Player Discussion Victor Mete: Part III

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Sure he does, he’s already proven he’s an even better partner for Weber than Chiarot was. You seem unable to evaluate this player on your own and are caught up in group-think and appeals to authority. We have watched our first pairing drown for last season and a half, but you would rather rely on the “experts” then try something that has already been proven to work.

People in general just don't get it. The pairing worked and was highly efficient on a long haul, because the two compliment each other very well, better than any other pairing we've had in the last 3 years, other than the recent Petry-Ed duo (finally found someone that works with Petry, altho, wanna find out how they do vs the whole league) . Not only would it be beneficial in producing more than one efficient pairing (Petry-Ed), it would also help prop-up Mete for an eventual trade. Mete seems to have slowed down a wee bit, but took on some weight and can better stand on his own, battling players one-on-one. 187 is big for a 5'9 player. As an example, Gally who is also 5'9, got his weight at 184 for this season.

 

[BehindTheTimes]

People in general just don't get it. The pairing worked and was highly efficient on a long haul, because the two compliment each other very well, better than any other pairing we've had in the last 3 years, other than the recent Petry-Ed duo (finally found someone that works with Petry, altho, wanna find out how they do vs the whole league) . Not only would it be beneficial in producing more than one efficient pairing (Petry-Ed), it would also help prop-up Mete for an eventual trade. Mete seems to have slowed down a wee bit, but took on some weight and can better stand on his own, battling players one-on-one. 187 is big for a 5'9 player. As an example, Gally who is also 5'9, got his weight at 184 for this season.

I agree with this. Although I view Mete a little more highly than someone to prop up and trade, but maybe I’m off base there. I get many feel he’s not NHL material, I think that’s ludicrous, but whatever. I also understand the argument that he’s not a 1st pairing dman under ideal circumstances, but what I feel is missed is like you said, they compliment each other’s skill set very well. What Weber lacks, speed, transitioning Mete has in spades, what Mete lacks in size/strength, Weber has in spades. They work together and should be put back together ASAP.

 

[Harpo]

I'd go with:

Petry-Edmundson (22 minutes)
Weber-Mete (20 minutes)
Romanov-Kulak (18 minutes)

As Romanov acquires more experience and gets better, promote him.

 

[Habaddict]

I agree with this. Although I view Mete a little more highly than someone to prop up and trade, but maybe I’m off base there. I get many feel he’s not NHL material, I think that’s ludicrous, but whatever. I also understand the argument that he’s not a 1st pairing dman under ideal circumstances, but what I feel is missed is like you said, they compliment each other’s skill set very well. What Weber lacks, speed, transitioning Mete has in spades, what Mete lacks in size/strength, Weber has in spades. They work together and should be put back together ASAP.

What many posters seem to forget. Mete
struggles on the right side. And the few games he's played in a year or so, were mostly on the
right. After a few more games on the left , he's
likely to pick up some. And now that he's more mature physicaly, he may be better
than when he played with Weber before.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

He looked good on Saturday. Prior to Chiarot's injury, the other 2 pairings were playing well.. the easiest option is to try him again with Weber as Weber could badly use Mete's speed and puck moving.

 

[boboche]

not sure what the hell he was thinking when he kicked the puck in front of the net. low iq play by a low iq player.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

not sure what the hell he was thinking when he kicked the puck in front of the net. low iq play by a low iq player.

I bet Mete has a higher IQ than 99.999999% of Nordiques fans

 

[montreal]

I haven't seen too much of the last 2 games but heard Mete didn't play well. He's a career +30 though, his 3 pts in 14 is the exact same pace as last season's 11 in 51 games though being in an out of the lineup, playing LD and RD perhaps it hasn't been easy on him. That said I could see him and Leks as trade bait

 

[habsfan92]

Seems obvious to me that the team needs another dman that can produce points. Romanov, Kulak, Edmundson, definitely Mete, and to an extent Weber cannot pick up points. Kulak or Mete has to be replaced. Romanov isn’t going anywhere, and Kulak isn’t here for his stay at home play. MB needs to make a deal ASAP.

 

[Whitesnake]

I do not know what would really have been the upside on this kid, and while we are not talking about the same kind of potential, but stop talking about JK, Galchy or whatever, the decision to put Mete in the NHL as soon as they did was the most IDIOTIC decision of them all. Just pure stupidity at its best. It just prooves, time and time and time again, that this team is just f***ing reactive. No plans. Just...OH MY GOD he skates fast, let's make him a NHL'er.....My god....that's just pee-wee C category..

 

[Deebs]

It will be a good thing replacing Meat with Chiarot

Eddy - Petry
Romanov - Weber
Kulak - Chiarot

 

[Miller Time]

I haven't seen too much of the last 2 games but heard Mete didn't play well. He's a career +30 though, his 3 pts in 14 is the exact same pace as last season's 11 in 51 games though being in an out of the lineup, playing LD and RD perhaps it hasn't been easy on him. That said I could see him and Leks as trade bait

agreed... that, or send the kid to Laval and let him dominate the AHL for awhile. Seems like a situation where he must be showing so much better than the other org. options in practice that the team decides to keep him in the NHL... but he's not playing well/consistent enough to gain the trust of his coaches needed to get regular minutes.

he's waiver exempt... send him down to laval and give ouellette the yo-yo lineup treatment instead. What's the point in having Mete (or any young dman with skating/passing/hockey iq as skills and size/toughness/physicality as a weakness) in the NHL if this is how you're going to use him? Especially when you have a guy like ouellette or even fleury that could just as easily be used the same way with as much/more impact and less risk of stalling development... makes very little sense.

 

[montreal]

I do not know what would really have been the upside on this kid, and while we are not talking about the same kind of potential, but stop talking about JK, Galchy or whatever, the decision to put Mete in the NHL as soon as they did was the most IDIOTIC decision of them all. Just pure stupidity at its best. It just prooves, time and time and time again, that this team is just f***ing reactive. No plans. Just...OH MY GOD he skates fast, let's make him a NHL'er.....My god....that's just pee-wee C category..

well undersized D with limited strength and offensive upside you are looking at a 3rd pairing D. The question then would be how much could he have improved his offensive upside had he went back to the OHL at 19, spent 2+ years in the AHL with Bouchard. Mete's shot is his big downfall but you look at Jordan Harris and he was said to have put in a lot of work in the off-season on his shot and it clearly showed. While it's never going to be that big Weber like shot but he worked on improving it and did so.

I always say the NHL is not the place you go to develop a skill, you prefer they have that skill before they go to the NHL, not that they can't develop it in the NHL, just that it's not ideal.

I could see Mete getting traded to a bottom team, if he's put with a big strong RD I could see him having a solid career as a bottom pairing D or maybe a 4th if he can get the offense going more.

 

[montreal]

agreed... that, or send the kid to Laval and let him dominate the AHL for awhile. Seems like a situation where he must be showing so much better than the other org. options in practice that the team decides to keep him in the NHL... but he's not playing well/consistent enough to gain the trust of his coaches needed to get regular minutes.

he's waiver exempt... send him down to laval and give ouellette the yo-yo lineup treatment instead. What's the point in having Mete (or any young dman with skating/passing/hockey iq as skills and size/toughness/physicality as a weakness) in the NHL if this is how you're going to use him? Especially when you have a guy like ouellette or even fleury that could just as easily be used the same way with as much/more impact and less risk of stalling development... makes very little sense.

Mete has played too many games in the NHL to be waiver exempt.

 

[Miller Time]

Mete has played too many games in the NHL to be waiver exempt.

oh... my mistake... i thought at the start of the year that was the conversation around the Juulsen waiver decision (that we could have sent Mete down instead without losing him to waivers )

 

[DAChampion]

I'm not happy with Mete's play and I'm skeptical that he'll have much of an NHL career moving forward.

But I suspect that things would be different for him if the Habs had developed him properly. There's no room in the NHL for small shutdown defensemen, but if he has played two years in Laval like he should have, he'd probably be a little better offensively.

 

[salbutera]

I'm not happy with Mete's play and I'm skeptical that he'll have much of an NHL career moving forward.

But I suspect that things would be different for him if the Habs had developed him properly. There's no room in the NHL for small shutdown defensemen, but if he has played two years in Laval like he should have, he'd probably be a little better offensively.

Mete has no offense instinct and has no NHL caliber shot like Sammy Girard (for example) who’s got a bomb

 

[salbutera]

oh... my mistake... i thought at the start of the year that was the conversation around the Juulsen waiver decision (that we could have sent Mete down instead without losing him to waivers )

No the choice was either putting Juulsen or Mete on waivers - many felt Mete would’ve been claimed right away as low cap hit for 7th Dman whereas Juulsen had a better shot at clearing

 

[DAChampion]

Mete has no offense instinct and has no NHL caliber shot like Sammy Girard (for example) who’s got a bomb

Mete was never going to be Paul Coffey, he wouldn't need to be. If he were simply adequate on offense, he'd be a viable NHL player.

 

[Archijerej]

I think Mete is definitely an NHLer and a potentially solid one. Unfortunately, he seems like a miscast with our current group of blueliners.

The management does not believe he's a fit next to Weber.

They think Petry needs a different type of partner.

He's not good enough to carry a pairing with a rookie, while playing on his off-side.

I was wondering if anyone could provide the following statistics for Mete-Weber and Chiarot-Weber pairings:

Games played, 5-on-5 minutes/game, 5-on-5 GA/60 min., 5-on-5 GF/60 min.

 

[Hins77]

I think Mete is definitely an NHLer and a potentially solid one. Unfortunately, he seems like a miscast with our current group of blueliners.

The management does not believe he's a fit next to Weber.

They think Petry needs a different type of partner.

He's not good enough to carry a pairing with a rookie, while playing on his off-side.

I was wondering if anyone could provide the following statistics for Mete-Weber and Chiarot-Weber pairings:

Games played, 5-on-5 minutes/game, 5-on-5 GA/60 min., 5-on-5 GF/60 min.

Mete is only a fast guy. I would say, when he is on the ice, montreal are often trapped during long time in dZone. He is too weak to physically, separate the puck from the owner. When he is skating in o zone. He is never to make a true scoring chance. I dont really care about advanced stats. This guy is a 7th d. He didnt really progress since his draft day

 

[Habs Halifax]

I'm not happy with Mete's play and I'm skeptical that he'll have much of an NHL career moving forward.

But I suspect that things would be different for him if the Habs had developed him properly. There's no room in the NHL for small shutdown defensemen, but if he has played two years in Laval like he should have, he'd probably be a little better offensively.

Agreed. With me, if Mete is not providing value in puck moving and producing points, he's useless cause play in his own end is limited due to his lack of size and stick reach. He does OK for a guy his size but I don't get the point of having someone like that in our line-up where he is not providing value to match the best part of his game.

I would try to see if we can bring in Ghost to replace Mete in the depth chart. Good timing too cause Ghost has 2 years left after this year and our other young LD's will be closer to being ready at that point. I think it's a low risk move if we can get Ghost with some retention. Worth trying Ghost with Weber and if that don't work, he slides into Mete's depth role.

 

[Archijerej]

Mete is only a fast guy. I would say, when he is on the ice, montreal are often trapped during long time in dZone. He is too weak to physically, separate the puck from the owner. When he is skating in o zone. He is never to make a true scoring chance. I dont really care about advanced stats. This guy is a 7th d. He didnt really progress since his draft day

Surely, the stats I mentioned in my post will show this clearly?

"Mete's not very good, hence a Mete-Weber pairing is leaking goals and/or we don't score enough with them on the ice to end up on the right side of the ledger."

There's nothing "advanced" in those stats. Either you're outscoring the opposition, or not. The sample size for both pairings is large enough to make a comparison.

Otherwise, we would have to assume that Mete-Weber pairing was deployed differently than Chiarot-Weber. How can it be, if Weber has ALWAYS been used for hard matchups?

Metes' weaknesses are clearly apparent and I won't deny them. But he also has certain strengths. The most valuable of them right now, with Webers' struggles, is the ability to get to loose pucks, avoid forecheckers and transition the puck up the ice. Of all the available options internally, he's the best complimentary player for Weber, unless it can be demonstrated that Chiarot-Weber is more of a net positive and/or is used in tougher matchups.

I don't much care that he can't pin an opponent into the boards or has offensive creativity of Nathan Beaulieu. What we're doing now is not working very well and there's no other LD puck-mover in sight.

 

[26Mats]

Agreed. With me, if Mete is not providing value in puck moving and producing points, he's useless cause play in his own end is limited due to his lack of size and stick reach. He does OK for a guy his size but I don't get the point of having someone like that in our line-up where he is not providing value to match the best part of his game.

I would try to see if we can bring in Ghost to replace Mete in the depth chart. Good timing too cause Ghost has 2 years left after this year and our other young LD's will be closer to being ready at that point. I think it's a low risk move if we can get Ghost with some retention. Worth trying Ghost with Weber and if that don't work, he slides into Mete's depth role.

The thing is, I don't want ghost's 4.5M cap hit on the books. We need that money to either find an upgrade on Chiarot, or sign/re-sign forwards and upgrade Drouin.

 

[le_sean]

Surely, the stats I mentioned in my post will show this clearly?

"Mete's not very good, hence a Mete-Weber pairing is leaking goals and/or we don't score enough with them on the ice to end up on the right side of the ledger."

There's nothing "advanced" in those stats. Either you're outscoring the opposition, or not. The sample size for both pairings is large enough to make a comparison.

Otherwise, we would have to assume that Mete-Weber pairing was deployed differently than Chiarot-Weber. How can it be, if Weber has ALWAYS been used for hard matchups?

Metes' weaknesses are clearly apparent and I won't deny them. But he also has certain strengths. The most valuable of them right now, with Webers' struggles, is the ability to get to loose pucks, avoid forecheckers and transition the puck up the ice. Of all the available options internally, he's the best complimentary player for Weber, unless it can be demonstrated that Chiarot-Weber is more of a net positive and/or is used in tougher matchups.

I don't much care that he can't pin an opponent into the boards or has offensive creativity of Nathan Beaulieu. What we're doing now is not working very well and there's no other LD puck-mover in sight.

Ability to get to loose pucks? What’s the advantage there if he’s too weak to clear the puck when someone is on him or he gets pinned to the boards easily by literally any NHL player since he’s weaker than a child?

He’s good at one thing: skating it out when there’s space. That’s it. Otherwise he’s going to lose the battle and get hemmed in his zone.