At home on ice and diamond

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This article was published 29/10/2021 (1468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Denton Mateychuk and Conor Geekie have a lot in common.

Both are Manitoban born and raised, both were recently rated ‘A’ level prospects for the 2022 NHL Draft by Central Scouting and both love baseball almost as much as they enjoy chasing pucks.

Mateychuk, a 17-year-old defenceman from Dominion City, was the second-youngest player on Canada’s U18 world champions in spring but still found time in the off-season to pitch and play outfield for the Manitoba Junior Baseball League’s Altona Bisons.

It isn’t a chore for him to do both.

“It’s good because you know you’re staying active, but I think it also takes my mind off the game in the summer where I’m not always thinking hockey, hockey, hockey,” says Mateychuk, who’s in his second full season with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors.

“It gives me a chance to rest my mind mentally and to prepare myself for the season but also some skills in baseball can translate really well.”

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary wishes more hockey players were multi-sport athletes like Mateychuk.

He says the 5-11, 186-pounder has exceptional physical tools but his vision and reaction speed is off the charts. He calls him a “one-man breakout” capable of logging 26 minutes of playing time per game and sometimes more.

“He does such a good job of doing his homework — looking over (his shoulder) and finding out what he has — so I feel like by the time he gets the puck, he knows what he’s going to do,” says O’Leary. “And then he uses his deception to make guys miss.”

Watching athletes capable of excelling in baseball and hockey is nothing new for Baseball Manitoba executive director Jason Miller.

Geekie, a centre for the Winnipeg Ice, and his brothers Morgan and Noah from Strathclair, and Mateychuk and his older brother Maddux are well known in provincial baseball circles.

“Every year with the 14- to 16-year-old age group, we get these players that are exceptional in both and are on both provincial team program radars,” says Miller. “Some of them choose hockey early, some of them continue to play both as late 16.

“Usually by 17, they’ve chosen or if they’re at the level of Mr. Geekie and Mr. Mateychuk, they are kind of were forced into the choice.”

It’s probably not coincidental the WHL’s only other ‘A’ rated prospect for the ’22 draft, Winnipeg Ice centre Matt Savoie of St. Albert, Alta., also has a baseball background.

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While Mateychuk, who played with Geekie on U16 and U13 provincial teams, considers batting and tracking baseballs to be transferable skills from baseball to hockey, Miller believes the differences in the games could be even more important.

“I think it’s incompatible nature that makes it so unique,” said Miller. “I think that it’s baseball that provides the need for kids to get better at all five different skills — running, catching, hitting, throwing and fielding.

“So, as opposed to lacrosse or soccer where there’s some similarities in game play (with hockey), baseball, provides a complete contrast in the sense of they need to get really really good at five different things and they need to be cerebral enough to think about the nuances of the game. So in that sense I think it gives those kids a complete break from what hockey is, which is high impact and high energy.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14