When NCAA schools were finally allowed to bring in players from the CHL, Brandon Wheat Kings forward Matteo Michels suddenly found himself with a lot of opportunities. And he earned every one of them.
Taking a gigantic leap forward in his 19-year-old season, Michels broke the 20-goal and 50-point barriers for the first time in his career. Fittingly for a player who has developed so much since coming to the Wheat Kings via trade, he went with the University of Vermont, the program that best sold him on their role in his future development.
“I went on a visit there last week,” Michels said. “I loved the place, a beautiful area, and the vision they had for me with their coaching staff and the way they all brought it together. The ideas they have for me going forward were really appealing to me and that kind of swayed me in my decision.”
The commitment is a nice bow on what had been a career season for Michels in 2024-25. He scored 20 goals and added 35 assists for 55 points (all career bests) and played in all 68 games for the first time ever as well. And it opens up another development path, one which will see him get four more years of competitive hockey.
“I think it’s starting to get to the place where I want to be and the role and vision that I have for myself,” Michels said. “That’s what Vermont and their coaching staff are seeing as well, and they want to bring out more in me and develop it to set me on that pro path later in the future.”
At the time he was drafted in the U.S. Priority Selection by the Regina Pats in 2020, Michels was one of a handful of trailblazers, the first player from that draft to come north. At the time, he was making a decision that he thought meant the end of his NCAA eligibility, a choice not made lightly by a Texas-trained player who certainly felt the pull of college hockey early in his career. Now, he and his fellow American-born skaters no longer have to choose, and if he’d known at the time it wouldn’t have been much of a choice at all.
“The CHL is definitely the best developmental league in the world so I defintiely would’ve made that decision without hesitation back then,” said Michels. “Not knowing what I know now made the decision harder, but it (the eligibility rule) changing, I’m very grateful for it. It’s a blessing, for sure.”
Michels also had some good news for Wheat Kings fans at a time where other players are ending their junior careers early to go to college. His development plan, and that of Vermont, includes another year in Brandon for him, so he won’t be going to school until 2026-27. Both he and the Wheat Kings have high hopes for the 2025-26 campaign.
“That was one thing I had to make a decision on, but going back for one more year, looking at our team and what we could accomplish next year, the guys we’ve already brought in, I think we have a chance to do something really good with it,” Michels said. “Going off of last year, we have something to build off and we could make our name. That’s what I’m excited about and why I wanted to come back for one more year. What Vermont wants for me is to develop a little more, work on the things they want me to work on, and bring it all to them after my season.”
Michels added he’s good friends with Braxton Whitehead going back to their time in Regina, and because Whitehead was the first WHL player to commit to a division one school, he was able to look to him for advice on the process. That process gives him four more years to work with, and that along with his progress over the last two seasons have him feeling better than ever about his long-term future in the sport.
“I want to play hockey as long as possible, so adding another four years is a good development path before I go pro,” he said. “It gives you a little bit more time. Some kids like me, who are a little bit of late bloomers, it gives you more time to develop and try to get to that next level after that.”
