Wheat Kings captain inks pro deal

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This article was published 21/03/2019 (2546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stelio Mattheos hasn’t run out of hockey to play this season just yet.

The 19-year-old Brandon Wheat Kings captain signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday morning. He quickly caught a flight to Charlotte, N.C., where the Winnipegger will join Carolina’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Checkers, on an amateur tryout agreement.

Mattheos was uncharacteristically quiet when asked about his contact situation recently as the Wheat Kings fought for a Western Hockey League spot they ultimately didn’t earn.

“I just didn’t want to give anything away,” Mattheos said as he collected his bags at the airport in Charlotte on Thursday afternoon. “I didn’t want to be thinking about that, too. I was confident it was going to get done, and I’m happy it got done and I’m excited to keep playing for the rest of the season.”

Mattheos received a $277,500 signing bonus, and will earn $700,000 per season in the first two years and $750,000 in the final year if he’s in the NHL. He will make $70,000 per season if he’s in the AHL.

He will join Strathclair product Morgan Geekie with the Checkers. The Hurricanes selected the two Manitobans six picks apart in the third round of the 2017 NHL entry draft.

Geekie, a former Tri-City Americans star who is a year older and has spent the year in Charlotte, has 15 goals and 23 assists in 62 AHL games this season.

The six-foot-one, 200-pound Mattheos, who won a WHL championship with the Wheat Kings in 2016 as a 16-year-old skating on the team’s shutdown line with Brandonites Tanner Kaspick and Duncan Campbell, has blossomed into an elite offensive force.

Equipped with an outstanding shot that allowed him to become the only WHL player to score 40 goals in each of the past two seasons, he also won 54.5 per cent of his 1,348 faceoffs.

In his final two seasons, he posted 96 and 90 points. On Thursday, he was finally able to celebrate the product of that success.

“It’s just pure joy, number one, and number two, I’m feeling thankful for all the people who have impacted my career in a positive way,” Mattheos said. “Being able to share this with my family and all my friends is pretty awesome.”

Mattheos has worn a can’t-miss tag since the Wheat Kings selected him first overall in the 2014 WHL bantam draft. A graduate of the Winnipeg Wild, Mattheos scored in his first WHL game as a 15-year-old and went on to post 278 points in 253 games, which ties him for 21st in Wheat Kings career scoring with the team’s current head scout, Darren Ritchie.

Mattheos said his time with the Wheat Kings was valuable.

“When I showed up I was just probably a kid,” Mattheos said. “My knowledge of the game and my skill level has gone up tremendously since I showed up in Brandon. I can’t thank everyone enough in Brandon for helping me develop.”

It’s been quite a week for Mattheos, who actually reached an agreement with the Hurricanes on Wednesday, the same day he was named an Eastern Conference second-team all-star.

Don Waddell, who serves as president and general manager of the Hurricanes, said in a press release that he likes the potential Mattheos brings.

“Stelio is a highly skilled center coming off back-to-back 90-point seasons in Brandon,” Waddell said. “He’s shown great ability as a goal scorer and we look forward to the next steps in his development.”

While Mattheos said he made his calls to the people in Winnipeg who helped him prior to his arrival in Brandon, it was a day to share with father Sarantos, mother Mary, brother Dimitri and sister Letta.

“My family are the biggest people that I have to thank for sure,” Mattheos said. “It was a great moment for us. It kind of felt like we did it. There is a long way to go still, but it was a good feeling for everyone.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson