Denton Mateychuk, top defense prospect for the Columbus Blue Jackets, will be starting the season in the AHL after being reassigned Sunday morning. While Mateychuk had an impressive camp with Columbus, he’ll have the chance to play a sizable role to start the season with the Cleveland Monsters to prepare for what is expected to be a relatively short timeline to reach the NHL.

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Only 20 years old, Mateychuk enters his first pro campaign after an especially decorated junior career spent with the Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL. Last season, Mateychuk had a career-high 75 points in 52 WHL regular-season games before absolutely dominating the WHL playoffs with 30 points in 20 games as the Warriors won the league. He also had seven points in four games at the Memorial Cup.

The Winnipeg native immediately went from the Memorial Cup to the Monsters to help them in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Hershey Bears. While the Monsters fell short in a hard-fought seven-game series, Mateychuk proved that he was more than ready to be a contributor in professional hockey.

He helped Cleveland climb back into the series with three straight wins before ultimately dropping a 3-2 decision in Game 7. Mateychuk had three assists over the four games and was a plus-6. He impressed just about everybody in the process.

While Blue Jackets fans may be disappointed Mateychuk is not on their opening-night roster, it doesn’t sound like they’ll be waiting long to see him. 

Right now it’s a bit of a numbers game. The Jackets have a number of veteran players filling out their blue line and they’re also trying to work in top draft pick David Jiricek. The ice time would be scarce for Mateychuk at the outset, which probably doesn’t help him that much in his development.

Cleveland will be able to use him as a top-pairing defenseman, No. 1 power-play option and give him the reps he’s on a path to get once he’s a full-time NHLer. Mateychuk is a legitimate option to be a top-pairing or at worst top-four defenseman with power play capabilities for the Blue Jackets as soon as next season. 

That said, he very well could force the issue with his play in the AHL and give the Blue Jackets no choice but to call him up and play him significant minutes. Getting the start in Cleveland is going to probably be a good runway for him to take off in the first pro season. 

The Monsters will be playing their season opener on the road Saturday night in a and Eastern Conference Finals rematch with the Hershey Bears. 

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