After wowing as a rookie last season, Victor Mete has struggled to find the same kind of success this year for the Montreal Canadiens and has seen his ice time decreased dramatically. Today, that NHL ice time is completely gone as the Canadiens decided to assign Mete to the minor leagues. The young defenseman will get a chance to continue his development at the lower level, while Montreal inserts players like Brett Kulak into the NHL lineup.
Playing just 12:21 on Tuesday night, the second-lowest total of his young career since November of last season, the writing was on the wall on how the Canadiens were planning on deploying their defense corps going forward. The organization has big plans for Mete down the line, but with Shea Weber’s recent return the team is leaning heavily on their veteran options to turn around their recent struggles and get them back into the race for an Atlantic Division playoff spot. Mete meanwhile will likely log huge minutes for the Rocket, and his absence opens up a roster spot for the imminent return of Paul Byron.
Laval now has several defenders with recent NHL experience, as Mete joins the recently demoted Karl Alzner along with Brett Lernout on the blue line. That group will try to turn around the early struggles of the Rocket in their second season, off to an 8-12-2 start. The team released Ryan Sproul from his professional tryout today, opening up some additional playing time for Mete and the veteran Alzner, who scored a goal in his debut.
Mete’s ice time is about the same as it was last year(15:35 to 15:20). His play has also been about the same as last year. This is purely an asset management thing with Byron and Scherbak due back Saturday and Tuesday respectively and Mete being the lone waiver-exempt player on the active roster.