Montreal Canadiens: What Would Victor Mete Extension Look Like?

The Montreal Canadiens have a couple of key restricted free agents after the 2019-20 season that are now eligible for an extension. What would it take to extend Victor Mete?

The Montreal Canadiens hit a home run in the 2016 NHL Draft when they took Victor Mete with the 100th overall selection in the fourth round. Mete was coming off a season where he scored 38 points in 68 games for the London Knights of the OHL.

He played one more year for the Knights, but surprised a lot of people in the hockey world when he cracked the Canadiens lineup to start the 2017-18 season. Not many 19 year old defenders have made the Habs roster in the past, but Mete proved he belonged as a teenager.

The 5’9″ left shooting defenseman played 49 games for the Canadiens in his rookie season, scoring seven points. He averaged 15:35 of ice time, chipping in a little bit on the power play but mostly playing third pairing duties and learning the ropes with Jordie Benn as his partner.

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This season, Mete started slowly and was sent down to the Laval Rocket in early December. He played just seven games in the AHL and was recalled before Christmas. Mete’s game really took off after the promotion and he became a frequent partner for Shea Weber on the team’s top pairing.

He kept improving throughout the season and his ice time slowly increased until he was averaging over 20 minutes per game by the end of the year. He played a little bit on the penalty kill with Weber towards the end of the season as well, adding a new dimension to his game by taking on more responsibility defensively.

Mete’s strengths are his skating, ability to make quick decisions with the puck and breakout passing. He has all the tools to be an offensive defenseman, but has just 20 points, including zero goals, in his 120 game career. He is just 21 years old, so there is time for his offensive game to come together and improve drastically in the next five years.

Mete is heading into the final year of his entry-level contract so he is eligible to sign an extension at any time. If the Canadiens wanted to sign him now, what would it cost them?

Well, it is hard to find comparables for Mete. He is undersized and more of an offensive defenseman than a shutdown player, but he has not scored a goal and is averaging just one assist every six games thus far in his career.

Having said all that, he played well enough due to his hockey sense, skating, puck moving and ability to jump into the rush to earn a role on the team’s top pairing by the end of last season. If he continues on that trajectory, he will become a very valuable asset in the near future. The Canadiens are thin on puck moving defensemen, and not deep in left defenders at the moment, so Mete is a rare commodity for the Habs currently.

One comparable for Mete would be Esa Lindell. He finished his entry-level contract two years ago with the Dallas Stars. Lindell was 23 years old at the time and had played an average of just under 22 minutes per game, earning a role on the Stars top pairing with John Klingberg.

Lindell had 18 points that season but proved he could handle a top pairing role and help out on the team’s penalty kill. He is a more physical player than Mete and is much bigger at 6’3″ and 215 pounds. However, he played a similar role on the team’s top pairing next to their star defenseman.

Lindell signed a two-year bridge contract with a cap hit of $2.2 million per season.

Derek Forbort of the Los Angeles Kings signed a similar contract to Lindell’s after the 2016-17 campaign. He averaged 20:07 of ice time that year which is a little less than Mete was playing at the end of last season. Forbort scored 18 points but was a reliable defenseman in the team’s top four. His contract was a two-year deal worth $2.525 million.

So, the Habs could elect to go short term with Mete and probably get him to sign around $2.5 million per year. However, they already have a handful of key players whose contracts are up in two seasons, so they may want to go longer term with Mete.

That is what the Florida Panthers did recently with Michael Matheson. In 2016-17 he was a 23 year old rookie defender. He scored 17 points in 81 games while playing 21:03 per game. Matheson played a bigger role than Mete on the penalty kill, but the Habs defender was playing well in that role at the end of the season.

Matheson signed an eight-year deal with the Panthers for $4.875 million per season. This was a contract based mostly on potential and hoping that Matheson would continue to evolve and improve his overall game in the future.

That is the same philosophy the Arizona Coyotes subscribed to when they gave Jakob Chychrun a six-year deal worth $4.6 million per year. Chychrun was just 20 years old when he signed the extension and had averaged just over 20 minutes per game.

He had 14 points in 50 games during that 2017-18 season but, like Mete, showed flashes that he could be a much better scorer in the future. Chychrun played a big role for the Coyotes on the power play but was rarely used on the penalty kill.

If the Habs think Mete is going to be Weber’s partner for the foreseeable future, it will cost them something in the $4-5 million range to get him to sign long term. Or, if they want to bridge him, expect a two-year deal around $2.5 million.