Not spoken about given the kotkaniemi stuff but Mete should not be in AHL. Hes actively involved in a lot of plays and looks poised to best last years totals.
he looks good but it doesn't mean he can't benefit from the AHL. I don't think he will be in the AHL but we are talking about a 20 year old that was playing on the top pairing last year and had zero goals.
I know people look at him and say he's playing like our best D, and that's great. But it's preseason and the vets aren't going all out but that's not even the point. If the Habs were smart, which clearly they have shown they aren't, you want to do what's best for the long term development of a player, not well he looks like our best guy out of a pile of crap.
The same things I say for Kotka, I say for Mete, maybe he does great in the NHL and everything is fine. We just don't know what will happen. It will either work out or it won't. With his skating and defensive play he'll be an NHLer for sure as long as his frame can hold up for a full season and I would think as he gets stronger and fills out more he'll be fine plus getting more experience will make him smarter to know when to avoid things that could do damage.
But the point isn't should he be in the NHL vs the AHL, it's what will make him a better player down the road, playing on the Habs or playing a ton in Laval away from the pressure of the fans and media. He needs to work on his offensive game, now maybe he'll never have a big shot, maybe he can work on it in the NHL. But the point is, is it worth it to risk his development in the NHL vs taking caution in the AHL? They have already rushed him once, just that down the road if say he doesn't develop much in the way of offense and people are disappointed in him cause a contender needs their top 4 to put up a decent amount of offense, it will be more of the well Timmins this or that when really a fair point would be what would have happened had we NOT rushed him to the NHL.