The Philadelphia Flyers are signing defenseman Victor Mete, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The deal is reportedly a one-year, two-way pact with a $775K AAV, $450K AHL salary and a $500K total guarantee.
The Flyers bolstered their defensive depth with the signing of veteran Marc Staal two days ago, and now they’ve added another veteran to their mix with this deal. Mete, 25, spent last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, skating in 11 NHL games and six games in the AHL.
An undersized 5-foot-9 left-shot defenseman, Mete received some hype as a Montreal Canadiens prospect.
While he was immediately stapled to Shea Weber on the Canadiens’ top pairing to start his rookie season, his strong skating and transitional abilities were never built upon, and he stagnated as the Canadiens turned to other young blueliners.
He was eventually claimed on waivers by the Ottawa Senators, who then non-tendered him, leading to his signing with the Maple Leafs. Mete doesn’t offer exceptional talent on either side of the ice, but he has nearly 250 games of NHL experience and is decent in transition. While the Flyers intend on keeping lineup spots open for their young blueliners to grab in training camp, GM Daniel Briere isn’t going to simply hand NHL jobs to youngsters.
Signing a player like Mete to this contract not only provides the Flyers’ young defensemen with an experienced pro to compete against, but it also gives Philadelphia some quality depth should the team decide to keep Mete with their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Mete could join second-round prospects Emil Andrae and Adam Ginning on the left side of Lehigh Valley’s defense, and he could be their most experienced blueliner besides Louie Belpedio, who is 27 and has played in over 300 games in the AHL.
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