With the NHL schedule paused for the Olympics, a local player is making the most of the break by returning to his roots and spending meaningful time with family and community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the season so far\u00a0<\/p>\n
Denton\u00a0Mateychuk\u00a0of the Columbus Blue Jackets\u00a0has returned\u00a0to Dominion City during the break in the NHL schedule. The young defenseman says the first half of his season has been a positive one overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve\u00a0been getting a good amount of opportunity with the team, and\u00a0we’ve\u00a0had some\u00a0ups and downs\u00a0with our record and winning and losing games. But as of recent, for the last month,\u00a0we’ve\u00a0been on\u00a0a pretty good\u00a0streak and have been pushing towards getting into the wild card spot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mateychuk\u00a0says\u00a0he is also coming off an injury after taking a hit\u00a0into\u00a0the boards that sidelined him for a couple of weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I got the go ahead, and felt ready to go and\u00a0got\u00a0back in.\u00a0It’s\u00a0tough to miss time, especially when\u00a0you’re\u00a0going through\u00a0a\u00a0coaching change. Coming back into\u00a0that,\u00a0you’re\u00a0anxious to get back playing under the new coach. But\u00a0it’s\u00a0nice to be back playing and feel fully healthy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A break spent at home\u00a0<\/p>\n
With NHL games on pause for the Olympic Games,\u00a0Mateychuk\u00a0says he\u00a0has\u00a0made the most of his time back home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve\u00a0been following my siblings around a little bit. Kason had a couple of games earlier in the week that I went to. And then obviously doing some fishing and some snowmobiling, and all the winter extremities that I used to do as a kid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He says the time away from the rink has allowed him to reset mentally and enjoy quality moments with his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think\u00a0they’re\u00a0pretty happy\u00a0to have me home. My mom loves having all the siblings at home and everybody enjoys seeing everybody and\u00a0it’s\u00a0been a really\u00a0good time\u00a0to spend with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Giving back to the community\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the break,\u00a0Mateychuk\u00a0also made appearances in the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u00a0says he\u00a0performed the ceremonial puck drop at a St. Malo Warriors game after being invited by longtime friend and Warriors player Brady Gregoire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, absolutely. I would love to come and support you\u00a0guys, and\u00a0watch some of that hockey.\u2019 It was a pretty cool experience to get out there, and I\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0been in Saint\u00a0Jean\u00a0rink in forever. So, it was nice to go there and watch\u00a0a\u00a0guy who\u00a0I grew up with. It was a cool moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mateychuk honoured to be part of the Warriors ceremonial puck drop, especially with longtime friend Brady Gregoire (left). Photo credit: Julie Snarr.<\/p>\n
Mateychuk\u00a0says the support he has received from the community over the years made it especially meaningful to return the\u00a0favour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also stopped by Roseau Valley School to read to students during I Love to Read Month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Sure, I’d love to do that.\u2019 So, I went in and\u00a0read to\u00a0them. They had some good questions for me after that. And\u00a0it’s\u00a0always fun. I enjoy doing that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Mateychuk](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2026_02_Mateychuk.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Despite playing on one of hockey\u2019s biggest stages,\u00a0Mateychuk\u00a0says coming home reminds him he\u00a0is\u00a0still the same person\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0always been.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s\u00a0nice when you come home, you\u00a0don’t\u00a0want to be looked at differently than you were before. And I feel like\u00a0I’m\u00a0still\u00a0that\u00a0same guy that you went to high school with, and everybody went to high school\u00a0with.\u00a0It’s\u00a0nice to just catch up and talk about things other than hockey and just be genuine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last stretch<\/p>\n
While the break has been refreshing,\u00a0Mateychuk\u00a0says he\u00a0is\u00a0eager to get back on the ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m\u00a0excited to make that push in the for the last 20\u00a0some games\u00a0that we have. And\u00a0we’ve\u00a0been playing good hockey\u00a0as of recently. So, it gets you excited to get back in the mix of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking further ahead, he says\u00a0representing\u00a0Canada at the Olympics\u00a0remains\u00a0a lifelong dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother was born just before the\u00a0Olympics,\u00a0and they named him after\u00a0Crosby\u00a0and it\u00a0would\u00a0be such an\u00a0honour\u00a0to\u00a0represent\u00a0the country. I have had the opportunity to do that in previous years on\u00a0pretty big\u00a0stages, but the Olympics is\u00a0kind of the\u00a0peak of that, and if I were to get that opportunity, it would be\u00a0very special\u00a0to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the NHL schedule paused for the Olympics, a local player is making the most of the break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-476546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}