When training camp hit, the battle for Shea Weber‘s defence partner began. Alzner, Schlemko, and Jordie Benn were the early candidates. Unfortunately, Schlemko sustained a hand injury and missed the rest of training camp, and a fit with Benn didn’t work. Julien then tried Weber with Victor Mete, and that was a thing all the way until the final roster was named.

The 19-year-old was taken in the fourth round of the 2016 draft, and the fact that he was able to progress so well to make the Habs out of camp was incredible. It wasn’t just a trial run either; Mete was playing a significant amount of time with Weber on the top pair. He didn’t look out of place, and he rarely made the game-costing mistake you’d expect from a rookie defenceman.

Mete averaged about 19:34 in ice time in his first 10 NHL games, but again he didn’t look out of place. After that, Claude Julien started to take his ice time to the meat grinder. Save for the 8-3 Senators win and 6-3 Minnesota loss, the 2016 4th round pick was hovering around 11 minutes a night.

He went from playing with Weber on the top pair to Joseph Morrow or Brandon Davidson on the bottom pair. Just recently, Mete was scratched for the first time this season in place of Jakub Jerabek. It kind of makes you think a few things out. If the Montreal Canadiens continue to fall lose games, is it worth it for them to keep him up, or should they send him back down to the London Knights?

That’s the perfect question to be answered on a Thursday.

Poll Results

If the #Habs season continues this way, should they Victor Mete back to London and/or the World Juniors? #GoHabsGo
— A Winning Habit (@FSAWinningHabit) November 22, 2017

Today is American Thanksgiving. The Montreal Canadiens are four points out of the third Atlantic Division spot, and six points out of the final wild-card position. If the trend continues, it’s going to stay that way for the rest of the season.

The reason the Habs kept Mete on the team was that he showed that he could play in the NHL. However, if his minutes are still going to be that low, there’s no real point in keeping him here, especially if Montreal is on the verge of a losing season. You can’t develop a defenceman by playing him less than 10 minutes a night and no power play time.

At the same time, Jakub Jerabek played his first NHL game against Nashville and looked great. Julien must’ve liked what he was seeing as well considering he played close to 18 minutes. You also have to factor in that Schlemko is getting close to returning to the lineup. He hasn’t played a single game all year, but the Habs will have to give him a chance to play. There’s a possibility that he could add a further level of stability to the blueline.