NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Victor Mete

Get to Know Victor Mete

Date of Birth: June, 7 1998 (18)
Place of Birth: Toronto, ON
Ht: 5’10” Wt: 165 lbs
Shoots: Left
Position: Defense
Team: London Knights

Victor Mete is the prototypical undersized offensive defenseman with high end speed and skating. Questions about his small stature and his lackluster play in the defensive end make Mete and intriguing but flawed prospect for the middle of the draft.

Statistics

What Scouts See
Daniel Deschenes, Future Considerations:
“He’s a smooth, mobile skater that loves to drive the play from the back end.He is a smart, offensive minded, puck-moving defenseman that contributes significantly to the Knights offense. His defensive coverage and his ability down low aren’t the greatest, but he has been making improvements over the course of his two OHL seasons. His hockey sense and vision coming up ice is noticeable practically every shift and while he makes some risky plays, they more often than not lead to something tangible for the Knights.”

Bill Placzek, Draftsite
Undersized defenseman with great poise, decisions, feet, skill set, and offensive capabilities. Decent at handling most attackers one on one, boxing them out. Is calm with the puck and is a terrific puck mover in the offensive zone and on the power play. Excellent with his decisions with the puck on the PP. Needs to get stronger and thicker if he is going to project as an all-around pro.

Craig Button, TSN, The Pipeline Show: May 14, 2016
Always on the move. Always on the go. He wants to make things happen. Real good skater. Real confident in his skating. Up in the attack, up in the play. And ever defensively, because he’s such a good skater and he’s confident you know he gets up into your space and gets up into the areas you want to make plays and he disrupts you defensively. He’s got a lot of initiative in his game, he wants to make things happen with the puck.

What BSN Avalanche sees
Mete is an extremely active player who does a great job of moving his feet on all part of the ice. In the offensive zone Mete rarely gets caught flat footed, instead staying on his toes and constantly looking for opportunities to pinch on a scoring opportunity or to provide puck support. Mete loves to skate in the defensive end too, and while most of reads are good, he can get caught out of position chasing the puck a little too enthusiastically. Mete’s ability to quickly recover, and the strength of his team, cover a lot of his larger gaffes at the CHL level, but at the professional level, especially with his small stature, he’ll be more exposed unless he can make significant strides on the defensive side of the puck.
Offensively and in transition is where Mete really shines. He has explosive speed and is extremely creative, with the potential to break the game open every time he touches the puck. He has a good, but not exceptional shot and creates most of his offense by using his speed and smarts to pick apart the opposition. Mete is an excellent skater, but the odds are always stacked against defensemen of his size as they attempt to make the NHL.

NHL Potential
Mete’s impressive skating and offensive instincts give some scouts hope that he can develop into a high end offensive defenseman and power play specialist. This dynamic offensive defenseman finished just 4 points behind London Knights teammate Olli Juolevi, but his small stature and one-dimensional game make him a bigger risk as an NHL prospect. On the high end, Victor Mete could become a dynamic power play specialist and offensive defenseman, but his path to realizing that potential is a long and difficult one.

Expected Draft Position
For every small offensive defenseman that succeeds in the NHL there are plenty more who cannot handle the physical rigors of professional hockey. Best case development scenarios for Victor Mete are players like Tyson Barrie and Sami Vatanen who were drafted in the 3rd and 4th rounds respectively. Mete is projected to go in the same part of the draft.

How Prospect Fits in Avalanche Organization
The deepest part of the Avalanche prospect pool is certainly their crop of left handed defensemen. That said, if the Avalanche do move on from Tyson Barrie this summer or in the near future, they do not have an offensive puck mover in the system to eventually replace him. The Avalanche should pursue a forward heavy draft this summer, but if they do choose a defenseman in the middle of the draft, a puck mover like Mete would fill a position of organizational need.