Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
It’s the maturity and composure that basically soar out most with Cleveland Monsters rookie Denton Mateychuk.
Actually the on-ice parts are there within the 20-year-old’s sport. Cell. Strikes the puck fairly properly. He’s 5-foot-11, 185 kilos, however robust hockey sense and instincts permit him to deal with the sport’s put on and tear, taking up a heavy workload every evening.
All the must-haves for a top-end defenseman of this period, Mateychuk has them.
It’s straightforward to see what the Columbus Blue Jackets noticed within the Manitoba native after they selected him twelfth general within the 2022 NHL Draft. Mateychuk additional justified that decide final season in captaining Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League to a league championship and a berth within the Memorial Cup. He was named most precious participant of the WHL postseason, delivering 30 factors (11 targets, 19 assists) in 20 playoff video games, and earned a spot on the Memorial Cup event all-star staff. All of that adopted an distinctive common season, as Mateychuk gained the Invoice Hunter Memorial Trophy because the WHL’s defenseman of the 12 months after a 75-point (17 targets, 58 assists) effort in solely 52 video games. He additionally represented Canada on the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
So it’s clear why Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber might really feel comfy inserting Mateychuk, then nonetheless solely 19, into an exceptionally high-stakes, high-pressure scenario within the Japanese Convention Finals in opposition to Hershey final spring. Cleveland had dropped the primary three video games of the best-of-seven collection, and it regarded like a powerful season was close to its finish.
Mateychuk instantly slot in regardless of the troublesome circumstances. His stable debut in Recreation 4 at Cleveland, simply six days after he had been competing for the Memorial Cup, helped the Monsters to increase their season. He went on to document an help in every of his subsequent three video games – together with organising the extra time winner in Recreation 6 – and it rapidly appeared like he had been an everyday all season somewhat than somebody who had simply arrived.
The expertise made an impression on Mateychuk as he headed into the summer season and his offseason coaching program, which included work on enhancing his shot.
“Having that have, enjoying in these video games, seeing the construction – the little particulars which are so simply neglected,” Mateychuk mentioned, “you’ve acquired to take an additional second to consider and put within the work to see that.”
It was a shortened summer season for Mateychuk however he got here able to go in Columbus, captaining the Blue Jackets’ entry on the Buffalo Sabres Prospect Problem. He then acquired a critical look in NHL preseason play, and ended up staying with the Blue Jackets till the tip of coaching camp after they lastly despatched him to Cleveland. Columbus has a crowded protection corps within the NHL, which permits younger prospects like Mateychuk, David Jiricek and Corson Ceulemans – all latest first-round draft picks – to proceed coming alongside within the AHL.
The Monsters will carry a six-game profitable streak into this weekend as they host Milwaukee on Saturday and Sunday. At 10-4-0-1, Cleveland holds third place in what’s wanting like it is going to be an exceptionally robust North Division area this season. With 16 factors (six targets, 10 assists) in 15 video games, Mateychuk has himself first amongst defensemen and solely three factors off the general AHL scoring lead. Final week he amassed seven factors in 4 video games, together with back-to-back extra time game-winners at Windfall, to earn the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week award.
For now, the Blue Jackets are capable of let Mateychuk proceed to develop with Cleveland. Finally, after all, Columbus administration should decide, however that’s hardly a foul drawback to have. Mateychuk, whose depth rapidly earned him consideration from TSN eventually winter’s World Junior Championship, has taken this time in Cleveland as one other step in his journey. When the Blue Jackets assigned him to Cleveland, they gave him a simple goal.
“‘You’re going to have alternative right here at first of the 12 months,’” he recounted the Blue Jackets telling him. “‘Benefit from it.’
“That’s what I’ve been making an attempt to do.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
