Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
It’s the maturity and composure that actually leap out most with Cleveland Monsters rookie Denton Mateychuk.
Definitely the on-ice parts are there within the 20-year-old’s sport. Cell. Strikes the puck fairly nicely. 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 respected participant of the WHL postseason, delivering 30 factors (11 objectives, 19 assists) in 20 playoff video games, and earned a spot on the Memorial Cup event all-star group. All of that adopted an distinctive common season, as Mateychuk received the Invoice Hunter Memorial Trophy because the WHL’s defenseman of the yr after a 75-point (17 objectives, 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 snug 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 sequence, and it regarded like a formidable season was close to its finish.
Mateychuk instantly slot in regardless of the troublesome circumstances. His strong debut in Sport 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 report an help in every of his subsequent three video games – together with organising the time beyond regulation winner in Sport 6 – and it rapidly appeared like he had been an everyday all season relatively 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 bettering his shot.
“Having that have, enjoying in these video games, seeing the construction – the little particulars which might be so simply neglected,” Mateychuk mentioned, “you’ve bought 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 bought a severe look in NHL preseason play, and ended up staying with the Blue Jackets till the top 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 current 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 will likely be an exceptionally robust North Division subject this season. With 16 factors (six objectives, 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 time beyond regulation game-winners at Windfall, to earn the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week award.
For now, the Blue Jackets are in a position to let Mateychuk proceed to develop with Cleveland. Finally, after all, Columbus administration must decide, however that’s hardly a foul downside to have. Mateychuk, whose depth rapidly earned him attention from TSN finally 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 a great alternative right here at first of the yr,’” he recounted the Blue Jackets telling him. “‘Benefit from it.’
“That’s what I’ve been attempting to do.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently 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.
