Just in: Three CBJ prospects to look out for the future
First-round pick Denton Mateychuk named playoffs MVP, while Martin Rysavy and Max McCue also move on to the Memorial Cup.
For three Blue Jackets prospects, Wednesday was a very prosperous day.
As their individual teams won junior Canadian Hockey League titles, Denton Mateychuk, Martin Rysavy, and Max McCue added rings to their collections.
In the Ontario Hockey League, McCue and London easily defeated Oshawa in a sweep, while Mateychuk and Rysavy led Moose Jaw to their first-ever Western Hockey League championship with a 4-0 sweep of Portland.
Now, all three will move on to the Canadian junior hockey championship, the Memorial Cup. The four-team competition will get underway in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 24.
Mateychuk, a first-round selection (number twelve overall) in the 2022 draft, had one of the best postseason performances in recent memory. WHL defenseman of the year Mateychuk finished second in the WHL postseason with 30 points (11 goals, 19 assists), winning the WHL playoff MVP award after compiling a 17-58-75 line in 52 regular-season games.
The 19-year-old defenseman, who was among the final players released by the Blue Jackets prior to the start of the season, scored three goals in four games during the championship series. He finished plus-19 and had 10 multipoint performances in 20 postseason games as the Warriors won the Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Rysavy, a seventh-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2021, returned to Moose Jaw this year for a last campaign. He had an influential postseason after his finest regular season (25 goals in 63 games). The large Czech winger was a vital component of the Warriors’ offensive onslaught, finishing plus-9 and with a 6-10-16 line in 20 games, including two goals in the decisive Game 4 match.
Returning to the East, McCue, who signed a contract with the Blue Jackets in March, was a member of a dominant London team that easily defeated Oshawa in the championship game. The total score of the games was 31-9 for the Knights, who also won Game 4 on Wednesday night by a score of 7-1.
McCue finished the regular season with almost a point per game (27-34-61 in 62 games), and he exceeded that total in the postseason by scoring 22 points (19 assists and three goals) in 18 games. His nine-game point streak (1-12-13) ended at the end of the OHL playoffs, and he finished the postseason plus-21 as the Knights won their fifth J. Ross Robertson Cup since 2005.
Goalie player for host Saginaw, CBJ signee Nolan Lalonde, will be joining the three at the Memorial Cup. Lalonde finished 21-6-0 with the Spirit this season, and in 12 postseason games, he recorded a 2.79 GAA.
The QMJHL champion Quebec team won the Memorial Cup the previous year, and James Malatesta, a CBJ draft pick who made his Jackets debut this season, was named MVP.
