NHL Rising Stars: Stelio Mattheos

Welcome back to my NHL Rising Stars series, and I know it has been a while since I promised this player profile, but I am back, and today I will be telling you about Stelio Mattheos, an offensive prospect in the Carolina Hurricanes farm system.

Stelio Mattheos is a 22-year-old, 6'1, 200-pound right-shot center/right winger from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He played his junior hockey for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League (WHL), and finished his time there with 278 points (127 goals, 151 assists) in 253 games with the Wheat Kings. Mattheos is a very physical and tenacious forward who is also gifted defensively as well. Mattheos is a very quick skater and scores a lot of goals. I watched him quite a bit over the course of his junior career, and he was definitely my favorite player on the Brandon Wheat Kings for quite a while.

Mattheos' path to the NHL begins during the 2011-12 season with the Winnipeg Monarchs U14 AAA team, where as a 12-year-old, he plays in 29 games, recording 24 points (17 goals, 7 assists). Mattheos returns to the U14 Monarchs for one more season as a 13-year-old,where he is named captain, playing in 21 games, recording 47 points (27 goals, 20 assists).

For the 2013-14 season, Mattheos joins the Winnipeg Monarchs U15 team, where he is again named captain, and let me say, this was by far the best season in young Stelio's career. In just 32 games, he recorded 103 points (53 goals, 50 assists), which is pretty impressive for a 14-year-old!

After Stelio's season with the U15 Monarchs was over, the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft came around, and Stelio was selected first overall by the Brandon Wheat Kings. All his hard work to get to that point had finally paid off, but he had one more goal to accomplish: play in the NHL.

For the 2014-15 season, Mattheos suited up for the Winnipeg Wild U18 AAA team, where he played in 27 games, recording 25 points (14 goals, 11 assists). After his season with the U18 Wild was over, 15-year-old Mattheos joined the Brandon Wheat Kings, where he played in 1 game, recording a goal.

For the 2015-16 season, Mattheos, now eligible to play for the WHL, finally suits up for the Brandon Wheat Kings, where in his rookie season, he plays in 50 games, recording 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists). That season, Mattheos and the Wheat Kings would end up winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup, which is awarded to the WHL playoff champion. Mattheos won the championship alongside lots of talented players like Nolan Patrick (Vegas Golden Knights), Ivan Provorov (Philadelphia Flyers), Reid Duke (Henderson Silver Knights), Tanner Kaspick (Springfield Thunderbirds), Logan Thompson (Henderson Silver Knights), Kale Clague (Montreal Canadiens) and Cole Reinhardt (Belleville Senators).

Fresh off a WHL Championship, Mattheos, now headed into his 17-year-old season, found himself on a whole new team with not many departures but a ton of additions like Arizona Coyotes prospect Ben McCartney, New York Rangers prospect Braden Schneider, and Utah Grizzlies forward Luka Burzan. A key departure from the previous season was Ivan Provorov, who cracked the Philadelphia Flyers roster. It was Stelio’s chance to shine in front of NHL scouts who would often come watch the 17-year-old phenom. Mattheos would eventually go on to rack up a total of 61 points (26 goals, 35 assists) in 69 games. A huge step up from his 30 points he accumulated in his rookie season.

On June 24, 2017, Stelio was anxiously awaiting for his name to be called in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft in Chicago, Illinois. The second round had passed, and he was still undrafted, and the third round came, and on pick #73 the Carolina Hurricanes selected forward Stelio Mattheos from the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League. Mattheos’ dreams of playing in the NHL were coming full-circle.

It is now October of 2017, and Mattheos is beginning his 18-year-old season with Brandon after attending Carolina Hurricanes rookie camp, and the roster still remains the same other than a few minor additions and the departure of Nolan Patrick, who cracked the Philadelphia Flyers roster, and Mattheos is named an assistant captain for the Wheat Kings (St. Louis Blues prospect Tanner Kaspick served as captain until he was traded at the WHL Trade Deadline). Mattheos ends up accumulating an impressive 90 points (43 goals 47 assists) in just 68 games. Mattheos was on fire! The Wheat Kings went on to lose in the quarterfinals of the WHL playoffs, but they put up a good fight!

Fast forward to the start of the 2018-19 season, Stelio’s 19-year-old season and his last season with the Wheat Kings, he was named the captain of the team. An honor he hadn’t received since his time with the U15 Winnipeg Monarchs when he was 14 years old during the 2013-14 season. The 19-year-old had yet another phenomenal season racking up a total of 96 points (44 goals, 52 assist) in only 65 games. The Wheat Kings unfortunately had a rough end to their season and as a resul, didn’t make the playoffs. Mattheos ended his WHL career with 278 points (127 goals and 151 assist) in 253 games. However, Mattheos’ season was far from over.

On March 21, 2019, Mattheos signed an entry-level contract with the Carolina Hurricanes. A dream come true for the 19-year-old Winnipeg native. Upon signing with the Hurricanes, he was sent down to the Charlotte Checkers, the Hurricanes’ farm team, where he suited up in 11 games, recording 3 points (2 goal, 1 assist).

Going into the playoffs, the Checkers were the hottest team in the American Hockey League. They had star players like Chicago Wolves captain Andrew Poturalski, Seattle Kraken forward Morgan Geekie, Seattle Kraken defenseman Haydn Fleury, Detroit Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedjelkovic, and ex-NHLer Zack Stortini. The 19-year-old forward, who plays both right wing and centre went on to play in 14 playoff games, recording 4 points (3 goals, 1 assist) and helping the Checkers win their first ever Calder Cup in franchise history, dating back to the former East Coast Hockey League team’s move to the AHL in 2010.

However, Mattheos went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer 2 days after the Checkers’ championship, and 4 days short of his 20th birthday. Mattheos flew home to Winnipeg the next morning, and had surgery to remove a testicle. Over the course of the offseason, 20-year-old Mattheos would undergo 3 rounds of chemotherapy, and would miss quite a bit of Carolina Hurricanes training camp.

On September 21, 2019, now cancer-free, Mattheos arrived at PNC Arena for the last bit of Hurricanes training camp, and would be sent down to the Checkers 5 days later.

Mattheos would be sidelined for the start of the start of the 2019-20 season recovering from cancer treatment, but made an emotional return to the ice in November 2019 in Cleveland, Ohio against the Cleveland Monsters, who welcomed the 20-year-old forward back to the ice by putting a graphic up on the jumbotron.

However, when things were looking good for Stelio, he found himself out of the lineup once again with a lower body injury. He wouldn‘t return to the ice until mid-February. His first home game since the 2018-19 season. Just when Mattheos was starting to get back to his old self in terms of hockey, the season was canceled due to COVID-19, and he finished the 2019-20 season with 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) in 16 games.

During the offseason, the Carolina Hurricanes' affiliation agreement was up, and they decided not to resign for a number of reasons, the number reason being the St. Louis Blues selling their farm team, the San Antonio Rampage, to the Vegas Golden Knights and buying the Florida Panthers' farm team, the Springfield Thunderbirds, which left the Chicago Wolves, the Golden Knights' former farm team to either Florida or Carolina. A few weeks later, after lots of speculation that Carolina was signing an agreement with the Chicago Wolves, Florida signed on with the Charlotte Checkers, which prompted Carolina to sign with the Chicago Wolves. Why Carolina did this has been questioned on many occasions by fans, because this simply doesn't make much sense.

Mattheos, a member of a totally different team would face many challenges during the 2020-21 season, one being the shared affiliation of the Wolves with the Nashville Predators due to the state of Wisconsin not allowing the Predators' farm team, the Milwaukee Admirals play. Because of the shared affiliation with the Predators, Mattheos played down in the East Coast Hockey League with the Fort Wayne Komets. However, Mattheos didn't last long in either the AHL or the ECHL, spending 6 games with the Wolves in which he recorded 2 points (both assists), and 3 games with the Komets, where Mattheos didn't record a single point. The then-21-year-old suffered an injury that kept him out of the lineup after just 9 games that season.

Fast forward to 2021-22, Mattheos plays his first full season since 2018-19 with the Brandon Wheat Kings, playing in 59 games, recording 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists), which is definitely an improvement from where he was 2 years ago. Mattheos and the Wolves are now trying to beat the Stockton Heat in the Western Conference Finals to advance to the Calder Cup Final, and 23-year-old Mattheos and several members of the 2019 Calder Cup-winning team have their eyes on the prize. If the Wolves were to beat the Stockton Heat in game 6 tomorrow night, Mattheos' 23rd birthday, they would play either the Springfield Thunderbirds or the Laval Rocket, the farm team for the Montreal Canadiens. Until then, the Wolves will be doing everything they can to beat the red-hot Stockton Heat in hopes of raising the Western Conference championship trophy.

Mattheos is a prime example of overcoming adversity to chase after a goal, because he's had so many ups and downs throughout his career. Overcoming every challenge made Mattheos stronger, not only physically, but mentally, because it's hard to overcome cancer and then spend the rest of the season sidelined with a non-cancer-related injury, and then sitting out the next season with an injury and not playing a full season in 2 years. I think there were people who doubted that Mattheos would even come back to playing hockey after spending the past couple of years sidelined with injuries, but he's proven to us all that he is not giving up anytime soon.