Mateychuk playing beyond his years on the CBJ blue line

Denton Mateychuk grew up as one of five siblings, all of whom excel at highly competitive sports.

If that conjures images of a hectic household with a torn-up rec room and plenty of arguments among brothers and sisters, well, you’re right.

“We had a little ministick area in my basement – we tore that to shreds,” Mateychuk said of the family’s home in Dominion City, Manitoba. “There was always something (being played).”

That competitiveness came naturally, as Mateychuk’s father, Jason, played college baseball and his mother, Keela, is a marathon runner and skating coach. They grew up in athletics and raised their kids in sports as well, and the results are impressive.

The eldest Mateychuk son, Maddux, pitched at Campbellsville University in Kentucky. Denton is the second oldest and is now a rookie defenseman for the Blue Jackets, while the middle son, Kasen, made his debut for Denton’s junior team, Moose Jaw of the WHL, this season.

Crosby comes next, and he’s is a standout defenseman at age 15 who is expected to be selected in this year’s WHL draft. Rounding out the quintet is the lone sister of the group, Brylee, who excels at both softball and hockey and appears to have quite a future ahead of her as well.

Think it’s pressure to jump into the lineup as a 20-year-old defenseman for an NHL team battling for a playoff spot? Try surviving ministicks or a wiffle ball game with the Mateychuks.

"We definitely had that competitive spirit in all of us,” Denton said. “We had ministick games, we played two vs. two baseball in the backyard. We built our own diamond. It was always wiffle ball, to keep safe from the windows and stuff. You’d tag the ghost runner and it would be an argument for half an hour.”

Perhaps that’s why the transition into the lineup hasn’t seemed to bother Mateychuk, who has struck teammates with his unflappable nature.

“His disposition, just the way he is, the way you read that on the ice is how he attacks his day on a daily basis,” veteran Erik Gudbranson said. “Away from the rink, he just seems calm, cool and collected. He’s got his process every day and comes in and executes it. He’s never too high, never too low. It’s not too much of a shock just the way he is around the rink and away from the rink.”

And as the games have become more and more important for Mateychuk, his performance hasn’t suffered. The smooth-skating right-shot defenseman has posted a 4-6-10 line in 35 games, including a goal and three assists in the last four contests, and moved up to the top pair to skate with Zach Werenski in Saturday’s game vs. Ottawa. Mateychuk also shined on the biggest stage, scoring the opening goal of the Blue Jackets NHL Stadium Series win vs. Detroit in front of more than 94,000 fans in Ohio Stadium.

There have been some of the usual growing pains a 20-year-old defenseman will have at the NHL level, but by and large, head coach Dean Evason has been impressed by what Mateychuk has brought to the table.

“More ups than downs, that’s for sure,” Evason said. “He plays the game above his age, and his maturity is real good. He conducts himself like a pro. He’s going to be an NHL player for a very, very long time. He’s handled a lot of situations extremely well.”

There’s only a handful of defensemen his age in the mix among teams with playoff aspirations – Montreal's Lane Hutson, the Calder Trophy favorite, leads the way among the 20-year-old crowd, while Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson, New Jersey’s Simon Nemec and the Islanders’ Isaiah George are also on teams battling for spots – but Mateychuk has proved he has what it takes.

That’s no surprise, though, given Mateychuk’s pedigree. The No. 12 overall selection in the 2022 draft, Mateychuk was one of the best players in junior hockey a season ago, earning WHL defenseman of the year honors as well as the playoff MVP award after helping Moose Jaw win its first-ever league title. Mateychuk finished the season with 17 goals and 75 points in 52 regular-season games, then added 11 goals and 30 points in 20 playoff contests for the Warriors.

At the end of the season, he reported to Cleveland, where he had three assists in four games during the Monsters’ AHL playoff run. This year, he proved he was ready for pro hockey when, after being one of the last cuts of CBJ training camp, he led all AHL defensemen with 25 points in 27 games with the Monsters before being recalled in late December.

Like any competitor, Mateychuk wanted to begin the year with the Blue Jackets, but he just went back to work and focused his energies in Cleveland to showing he deserved the call-up to the big leagues.

“Your goal is to play at the NHL level, and that’s what I want to do for the rest of my career,” Mateychuk said. “It’s not a race, though, to get there. I just wanted to be a part of the process and keep working to this goal. I think it started in Cleveland, and I worked my way up.”

As Evason noted, Mateychuk’s ceiling is high, and it seems fair to say he’s going to be an NHL defenseman for a long time. That’s no surprise to his teammates, who have consistently been impressed with Mateychuk’s skill, demeanor and approach.

“He’s a great kid,” Gudbranson said. “He’s a really, really high-end player. He seems to be getting a comfort level every game. He can move his feet, he can advance the puck through the neutral zone and make really good plays.”