Victor Mete
Mete is another young, disgruntled defenseman who has asked for a trade. He is 22, and brings 173 NHL games to the table. He has struggled to crack the lineup this season as he has only played in two games. He is a talented, yet raw defenseman who has the tools to become a good defenseman in this league.
Mete is sound defensively and has very good positioning. Unlike Vince Dunn, Montreal is not afraid to let him begin a play in the defensive zone as his 50% mark there indicates.
Mete is a good skater who has worked on the power play in his short career. If he improves on his shot, he could be a mainstay on a team’s second power play unit. He is only 5-9 and around 180 pounds, so he is a bit easier to knock off the puck and will lose some battles along the boards. He should look to add a little more muscle to improve in that area.
He is probably the better all around defenseman than Dunn is albeit not as good offensively. It really comes down to team preference in terms of which defenseman is the better fit for the team. If I were the Devils, I would give Montreal GM Marc Bergevin a call for Mete.
If the Devils decide to dip into trade talks with teams involving these disgruntled young players, they could do a lot worse. They wouldn’t be necessarily shooting for upside with these players, but these are guys who could help compliment the team moving forward with its young core.
The question that GM Tom Fitzgerald has to ask himself is if these players are better than some of the prospects that they have in the pipeline. Or Fitzgerald may want an NHL caliber player instead of waiting for some prospects to develop. Either way, Fitzgerald wouldn’t be doing his job if he at least didn’t inquire about these players.