If you had told Denton Mateychuk that he would place sixth in CBJ history among defensemen by scoring 13 goals in his first full NHL season, he might not have believed you.
Then again, this was sort of the plan all along.
A few years ago, when Mateychuk was establishing himself as one of the top young blueliners in the world with the Moose Jaw Warriors, he sat down with one of his advisors at home and planned out what he wanted the start of his career to look like.
“We set goals for five years down the road, and it was kind of my second year in the NHL, and it was like, I wanted to score 10 goals,” Mateychuk said. “I go look back on it now, and there’s a bunch of stuff I had in there, but that was one of them. It’s kind of cool to see that down the line, five years ago I guess now.
“It’s interesting to see, and I think it’s good for me personally. I like to set those goals to have a standard for the individual side of it, and I think it’s good to have that.”
It’s also fair to say Mateychuk has checked off a lot of those boxes before even hitting the age of 22. Be a first-round draft pick? Check, as the Blue Jackets selected the Manitoba native 12th overall in the 2022 draft. Win the Western Hockey League? Check, as Mateychuk’s playoff MVP performance helped Moose Jaw to its first-ever league title in 2024. Play in the IIHF World Junior Championship? Check, as Mateychuk was on Team Canada in 2024.
His pro career has gotten off to a memorable start as well, as Mateychuk established himself as a rookie in 2024-25 after being called up midway through the season, then was a regular at age 21 this season on the blue line for the entirety of the CBJ season.
His next accolade is being named to Canada’s IIHF World Championship team, as he will join teammate Jet Greaves as their native country goes for gold at the tournament that runs from Friday through May 31 in Switzerland.
READ MORE: Three Jackets headed to Worlds | Greaves embracing his opportunity
Pretty much any individual mark that Mateychuk put on that list five years ago, he’s accomplished.
“Obviously in juniors, like the World Juniors (was on it) and contending in the WHL championship, and then we go on to win that, so that was cool,” he said. “We didn’t win the World Juniors, but to be in that experience, then it was to win the WHL. First-year pro, it was be able to be trusted in situations and things of that nature.
“We look back on it at the start of every year. I’ll look back on it normally around January. It’s nice to have it. It’s not for everybody, that type of stuff, but for me, I think it’s been a big part of this journey.”
The voyage led him quickly to the NHL, where Mateychuk wasn’t just one of the highest scoring defensemen in CBJ history this year, he was one of just two NHL defensemen age 21 or younger to reach double digits in goals along with the Islanders’ Matthew Schaefer. Mateychuk’s lucky 13 tallies this past season placed him behind only Zach Werenski (four times) and Seth Jones (2017-18) when it comes to tallies in a single season from the blue line.
Mateychuk added 18 assists for 31 points, finished with a plus-12 rating and averaged 19:11 of ice time per game while skating in 75 contests. He posted a plus-5.5 Net Rating per Hockey Stat Cards and the Blue Jackets had an expected goal share at 5-on-5 of 53.4 percent when he was on the ice.
He topped 24 minutes of ice time in eight contests, including a career high 28:35 in a December contest at Los Angeles when Zach Werenski was out and 27:42 down the stretch in a key game vs. Winnipeg.
“He’s a hockey player," CBJ head coach Rick Bowness said. "He loves being out on the ice. He’s totally committed to the team game. He’s highly skilled, he’s a great skater, he’s competitive. He’s not the biggest guy out there, but he competes really, really hard. It’s his skill, it’s his hockey IQ. It’s high end, so I know that he’s a young defenseman, but he has a huge upside so he’s gonna keep getting better, he’s gonna keep growing.”
The NHL is full of elite defensemen right now, and the list of youngsters making an impact from Schaefer to Lane Hutson to Jake Sanderson is impressive. But given Mateychuk’s pedigree – his standout junior career, his quick rise through the minors and his NHL impact – he's clearly going to be part of a group of standouts who are going to play at a high level for a long time.
His two-way instincts, skating ability and poise are traits that will allow him to continue to thrive, and what might be most underrated is his consistency. Any young defenseman is going to have some better games than others, but Mateychuk kept the peaks and valleys to a minimum while making a positive impact throughout the season.
"I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of that,” Mateychuk said. “Physically and mentally, I’ve been pretty good all through the year. Obviously, there’s little highs and lows and things like that, but for the most part I feel like I've stayed pretty neutral. I feel like I've been pretty successful in that sense.”
Just add it to the list of accomplishments.
