Selected by Montreal with the 100th pick in the fourth round of the 2016 NHL Draft, Mete was determined to defy the odds against him sticking with the Canadiens now rather than being returned to the London Knights for a fourth season in the OHL. “Oh well that’s good then,” Mete said when he was told about Julien’s comments. “That’s kind of my mindset too is to try to stay here the 82 games, so if I can do that, that will be an honor for me.”
MORE: NHL preseason power rankings: Habs in middle of the pack to start Paired with Shea Weber at the beginning of training camp, the 5-foot-9, 184-pound native of Woodbridge, Ont., made the most of his opportunity with four points in five preseason games. Mete, who scored his first preseason goal in Montreal’s 9-2 win against Ottawa on Saturday, earned a spot when Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin finalized the season-opening roster Tuesday. “He just said, ‘keep playing your game, that’s one of the reasons why you’re still here, so just play your game and you should be fine,’” Mete explained. Mete’s participation in Canada’s world junior camp played an important role in getting prepared over the summer. “I thought I was pretty good there and then had some stuff to work on after that,” Mete said. “And then coming into camp my mindset was just to do the best I can, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I just kind of took every day day-by-day and this was my goal, was to play in the season opener. And now the goal is to stay as long as possible.”
MORE: Hockey Night in Canada: Schedule, teams, how to watch Julien said he didn’t see Mete make any big mistakes during training camp and preseason games, only little ones that could be addressed easily enough. “But you look at those things and then you look at what he brought, like supporting the attack and not being afraid to go in there in the offensive zone and be part of the scoring opportunity, what he did on the power play,” Julien said. “He seems to have lots of confidence. He’s a cold-blooded kid as far as nothing seems to bother him, nerves of steel, call it what you want, but he doesn’t seem to be rattled about anything.” Though his last name is pronounced “Meh-tay,” the nickname “Meat” has followed him from junior to the Canadiens’ dressing room. “I just hear my name screamed around the room a lot of times,” said Mete, who has never seen Bull Durham.
Mete’s parents, Joe and Mary, sister Julia and a large group of supporters will be looking on when he takes his first NHL strides at KeyBank Center on Thursday. “Yeah, I think maybe the first few shifts I might be a little nervous but then after that I think I’ll kind of ease into things,” Mete said. “I’m expecting to keep playing the way I am and just give it my all.”
