Habs’ offence nonexistent in 4-0 loss
Teen defenceman’s solid performance earns him full-time job with NHL club
Victor Mete will have to start making his own bed pretty soon.
The Canadiens’ 19-year-old rookie defenceman was in the lineup for his 10th NHL game Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre, meaning he isn’t going back to the junior London Knights any time soon. By playing in his 10th game, the first year of Mete’s three-year, entry-level contract for the NHL automatically kicks in.
Thursday morning, Mete said nobody from the Canadiens had formally told him he was going to play his 10th game, but he decided to take part in the optional morning skate, hoping he would. Coach Claude Julien confirmed after the skate that Mete would be playing.
For the past two months, Mete has been living in a hotel near the team’s practice rink in Brossard, taking advantage of housekeeping services. But that’s about to change.
“I have an open room at my place … he’s welcome to do that,” Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin said with a chuckle during his news conference Wednesday when asked where Mete might end up living. “I’m not sure if he’d like that, though.
“He’s a young kid, obviously we’ll monitor closely,” the GM added about the possibility of Mete living with a veteran teammate like Brendan Gallagher did as a rookie with Josh Gorges.
“But again, it’s still early — but we’ve done that in the past and we should look into doing something like that if that’s the case, yes.”
When Mete was asked if he would want to live with the GM, the teenager smiled and said: “I don’t know.”
Bergevin has said that players make the decisions for him with their performance on the ice. Mete made this decision pretty easy with his solid play as Shea Weber’s partner on the No. 1 defence pair, averaging 19:41 of ice time per game, including 2:58 on the power play, while picking up two assists in his first nine games. With his strong hockey sense, the rookie’s brain works as fast as his feet, and that combination has made him a perfect partner for Weber.
The Canadiens don’t have the best reputation when it comes to developing young talent, but it was a good move to keep Mete. The NHL is a young man’s game and this teenager can play. This should give him a confidence boost.
The teammate who knows Mete best is Artturi Lehkonen, his roommate on the road.
“He’s a really good, honest, easygoing guy,” Lehkonen said. “He’s not the most chatty type of guy. We’re both not the most talkative people but, of course, we talk about the basic stuff. It’s been good. He’s been playing really great and I think he can be even better than he’s been showing.”
Lehkonen, 22, is in his second NHL season and can relate to what Mete is going through as a rookie. But Lehkonen had more experience — both on and off the ice — than Mete, having played against men for two seasons with Frolunda in the Swedish Elite League, while living by himself before joining the Canadiens.
“Cooking was all right, but cleaning was the toughest part,” Lehkonen said with a laugh when asked about living alone. Is Lehkonen a good cook? “I’ve got my couple of things that I know how do to and I stick with that,” he said.
What are they?
“It’s a secret … can’t tell,” Lehkonen said with a smile. “Finnish treats.”
Mete said he’s not much of a cook, but knows how to make pasta on game days, adding: “I guess that’s really all I need right now.”
The rookie said he hasn’t really thought about where he’s going to live in the future, but would probably start looking into it on Friday.
As for having Lehkonen as a roommate on the road, Mete said: “We get along pretty good. We’re both a little quiet, laid back. But we do talk and go for dinner together and everything on the road with the guys. He’s been showing me, a first-year guy, kind of what to expect and how to stay on the road, telling me it’s kind of hard, but it’s good to bond with the guys.”
Lehkonen said the best advice he’s given Mete is not to pay attention to the “outside noise” that surrounds the Canadiens and just focus on his game.
“He’s going to do well here,” Lehkonen said. “He plays his heart out and gives 100 per cent effort every time he’s out there. I think he’s going to be great here.”
Mete has already stuck around long enough to get his first NHL paycheque on his base salary of US$650,000. It’s obviously a lot more than he would have received in junior or working at a fast-food outlet, like other 19-year-olds.
“It was good,” Mete said with a smile about the figure on his paycheque. “It was pretty special.”