Senators Claim Victor Mete Off Waivers
With trade rumours swirling ahead of this afternoon’s 3:00 pm ET trade deadline, the Senators have made another roster move. Today they claimed left-shot defenceman Victor Mete off waivers from the Montreal Canadiens.
The 22-year old Mete was a fourth-round pick (100th overall) of the Canadiens in 2016 and has played parts of four NHL seasons in Montreal.
Having moved Mike Reilly and Braydon Coburn late last night, the Senators needed someone to help fill out the left side of their blue line. Erik Brannstrom will inevitably play up the lineup, but adding Mete to the mix makes sense for the Senators and he may even play tonight.
Not only is Mete young, he is also inexpensive. Signed to a one-year deal worth $735,000, the next 14 games essentially serve as a showcase for what Mete can do. The waiver claim is an opportunity for Mete to play and if he fares well, there’s a great chance he can earn a contract for next season and become an asset. And if he doesn’t, the Senators can simply elect not to qualify Mete as a restricted free agent allowing him to hit unrestricted free agency.
It’s an excellent low-risk upside play and it’s the kind of transaction a rebuilding team like the Senators should (continue to) make.
Historically, Mete has posted some intriguing underlying numbers. In Montreal, Mete played some sheltered and insulated minutes, but the results were actually quite good.
In 193 five-on-five minutes this season, the Canadiens generated 54.86 percent of the total shots (CF%), 51.43 percent of the shots on goal, 54.88 percent of the scoring chances (SCF%) and 51.37 percent of the expected goals per NaturalStatTrick.com.
Mete never played regularly against the opposition’s top players, but there’s a lot to like here. With players like Thomas Chabot, Erik Brannstrom, Jake Sanderson, the Senators already have a few young players who should fill the top-four shortly.
Now obviously the same concerns for Victor Mete’s size and ability to be outmuscled in key areas has also applied to puck-moving defencemen like Christian Wolanin and Brannstrom. This season, D.J. Smith exhibited a hesitancy to dress Wolanin and Brannstrom in the same lineup. Smith often preferred to dress a physically imposing alternative like Braydon Coburn even if it meant that the underlying possession metrics would crater.
With Mete and Brannstrom in the fold and the team needing to evaluate both players, it certainly looks like the head coach will have no choice but to roll with these two players. The alternatives simply are not good enough to displace either player.
The Senators don’t need Mete to be great, but if he can bring some of his ice-tilting element to the team’s bottom pair, that will help. For too many years, the Senators’ bottom-four has shortchanged the organization’s ability to have sustained success.
Gudbranson Dealt
Sneaking in a deal before the deadline ended, the Senators traded defenceman Erik Gudbranson to the Nashville Predators for a 2023 seventh-round pick and depth AHLer, Brandon Fortunato.
Fortunato is a 24-year old left winger who has played nine games on loan with the Cleveland Monsters in the AHL. Fortunato has been held pointless in these games and his inclusion simply looks to be a contract dump.
Like the Braydon Coburn deal, the Senators have to be happy that they fetched a future asset in exchange for Gudbranson.
#MelnykIn
The Hockey News’ ‘Future Watch 2021’ magazine generated some buzz for the Senators when its cover was adorned by Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Drake Batherson.
Within a few days a ‘publisher’s note’ within the magazine entitled ‘#MelnykIn’ was marketed on social media by The Hockey News’ owner, W. Graeme Roustan.
Why the owner of The Hockey News would feel compelled to publish this editorial piece is odd. Giving plaudits to the owner when this rebuild has not accomplished anything of substance yet is one thing, but from a marketing perspective, publishing this article and circulating it on the internet was inevitably going to create some unintended consequences.
In an unsurprising bit of irony, Roustan’s block function on Twitter got a workout this afternoon and within a few hours, Roustan’s account was locked and made private.
The damage was done, however.
No one in this city needs some half-baked explanation of how Eugene Melnyk is some misunderstood hockey genius. It’s completely unnecessary. Fans here have lived and experienced the Melnyk era. They recognize the distortion of facts and the glossing over of details.
Walking away from a number of good, but not elite players who were close to turning 30 years of age was a fantastic decision. Everyone should acknowledge that, but at the same time, it is really, really difficult to stomach the suggestion that the trades that saw the team lose players like Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Matt Duchene and Erik Karlsson were not primarily motivated by an effort to slash the budget and help the team’s bottom line. Even if you look past those deals and look at almost every move made over the last three or four years, it is really hard to overlook the fact that the majority of the moves this team makes are designed with an intent to save money.
In looking at the number of players, C-level executives, team employees, politicians at various levels of government, business stakeholders in the community and season ticket holders, there is an inexhaustible list of people in this community who this owner has burned bridges with. This isn’t just some inconvenient coincidence that occurred simply because the team decided to trade its best players a few years ago.
Make no mistake, this fan base is engaged and invested in the youth movement. At the same time, they certainly do not want to be told by some outsider that their dissatisfaction with the way this organization has been run by its owner is ignorant. With the Melnyk fatigue factor being very real, they would much rather prefer that they not be reminded of Melnyk at all.