Montreal Canadiens defence man Victor Mete was surprisingly placed on waivers yesterday afternoon.
The 22 year old left defender was taken with the 100th overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft and has played the past four season with the Canadiens.
Though Mete played regularly as a 19 year old, he hadn’t developed much in the past four years and has fallen out of favour in Montreal. The coaching staff appeared to have soured on him as they added left defenceman Joel Edmundson in the offseason and pushed Mete right off the regular rotation.
Mete entered the season as the team’s 7th defenceman and was a healthy scratch for weeks. When Ben Chiarot was injured with a broken hand, it was assumed Mete would step in to fill that void, but it was Xavier Ouellet who was called up from the Laval Rocket to skate on the Habs third pairing.
When that didn’t really work, Mete was finally given another chance but he seemed to be on a short leash.
His last game was Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets and Mete was beat to the net by Trevor Lewis who knocked in a pass as Mete was draped over him. It highlighted Mete’s weaknesses as the 5’9″ defender just couldn’t muscle Lewis away from the puck even though he was in the perfect position.
Dominique Ducharme benched Mete for the whole third period of that game and then made him a healthy scratch on Saturday night in a rematch with the Jets.
Finally, Mete was placed on waivers yesterday.
Though he does have limitations in his size and strength, Mete does have plenty of intriguing skills. He is a terrific skater and can move the puck up ice just by grabbing it and taking off. He puts up terrific advanced stats and possession metrics as he regularly makes the simple play to move the puck away from his net and it results in the Canadiens getting offensive zone time.
At just 22, Mete still has time to develop a little more defensively to become a reliable bottom pairing defender. His skating is so good that he is going to get another chance in another organization.
When teams have a chance to grab a 22 year old defender with blazing speed and terrific analytics, they are going to take a flyer on that player.
The Canadiens, being in a win now mode for this season, can’t afford to have Mete on the roster and needed to upgrade. They did that by acquiring Jon Merrill from the Detroit Red Wings.
It would be great if they could just send Mete down to the Laval Rocket for more seasoning, but he is required to pass through waivers before that happens since he is in his 4th pro season.
Expect Mete to be picked up by a weaker team that could be selling a few defenders this week. Maybe the Ottawa Senators, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres or Columbus Blue Jackets.
There will probably be a handful of teams putting in claims on a 22 year old defenceman with 185 games of NHL experience and a cap hit of $735,000. We don’t know what team will get him yet, but don’t hold your breath expecting Mete to clear waivers.