It has been a common sight this season for the Moose Jaw Warriors, a player getting sent out for a lap alone during warmups.

This one was a little extra special as Denton Mateychuk, the Warriors’ 2019 first-round pick, made his Western Hockey League debut last Friday in Brandon.

"I was super excited and honoured to be able to represent the Warriors and come up and play," Mateychuk said of his debut.

"There was a little bit of nerves, just try to get them out early so I wasn’t playing the game with them and I thought I played pretty well."

The Warriors selected Mateychuk with the 11th overall pick in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft and is expected to be a key piece for the organization moving into the next few seasons.

Mateychuk made his presence felt in the two games over the weekend, scoring his first WHL goal in just his second game.

The Dominion City, Manitoba product had two preseason games under his belt, but he says suiting up in the regular season was a much different experience.

"The speed and the bigger guys and everybody’s smart and they know what they’re doing," Mateychuk said.

"When you’re gapping up and they are coming down with speed, you’ve got to make sure you’re getting back and have a tight gap with them and challenging them still. You need to be in-between that line of not too far back and not too far up when he’s going to blow by you."

Mateychuk is one of the top players for the Eastman Selects midget AAA team in Manitoba where he had five goals and 15 points in 19 games so far this season.

While his offensive numbers are impressive for a 15-year-old, Mateychuk said he is focused on improving his own end to become a more complete player.

"Just trying to help my team there in any way I can," he said.

"We had a slow start and I’d really like to work on our goals against, so working on my D zone is what I always want to work on and still working on my offence too."

From getting drafted by the Warriors to making his debut over the weekend, it has been an exciting year for Mateychuk, who also had the opportunity to represent Manitoba at the 2019 WHL Cup where he had three goals and seven points in five games as they captured the silver medal.

"It was different going from AAA to that, there was a lot of good players and I was really honoured to represent my province in that way and to get silver was cool," he said.

Now, Mateychuk will also have the opportunity to wear the maple leaf for Team Canada as he has been selected to play at the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games, which will be hosted on January 9 to 22 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mateychuk says that will only help him continue to improve.

"Playing with different guys and adapting to playing with different guys in a short-term competition like that, that really helps me develop," he said.

The Warriors return to the ice coming up on December 27 and 28 when they battle the Regina Pats in a home-and-home series to kick off the second half of the WHL season