Denton Mateychuk received a couple of early Christmas presents this month.

The Eastman Selects defensemen played a pair of games with the Western Hockey League's Moose Jaw Warriors.

Mateychuk, who was selected in the first round (11th overall) by Moose Jaw in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft, was in science class and missed a call from his principal (father Jason).

"He asked me if I could chat with him quick. I went out of class, called him and he told me I was going to be playing in Brandon with the Warriors. I was really excited and honored to play."

"I was super excited. I was pretty much just counting down the minutes and the days until I could be in Brandon playing in that game. Just tried to get ready for that and play."

The Warriors lost 11-1 to the Wheat Kings in Mateychuk's WHL debut.

"It was about two minutes into the game and I stepped out onto the ice and a guy was coming down the wall. He put the puck through my legs and went down the ice on a two-on-one. It was a nice scoring chance but he didn’t put it in thank God."

The following night Moose Jaw fell 5-4 in overtime to the Kelowna Rockets.

At 5:43 of the third period Mateychuk took a pass from Ryder Korczak, ripped a snap shot from the left face-off circle past Rockets goaltender Roman Basran and scored his first WHL goal.

"It was awesome," said the 15-year-old Dominion City product who was named the first star of the game. "There was so much adrenaline running through me. The pass I got to score that goal was really nice. It was good of him to find me there."

Mateychuk says it's a different game playing against 18, 19 and 20-year-olds compared to what he's seen this season in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.

"Everybody is faster, everybody is smarter. They all know what they’re doing. You got to be mentally ready to play as well as physically."

Mateychuk got more exciting news this past week as he was named to Team Canada's roster and will play at the Winter Youth Olympics in Switzerland next month.

"I was on the road home from a game and I got a call. I'm so pumped to be able to put on the Maple Leaf and represent my country. It’s going to be awesome. I’m going to try and play my game and do whatever I can to help my team. The competition is going to be off the charts."