I love Victor Mete as a prospect we got high in the fourth round.
1) Victor Mete is too small and frail to play in the NHL. He's a 19 year old who still has a lot of growing and maturing to do, physically. Saying that he's stocky doesn't address that fact. Of course he's stocky and strong. If he wasn't, he wouldn't be a successful OHL player, thriving against bigger peers with an explosive stride and low centre of gravity.
2) Referring to Jakob Chychrun and Mikhail Sergachev as young defencemen who can play in the NHL is not relevant. Those two had an NHL player build the year they were drafted. They were physically mature last season. Jakob Chychrun was 6'2" and 200 lbs at the Combine, and described as if carved out of rock. Mikhail Sergachev was 6'2" and 221 lbs.
3) Referring to Torey Krug or Ryan Ellis or Troy Stecher as undersized but agile puck movers who can thrive in "today's NHL" is not relevant. Those players were 22 when they made the NHL for good.
4) Playing Victor Mete in NHL games is risking his health and his player development. There's a real chance you could stall or derail his development with an unfortunate injury. His head will be at concussive-elbow-height for most NHL players. Zac Rinaldo is still in the league.
5) One of Marc Bergevin's better-known quotes, one of his mantras that are/should be an organizational touchstone is that 'you often regret calling up a player too early, you seldom regret calling up a player too late'. Having Victor Mete held up as a potential partner for Shea Weber is a direct contravention of that principle.
6) If Victor Mete was a potential third-pairing option who could be eased into the game alongside a trusty veteran who'd be a perfect complement off and on the ice, if he could be babied on to the powerplay and held off the penalty kill as a #6-7 d-man, if his skillset worked perfectly with the rest of the defensive rotation in a supporting role, maybe it would be a reasonable gamble to hurry along his development curve. Instead, the reason he's staying with the club is because he's the 'perfect' complement to first-pairing stud Shea Weber. His skillset and development doesn't match up to the expected role, not by a long shot.
7) The reason he's being kept with le Grand Club is because we divested ourselves of Andrei Markov, Nathan Beaulieu and Alexei Emelin in the off-season, and because we lost Mark Barberio on waivers last winter. Now, each of these decisions is defensible, there were pros and cons, it's reasonable to argue that with the complications of the 23-player roster and waivers and the expansion draft and arbitration and the salary cap, all these player moves had to happen.
The contingencies failed, however. The reason Victor Mete is being given a chance to fail is because none of the backup plans panned out.
8) Most importantly, we're flailing and going for a Hail Mary when there's no need, and no chance of it succeeding. The Canadiens, despite all the talk of the 'window' and the 'must-win', are a fundamentally flawed, undermanned unit. The Canadiens don't have a proper #1 centre, don't have a proper #2 centre, and don't have a proper first pairing left defenceman. We're not even sure we currently have an appropriate backup goalie.
This roster is not going to win the Stanley Cup. It won't even go far in the playoffs. My guess is they'll miss the playoffs.
With this in mind, you shouldn't throw good money after bad. You shouldn't risk the development of an organizational asset who'll benefit the team long-term for a short-term high-risk low-reward gamble. Even if Victor Mete has as decent a season as can be expected from a 19-year-old fourth-round pick, it won't put the Canadiens over the top. It might mean five or six more points in the regular season, but it's not the Penguins adding Ron Francis to the Lemieux-Jagr forward corps.
Even lacking Andrei Markov or a decent Michael del Zotto-type substitute, the wise, better move is for Victor to go back to London, dominate the OHL and his peers as a #1 defenceman, be a leader on his team, get on the World Junior squad and see what he can do on a team stacked with talent and high-pressure no-tomorrow games, and get one year older, wiser, and more mature. That's what will pay off in the long-term, not some half-baked scheme to see if he can do better than Brandon Davidson.
We can't refuse to accept the situation we're in. Marc Bergevin was left holding the bag when he couldn't come to an agreement with Andrei, and is now sitting on $8.5M of cap space and Karl Alzner as his only credible, tested option on the left side of the blue line. Éric Desjardins isn't driving down from Laval and walking in the door.
In that situation, you take your lumps. You understand that it will be a long, tough season. You suffer through it, you showcase your trade deadline chips and you plan ahead for the 2018 Draft. You cross your fingers for a win at the Rasmus Dahlin lottery.
You don't drag down Victor Mete with you.
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