Bryn Chyzyk had almost a full year under his belt as general manager of the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks when he decided to make a big splash right before the USHL Phase I draft in May.
The then-29-year-old general manager and his staff talked to many different prospects through pre-draft interviews and were extremely impressed with one in particular: Matthew Frost.
But Chyzyk also found something else out: the Black Hawks weren’t the only team high on Frost. Many others had him near the top of their lists.
So, Chyzyk decided to do something about it.
On the morning of the draft, Chyzyk traded Waterloo’s first-round pick and a second-round pick in the Phase II draft for the first-overall pick from the Des Moines Buccaneers. Later that day, the Black Hawks got their man.
“Adrenaline was going,” Chyzyk said. “I wanted to make sure we got him.”
It wasn’t the first time a program has pulled out all the stops to secure Frost’s services.
When South Kent Selects Academy hired Jamie Russell in late August 2020, it was a hockey program trying to rebuild itself after the brain trust that built it left for Mount Saint Charles.
Russell, as director of hockey operations, was tasked with finding talent that made onlookers’ eyes widen and when he came across Frost, he knew he had something.
“We really felt Matthew and his family were what we call a domino recruit — real high profile, obviously very talented player,” Russell said. “We felt as we were trying to rebuild South Kent and attract top-end talent if we could land a player like Matthew Frost, that was going to serve to give notice that, ‘Hey South Kent’s a place high-end players go to develop’.”
Frost, a native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, opted for South Kent after building up his profile with Team Maryland. Frost ended up in Maryland after his father, a member of the Canadian military, moved the family from Canada to the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
“We were very excited when he chose to bring his talents to South Kent,” Russell said. “A terrific kid to be able to build around.”
In 2021-22, Frost’s first season at South Kent, the 15-year-old played up on the 16U team and thrived, potting 26 goals and 62 points in 58 games.
“It was good,” Frost said. “First half was kind of getting used to it, trying to make good plays — don’t try to do anything wrong. The second half was to experiment and play skilled and fast and make plays that I would like to make that would either look good or have fun. It was a good year overall.”
Russell felt that due to Frost’s skill set, playing up with the 16U team made a lot of sense.
“He’s an elite skater,” Russell said. “In today’s game when teams want to play fast, Matthew has the ability to really accelerate, change direction, use change of speed to really create a lot of offense through his skating. That was the first thing that stood out to me.
“Having coached at high levels at NCAA Division 1 and pro hockey, I was just so impressed with Matthew and how rounded his game was. He’s mature beyond his years. Playing both ends of the rink, being responsible defensively while still having the ability to create offense.”
When Waterloo was heavily scouting Frost’s on-ice game, its scouting staff noticed many similar attributes.
“The No. 1 attribute that we look for in Phase I is hockey IQ and the brain,” Chyzyk said. “We thought he excelled in that area. He thinks the game extremely well. You see so many kids nowadays that try to cheat for offense and he plays the right way and earns his offense.”
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Frost’s outstanding season with the 16U team motivated Russell to keep him on the fast track and move him up to the 18U team this season.
His season also caught the attention of Division 1 college programs.
“I got contacted by a bunch of schools,” Frost said. “All the schools, I evaluated them. I didn’t say no immediately to any of them. I took all of them that I had. I did what are the pros and cons of each? Some schools were a little bit too much of a city feel for me. Some of them were a little not-enough-city feel.
“The midwest ones — I like the midwest because that’s where I’m from. It’s just that some of them were really far from cities and then there were a couple with no campus feel at all.”
That’s where Boston College came in. On Aug. 1, the first day for Frost to commit to a school, he announced his commitment to be an Eagle.
As it stands, Frost ranks third on South Kent this season in points with 24 in 30 games. Because Waterloo prefers its future players to come out for a week and experience life in the USHL, Frost made the trek to Iowa over Thanksgiving. He spent seven days with the team, living with a billet family and playing in two games.
“He didn’t play a ton, but I think it was just the experience of seeing what he’s got to get to so the next time he comes back, he’s more comfortable with his surroundings and ready for when he’s full-time,” Chyzyk said.
While both sides would like Frost to get back to Waterloo to experience more of life in the USHL, Chyzyk believes his first-overall pick’s best route of development this season is allowing him to become one of the top players in the Prep Hockey Conference at such a young age.
“He wanted to go back to South Kent and take that next step and not jump in too fast to our league,” Chyzyk said of Frost before the season. “Allowing him to become the elite U18 player in that league will hopefully set him up for the following year with us to come in and be an impact player and not a guy who’s just trying to survive.”
