After Chabot, Ottawa's best dmen were Rielly and Zaitsev, which is pretty bad. So its not surprising that Mete is a good add to their d-corps. However, he is not a legit top 4 D. He has decent defensive awareness, but is awful in front of the net and in puck battles (due to his size). The hope was that he could improve his offense, but that never really happened.
On the habs, he was easily behind Chariot, Weber, Petry, Edmundson, and Romanov.
The 6th spot was available for grab, but he still couldnt take it. Kulak was better and more consistent.
After Chabot, Ottawa's best dmen were Rielly and Zaitsev, which is pretty bad.
After Chabot, Ottawa's best dmen were Rielly and Zaitsev, which is pretty bad. So its not surprising that Mete is a good add to their d-corps. However, he is not a legit top 4 D. He has decent defensive awareness, but is awful in front of the net and in puck battles (due to his size). The hope was that he could improve his offense, but that never really happened.
On the habs, he was easily behind Chariot, Weber, Petry, Edmundson, and Romanov.
The 6th spot was available for grab, but he still couldnt take it. Kulak was better and more consistent.
Ottawa's best D probably went something like Chabot > Zub > Brann > Mete/Zaitsev > Rielly > Brown > Gudbranson > Coburn.
I love these kinds of posts - spoken so factually and yet almost every aspect of it is flat out wrong.
Ottawa's best D probably went something like Chabot > Zub > Brann > Mete/Zaitsev > Rielly > Brown > Gudbranson > Coburn.
The reality is, Mete played like a top 4 D in his time in Ottawa. On a team that literally just had I believe the 2nd best finish to end the season. Yes, he's probably just a stop-gap for Jake Sanderson, but he's much better than Habs fans are giving him credit for.
I understand when fans are bitter because they lost a player for nothing. I think they should be happy for the guy instead that he's going to have a pretty decent NHL career from the looks of it.
After Chabot Ottawa’s best dmen were Zub and Brannstrom.
Wrong.
You might prefer Brann and Zub, but your coach clearly did not. Zaitsev averaged 22:44 of ice time and Reilly averaged 18:36 which are the most after Chabot.
Not to mention Brannstrom was healthy scratched several times this year.
And my original post still stands even if you replace Zaitsev and Reilly with Brannstrom and Zub. Mete is only 22 and has almost twice as much NHL experience as Brannstrom and Zub combined. Ottawa has one of the worst d-corps in the league, so it's not surprising that Mete can come in and look like one of their better defensemen.
After Chabot, Ottawa's best dmen were Rielly and Zaitsev, which is pretty bad. So its not surprising that Mete is a good add to their d-corps. However, he is not a legit top 4 D. He has decent defensive awareness, but is awful in front of the net and in puck battles (due to his size). The hope was that he could improve his offense, but that never really happened.
On the habs, he was easily behind Chariot, Weber, Petry, Edmundson, and Romanov.
The 6th spot was available for grab, but he still couldnt take it. Kulak was better and more consistent.
What a find. Can't believe we got him for free. All the physical and defensive deficiencies have been greatly exaggerated. Then again, maybe he's playing hard since he's on a new team. We will get better indication next year.
But hard to ignore 25 mins last night and average ~23 minutes last 5 games and being vital piece of our breakout and penalty kill.
Good for the Sens.
Still, he has only 2 points in 14 games. We all expect him to be an offensive defenseman because of his speed, but he obviously isn't. If he can reinvent himself as a defensive D, then good for him. I doubt it works long term.
Francis Bouillon was another small D who had only defensive ability. The difference is that he was a tough dude and could deliver hard checks.
Mete has speed only. I don’t see any comparable in the league.
There's no way that 23 minute a night in the toughest situations Zaitsev was worse than struggled on the 3rd pairing on and off all season Brannstrom or only played 10 games (many at 12 mins/GP) Mete. Zaitsev was 2nd or 3rd and even that is giving Zub a huge benefit of the doubt for minutes he never played and pressures that he was rarely asked to shoulder.