It took just over a year for Victor Mete to go from a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 to playing regular shifts in the NHL alongside the revered Shea Weber in the 2017-18 NHL campaign.
The 100th overall selection embraced and passed a multitude of challenges that many, including maybe himself, did not foresee when he laced up for the Montreal Canadiens training camp last year.
With the departures of Andrei Markov and Nathan Beaulieu, among others, new bench boss Claude Julien was clearly in need of a smooth-skating defenceman.