Auston Matthews’ story has grown beyond its Arizona roots

GLENDALE, Ariz. — There is no denying the impact the Arizona Coyotes and Arizona’s youth hockey programs had on 2016 No. 1 draft pick Auston Matthews. Without those two elements, Matthews would not be making his much-heralded return to the Valley on Friday as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Coyotes sparked Matthews’ interest in hockey; the local youth programs nourished it. The tricky part of this tale, however, is avoiding provincial hyperbole.

It’s encouraging to believe that Matthews’ budding superstardom is proof that Arizona can produce top-tier NHL talent on a regular basis, but to date, Matthews is still an Arizona anomaly.

It’s satisfying to believe that Matthews’ NHL future was evident by the time he left Arizona. The truth is, Matthews’ greatest strides as a hockey player came after he left Arizona.

“He was a really good player here in the state but there were other kids on the team that people had attached their name more to; there were other kids they thought were ahead of him,” said Coyotes captain Shane Doan, who is deeply involved in the local youth hockey scene and has two sons, Josh and Carson, who played or play.

In 2012, Matthews moved to Michigan and joined the United States National Team Development Program, but in 2013, he broke his femur in just his second game for USA Hockey’s Under-17 National Team. The injury required surgery.

Doan said Matthews’ parents, Ema and Brian, reached out to him (former Coyote Keith Tkachuk also played a role) to encourage Auston during the arduous rehab, but Doan said Matthews took a major leap forward after the injury, and he mostly did it on his own.

“He had to battle hard to get back,” Doan said. “While he was doing that, he grew and got bigger and stronger and developed. That’s when it really started to happen for him.”

Matthews’ tale is well known now. He broke Patrick Kane’s scoring records in the U.S. National Team Development Program, thereby rocketing him into the hockey world’s collective conscious via the less trodden USA Hockey path.

“It’s really appealing to kids because you get the chance to play against older players and play for your country at such a young age in international events,” said Coyotes defenseman Connor Murphy, a product of the USNTDP program. “There’s more and more players like Auston who have gone that route and it’s worked out for them.”

But while other USNTDP alumni like Kane, Murphy and Coyotes prospect Christian Fischer ultimately decided to spend some time in the Canadian major junior leagues — Kane with London, Murphy with Sarnia and Fischer with Windsor of the OHL — Matthews veered off the trodden path again, opting to play professional hockey in Switzerland for the ZSC Lions.

“I’m a dad so I hear it all the time that you need to go here at this age and to this school at this age and work with this team or this coach at this age,” Doan said. “Nobody knows what path to take. There is no one path everyone should take. I love the fact that Auston did it his own way, and not in a way that was trying to get more attention. He did what was best for him.”

Coyotes coach Dave Tippett echoed those sentiments.

“He’s coming into the NHL as a rookie but he had already played in a men’s league,” Tippett said. “There’s a lot of young players that play in junior, but as good as some of the junior hockey is, it’s still not the men’s league.”

Matthews enters Friday’s game against the Coyotes at Gila River Arena with 16 goals and 25 points putting him a point behind teammate Mitch Marner for second among NHL rookies in points. Over his last 13 games, Matthews has 10 goals, including a spectacular effort off a one-handed defection on Monday against Anaheim that had coach Mike Babcock gushing.

“I thought he was great,” Babcock told NHL.com. “I thought he was our best player. I don’t know what you guys thought, but I thought he was fantastic.”

New Coyotes center and former Maple Leaf Peter Holland said that in a hockey-crazed city, Matthews’s celebrity is already off the charts.

“He’s the number one hot commodity in that city right now,” Holland said. “You have a tough time anyway walking the street without getting recognized. For a guy like him who’s in the news every day, and with the success he’s having, I’d be surprised if he could go anywhere without getting mobbed.”

In spite of that attention, those who know Matthews insist he is staying remarkably grounded.

“He has such a maturity about him,” Doan said. “So much credit goes to him and his dad and his advisers in telling him ‘just be who you are.’ He is, and that’s what people love the most about him, and that’s what makes him successful.”

Time will tell if Matthews’ rise gives birth to more NHL stars from Arizona. His presence surely won’t hurt that possibility, but at the very least, it’s fair to say that Matthews has done as much to put Arizona on the hockey map as Arizona has done for Matthews.

“There’s lots of homegrown talent that will come out of here but nobody that has the potential Auston has,” Tippett said. “It’s a unique situation to get taken first overall in the draft to what many would call the hockey capitol of the world.

“I’ve been fortunate to get to know him a little bit through the World Cup and stuff. He’s a very humble guy; very appreciative of all the experiences he’s gotten playing hockey in Arizona. Now he’s gone onto the big stage of the NHL and done very well. It speaks volumes for the people who have done so much work in developing hockey in Arizona. To have a talent like that come out of here, it’s a credit to them but also very much a credit to Auston and the work he’s put in.”

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