Mature and strong, Mateychuk checks all the boxes | TheAHL.com

Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer

Maturity and composure that surpasses most of the Cleveland Monsters rookie Denton Mateychuk.

Of course the on-ice components are there in the 20-year-old game. Mobile phone. Moves the puck well. He's 5-foot-11, 185 pounds, but his strong hockey sense and instincts allow him to handle the wear and tear of the game, taking on a tough job every night.

All the things you need for a top defender of this era, Mateychuk has it.

It's easy to see what the Columbus Blue Jackets saw in the Manitoba native when they selected him 12th overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. Mateychuk also explained that he chose last season to captain Moose Jaw of the Western Hockey League to the league championship and Memorial Cup exit. He was named the most valuable player of the WHL postseason, bringing 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists) in 20 playoff games, and earned a place on the all-star team of the Memorial Cup. All of that followed a stellar regular season, as Mateychuk won the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy as the WHL's defenseman of the year after a 75-point effort (17 goals, 58 assists) in just 52 games. He also represented Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.

So it's clear why the Monsters coach Trent Vogelhuber would feel comfortable putting Mateychuk, then just 19 years old, into a high-profile, high-pressure situation in the Eastern Conference Finals against Hershey last spring. Cleveland had dropped the first three games of the best-of-seven series, and it looked like a great season was coming to an end.

Mateychuk stepped in quickly despite the difficult circumstances. His first strong performance in Game 4 in Cleveland, just six days before the Memorial Cup, helped the Monsters extend their season. He went on to record an assist in each of his next three games — including the overtime winner in Game 6 — and it quickly became apparent that he was more of a regular season than a rookie.

The experience impressed Mateychuk as he heads into the summer and his offseason training program, which includes work on improving his shot.

“Having that knowledge, playing in those games, seeing the formations — the little details that are easily overlooked,” Mateychuk said, “you have to take an extra second to think about it and put in the work to see that.”

It was a shortened summer for Mateychuk but he arrived ready to go to Columbus, captaining the Blue Jackets in the Buffalo Sabers Prospect Challenge. He then looked into the NHL preseason, and ended up staying with the Blue Jackets until the end of training camp when they finally sent him to Cleveland. Columbus has one of the most crowded defense teams in the NHL, allowing young prospects like Mateychuk, David Jiricek again Corson Ceulemans – all recent first round drafts – to continue coming to the AHL.

The Monsters will bring home a six-game winning streak this weekend as they host Milwaukee on Saturday and Sunday. At 10-4-0-1, Cleveland holds third place in what looks to be an exceptionally strong field in the North Division this season. With 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 15 games, Mateychuk is first among defensemen and only three points behind the AHL's all-time goal scorer. Last week he tallied seven points in four games, including the back-to-back overtime game-winner at Providence, to earn the Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week award.

For now, the Blue Jackets can afford to let Mateychuk continue to develop with Cleveland. Ultimately, of course, Columbus management will have to make a decision, but that's not a bad problem to have. Mateychuk, whose fitness earned him the attention of TSN at last winter's World Junior Championship, took this time in Cleveland as another step in his journey. When the Blue Jackets assigned him to Cleveland, they gave him a specific goal.

“'You're going to have a great opportunity here early in the year,'” he recounted the Blue Jackets telling him. “'It's worth it.'

“That's what I was trying to do.”

In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL's James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league's top scorer in 2016.