HERSHEY, PA — Nine months after suffering a devastating injury, Eriks Mateiko walked into the Hershey Bears locker room and began reflecting on a freak accident that not only brought his rookie season to an abrupt end but cost him the opportunity of a lifetime.
“It feels like I’m back into my first season now again, just kind of starting over,” he said.
The broad-shouldered, 6-foot-6 forward nicknamed “Moose” sat cramped in a folding chair, his knees jutting awkwardly in front of him. The Washington Capitals’ third-round pick from the 2024 NHL Draft was just days removed from scoring his first goal in nearly a year. With the new season underway, Mateiko was beginning to find his rhythm again, slowly regaining the confidence and comfort in his body he’d once taken for granted.
The rehabilitation had been lengthy and, at times, frustrating, but there were few visible reminders of what he’d endured. Just above his right ankle was a roughly inch-long horizontal scar, a small but significant artifact from an injury that had taken so much from him. But even that was fading with time.
“It was a long road, and I’m definitely happy about how it went,” Mateiko said of his recovery. “Seeing all the doctors, they were saying how good it looks and everything. I’m just that type of guy; my mindset was, ‘Okay, this is done now, I have to achieve a lot of more things.’ I want to be proud of myself, but I don’t want to stop. There’s a lot of potential in my game. And growth. I’m just looking forward.”
But to understand what this fresh start means to Mateiko, you first have to understand what he lost. And to understand where he may go, you have to understand the attitude and maturity he showed handling one of the worst moments of his life.
Though he’d never admit it was.
Making the Latvian Olympic team
Shortly after the Christmas break, Mateiko got the call that he was under consideration for Latvia’s Olympic team. At that point, he had just one goal and three assists during his rookie pro season with the Bears, but had earned consistent playing time.
“They told me, like, don’t be sad or anything if you don’t make it,” he recalled. “I had never talked with the coach, never practiced with the team. They said if you don’t make it, we’re going to definitely get you for a World Championship (in the future).”
Then, just two days into 2026, Mateiko received unexpected news from Rūdolfs Kalvītis, the general manager of Latvia’s men’s national hockey team, saying that he had made the roster. The selection meant Mateiko would make his senior national team debut on the biggest international stage possible: the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
“I was surprised, I’ll be honest with you,” Mateiko said.
The Olympics had been an aspiration for the 20-year-old forward, but not one he necessarily expected to achieve so soon.
“My goal last year was just to get regular ice time here and play in the AHL, kind of getting into my first pro year,” Mateiko said. “And then the Olympics, yeah, that was kind of the next goal.”
Mateiko called his parents in Latvia to share the news.
“I was just happy, you know,” Mateiko said. “I was happy to call my parents, say that to them.”
Although they knew he was under consideration for the Olympic roster, the family hadn’t been anxiously awaiting an announcement.
“They were as surprised and confused as I was,” he said.
Mateiko believed his growing responsibilities in Hershey and the respect the AHL commanded internationally were instrumental in him earning a spot, describing the NHL’s developmental league as one of the top in the world.
“It’s a really good league, and obviously we don’t have many players in North America playing in NHL, AHL,” Matieko said.
Beyond the offense Latvia brass knew he was capable of, Mateiko was being used by the Bears as a rugged checking-line forward and killing penalties, demonstrating a versatility to play both center and right wing. Due to his massive size and competitiveness, he was also a handful to go up against when digging pucks out along the boards.
His standout performance at the 2025 World Junior Championship, where he scored five goals in five games, likely strengthened his candidacy, but Mateiko was adamant that he didn’t believe it was the reason he got the nod. A year prior, the Capitals prospect scored a goal and the game-winning shootout tally in Latvia’s historic upset of Canada, showcasing his ability to rise to the occasion and deliver in high-pressure moments.
But while representing Latvia at the Olympics was certainly something he hoped for, it hadn’t necessarily seemed like an attainable one during his childhood. Latvia wasn’t guaranteed a place in every Olympic hockey tournament, most recently missing the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang. The perennial underdog has always had to win their way into the Games through IIHF Olympic qualification tournaments, making the idea feel more distant than it might for players from traditional hockey powers.
“Obviously, it’s a dream to play it, but just knowing sometimes we don’t make them, it’s a little bit different,” he said.
Still, Mateiko grew up intrigued by the Winter Olympics, particularly biathlon and skiing, and now found himself looking forward to the experience. As the invitation began to sink in, he started imagining what the experience would be like, surrounded by the world’s best athletes competing in sports he’d grown up watching on television.
“The Olympic Village, I think that would be a really nice experience,” he said. “Obviously, aside from playing.”
Nine days later, one freak accident changed everything.
“Is this real or no?”
Mateiko was officially announced to Latvia’s Olympic team four days later on January 6, joining six NHL-affiliated players on the roster: Rodrigo Abols (Philadelphia Flyers), Uvis Balinskis (Florida Panthers), Teddy Blueger (Vancouver Canucks), Zemgus Girgensons (Tampa Bay Lightning), Elvis Merzlikins (Columbus Blue Jackets), and Arturs Silovs (Pittsburgh Penguins).
Before the news broke publicly, Mateiko had shared the news with only a few close friends in Hershey: Ilya Protas, Alex Suzdalev, and Bogdan Trineyev.
“They were as surprised as I was,” Mateiko said with a smile. “They congratulate me, and obviously they were happy for me.”
Despite hailing from three different countries (Suzdalev and Trineyev were both born in Russia, while Protas is from Belarus), the four Russian-speaking teammates formed a close bond in Hershey and spent much of their free time around each other, grappling with the different culture together. Trineyev, a member of Hershey’s back-to-back Calder Cup championship teams in 2023 and 2024, is the oldest of the quartet at age 24, and he became a mentor to Mateiko and Protas, with all three living together in 2025-26.
Suzdalev roomed with Henrik Rybinski, another Bears teammate, but often opted to spend the day at the Trineyev-Mateiko-Protas household. Trineyev often drove the younger players around and earned the affectionate, sometimes mocking nickname “Papa Bogey.”
While telling his closest friends he’d made the Olympic roster was easy, Mateiko found it harder to share with the rest of the team: he still hardly believed the news himself.
“I don’t like to spoil things before,” Mateiko said. “I wanted to actually see the announcement because I wasn’t 100 percent sure when they told me because I still kind of couldn’t figure it out. Is this real or no?”
The honor was a big moment for the Bears. Mateiko was poised to become Hershey’s first active player to compete at the Olympics since Chris Bourque represented Team USA at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. (Aaron Ness, Mateiko’s captain last season, also played for the US at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, but was still a member of the Providence Bruins at that point.) For a young player still finding his footing in professional hockey, the opportunity carried enormous significance.
“How many 19- and 20-year-olds are playing in the Olympics for your country?” noted Bears head coach Derek King. “Obviously, he wants to play in the NHL, and to put a Washington Capitals jersey on is a huge thing. But putting your country’s jersey on and playing in the Olympics is massive.”
When the locker room found out, Mateiko’s teammates were elated.
“They were just so happy for me,” he said.
The Bears then filmed an interview with Mateiko and posted his reaction to the nod on social media.
“Obviously every time you put that jersey on, you feel different,” Mateiko said then. “It’s just representing our country, especially our country is a small country. It’s just 1.8 million, and putting that jersey and playing in the big tournaments means a lot. It means a lot to people back home too. I know they cheer for us. We have a really good fan base in Latvia who cheer for the national team. So it means a lot playing for those guys, playing for parents and for the country overall.”
In the days after the announcement, Mateiko began preparing for the trip. He received a questionnaire from the NHL Players’ Association requesting travel information and started completing the necessary Olympic paperwork.
He also had a relatively simple plan for getting to New York, where players would depart for Milan. With Hershey roughly three hours away by car, Mateiko was considering hiring a car service rather than booking a flight.
“I had some stuff done, like I had to give all my information,” Mateiko said. “Obviously, here in Hershey was easier to travel because New York is really close, so I wouldn’t have to, like, fly from anywhere.”
For Mateiko, the logistics of reaching the Olympics were beginning to fall into place.
“I couldn’t stand up”
January 11th provided a reminder of how tenuous everything in life is. Hershey was playing the Cleveland Monsters at Giant Center and according to Mateiko, something just felt off that day.
“I think since the start of the game, it wasn’t a good game because I remember Rybs (Henrik Rybinski) hit a guy, not on purpose, and then the whole game just turned into fighting and stuff.”
Henrik Rybinski’s big hit
Monsters go after Rybinski
With 11:19 remaining in the second period, the violence found Mateiko, delivered by a piece of steel an eighth of an inch wide.
As Mateiko defended Hershey’s blue line, Monsters defenseman Corson Ceulemans carried the puck into the Bears’ zone and pivoted near the sideboards. As he turned, the back of his skate came up and caught Mateiko near his right ankle, slicing into his Achilles tendon.
Mateiko immediately collapsed to the ice in pain.
Eriks Mateiko injured during game
The severity of the injury wasn’t apparent at first, but Mateiko couldn’t get off the ice.
“You know, I just, when you see that happen, at first it was like, ‘Oh, okay, he’s maybe tweaked his knee,'” King recalled, hoping for the best. “We were yelling, ‘Get up! Get up.'”
“I couldn’t stand up,” Mateiko remembered.
Mateiko began crawling on his hands and knees toward the Hershey bench. An official soon stopped play and hurried Shawn Fliszar, the Bears’ head athletic trainer, onto the ice. Cleveland’s players initially appeared to believe Mateiko had merely lost a skate blade, protesting the stoppage from their bench.
But the situation was far more serious.
Two athletic trainers lifted Mateiko to his feet and escorted him down the tunnel, his arms draped over their shoulders. He left a grisly scene underneath him on the ice.
“When I [got helped] up and I saw blood, basically,” Mateiko said. “That’s when I kind of knew.”
As Mateiko disappeared down the tunnel, Protas was the one to clean up the mess, gliding over to the blue line and scraping his skate across the ice to remove blood left behind.
In the locker room, Mateiko’s adrenaline was still pumping as medical personnel tended to his injury, but the reality of his situation soon settled in. His Olympics were over. His rookie season was over. Big moments, achievements he’d spent his life working towards, were wiped away, at least for the short term. Instead, he faced the prospect of both a hospital visit and a grueling rehabilitation process.
Yet Mateiko refused to assign blame or dwell on what he lost.
“I knew what kind of risk I’m putting on myself every time on the ice,” he said. “It’s just part of the job. Stuff like that happens. That moment, it’s just, it’s part of the game. Like, you can’t really do much about it. It wasn’t like someone did it on purpose. It wasn’t like a [boarding penalty] or anything. Just an accident, and obviously, it just happens.”
The following day, Mateiko underwent surgery at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to repair his right Achilles tendon. On January 13, the Bears announced that he would miss the remainder of the season.
“Obviously, a tough thing to hear,” Bryan Helmer, the Bears’ vice president of hockey operations, said. “A young kid like that has the opportunity to go play for his country in the Olympics, and then to get a devastating injury like that was pretty upsetting.”
King was equally devastated. Having witnessed a similar injury in his own family, he understood the difficult road ahead.
“I just, I felt sick for the kid,” King said. “You don’t wish that on anybody. I had a son that it happened to, and it’s not a pretty injury, and sometimes it takes a while to come back from that.”
Extraordinary support and mental toughness
From afar, Mateiko’s plight was heartbreaking, especially after a season that started with so much promise.
“It was devastating for him,” King said. “I felt bad for him.”
“Obviously, it was tough for him at the moment,” Suzdalev added. “And, of course, all the guys in the team, and especially us Russians that hang out with him, was sad, too, because it was such a tough injury. The Olympics is one of the biggest things you can do in your life.”
While his Achilles tendon needed time to heal, there was a roadmap to recovery, and countless athletes have successfully come back from the injury. For Mateiko, however, the physical rehabilitation was only part of the challenge. He also had to come to terms with everything the injury had taken away.
“Obviously, I tried not to think about [what I lost] so much because anything can happen anytime for us,” he said. “I can just walk down the stairs, and something can happen. It’s just how life is; it’s about how you react to it, because if I would like feel sorry for myself and everything, like it wouldn’t really put me anywhere, so I just start kind of not to think about it, not to fall into depression at that time.
“I think the best way was just looking ahead rather than being in that moment when it happened. Like obviously I wasn’t happy or anything, but I also try not to be like crazy sad, just because I still have to live with it. I still know I can come back.”
Mateiko got supportive messages from the Washington Capitals as the news broke, including from an Olympian on Team Canada.
“(Capitals head coach) Spencer (Carbery) texted me,” Mateiko said. “He said have a good recovery and to come back strong. Tom (Wilson) texted me.”
The most painful part was telling his parents. Just days earlier, Mateiko had called to share the happiest news of his young hockey career. Now, he was calling home to tell them it was over.
Fortunately, his older brother, Ņikita, was there with their parents. A former professional defenseman who played in Russia’s KHL and Finland’s Mestis, Ņikita had experienced his own share of injuries and surgeries. His presence offered some comfort as the family processed the news.
“It was a good thing my brother was there,” Mateiko said. “He played hockey before, too. He had surgeries. He was injured before, too. He was with them at that time. So that definitely helped a lot.”
Mateiko also tried to reassure his mother.
“I called my mom and told her the same thing, ‘It’s part of the game.’ Everything is going to be okay because I know I’m going to be taken care of here.”
After spending time bedridden following surgery, Mateiko slowly began rebuilding strength in his leg under the guidance of Hershey trainers Fliszar and Max Finley, as well as physical trainer Bob Kelly.
His return timeline, however, remained uncertain. The Bears had ruled him out for the remainder of the 2025–26 season, but publicly offered no timetable beyond that. Even Mateiko was unsure whether he’d be ready to return by the fall.
“It’s hard to say (how long it would take),” Mateiko said. “It all depends on, like, how did the surgery go? How it’s gonna grow back? Is everything gonna be good with the scar? How’s the mobility? There’s a lot of factors that just kind of give you a timeline, but at the same time it’s all feel because it’s a muscle.
“It’s usually like, they told me six to nine months, but it wouldn’t mean that at six months I’m 100 percent. With this, basically, when you come back out to normal, it could take like two years.”
One of the biggest challenges came when the puck dropped in Milan. Mateiko was just 26 days removed from a gruesome injury, while his countrymen were celebrating the pinnacle of their careers.
“I tried not to watch it,” Mateiko said. “I watched Latvia games. I didn’t watch full Olympics. I watched some games, and at that time, it was still a pretty tough part of the recovery. For the first few weeks, I just tried to clear my head, not be [on] social media, and think too much — kind of accept the fact… don’t tease myself too much because I know it’s going to be a long way ahead.”
For Mateiko, who began moving around with the help of a scooter, the road to recovery began with small but meaningful milestones. “Definitely the first one was just walking with the boot, getting the crutches off,” he said.
That came approximately six weeks after surgery. Next was transitioning out of the protective boot and into regular shoes. From there, Mateiko worked week by week to regain a normal walking stride and range of motion in his ankle. Or, as he called it, “a normal radius.” Eventually, he progressed from walking to jogging.
But Mateiko wasn’t taking those steps alone.
His close-knit group of Russian-speaking teammates rallied around him, providing emotional support and helping with everyday tasks that had suddenly become difficult.
Protas and Trineyev helped with cooking and cleaning at their shared home. Trineyev also drove him to appointments and wherever else he needed to go. Suzdalev frequently accompanied Mateiko to the hospital for rehabilitation. When the Capitals called Trineyev up, Suzdalev was able to step in as chauffeur, sometimes driving Mateiko’s car and staying to watch him work through his exercises.
“We’re there to help him, you know, because it’s hard to get through that,” Suzdalev said. “And I think we’re trying our best, and he did a good job to be positive.”
They couldn’t be there all the time — the schedule of a professional hockey team marched on — but they worried for Mateiko when they left.
“A couple times I remember when we were on road trips, and he was alone at the house,” Suzdalev said. “It was probably tough. I remember giving him a PlayStation to play a little. That’s the part I remember. He couldn’t do much because of the injury. That was the tough part.”
The support extended beyond practical necessities. The group made a point of keeping Mateiko involved in their lives, inviting him along for dinners and shopping trips rather than letting him spend all his time recovering at home.
“All-Star break we spend a lot of time together,” Mateiko said. “They were helping a lot. I went with Suzy to Costco to get some stuff while I was still on the scooter, so I kind of [had] everything. We would just go out for dinner. It was definitely nice, especially when they were there to just spend time with them, not to be alone at the house.
“Pro was helping a lot, like he was living right next to my room. He would always check on me and everything. Like Suzy, he wasn’t living with us, but he would spend a lot of time with us. I would ask him to drive me somewhere. With Bogie, we would go to PT, always checking on me. It was a special relationship for sure, and I was really thankful that I had those guys next to me who really helped me out.”
King saw firsthand how much the friendships meant to his young forward.
“Pushing him around, driving him around, making sure he’s got his little wheelie thing cruising around,” King recalled. “He always had a smile on his face, and I think those guys were a big part of that.
“They helped him, included him [in] everything,” King added. “Whether they were going somewhere for dinner or going out shopping, ‘Let’s go get him out of the house and keep that mind fresh.’ That just says a lot about their character.”
Protas said the group tried to maintain a positive atmosphere around Mateiko, offering encouragement while helping with whatever he needed. They also tried to give him something to look forward to. Although the injury ended his rookie season prematurely, Mateiko had the entire summer to rehabilitate and rebuild his strength before training camp, turning a negative into a positive and keeping his focus on what was ahead.
“You get a little rest and then you have whole summer just to recover and fully get back,” Protas recalled telling him.
There was one anxious moment, and that came in July when he was back home in his native Latvia, six months into his recovery and two months away from Capitals training camp.
“By that time, when I’m talking to doctors, they’re like, ‘You can fully go on. You should feel really good.’ But then I still don’t feel close. I see obviously all the guys skating fully (for next season), and I don’t have that strength. I wasn’t down; you just get frustrated with yourself. Like you just have to trust the process a little bit more.”
Not only did Mateiko lean on his vast support system, but also a sports psychologist he’d had since playing junior hockey for the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL.
“Throughout the career, he helped me a lot,” he said. “I stuck with him since I was in Canada.”
Mateiko further credited his parents and his home country for remaining so strong, even-keeled, and positive.
“I think it’s just how I just always been since I was a kid,” he said. “I was raised to be like, stuff happens; everything happens for a reason. I wouldn’t want to complain about it or anything because complaining is not gonna get you anywhere. We don’t talk about all the bad stuff in Latvia. Everyone lives their own life, and it’s kind of closed (off) a little bit like personally. I would say we’re mentally really strong people in Latvia just because of all the stuff happening around (us). So I think just where I come from, that’s a normal thing.”
Finding his stride again
Mateiko’s rehabilitation officially hit eight months in September. After a grueling rehab, he was ready in time for the start of Capitals training camp. When he first hit the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, the moment was special for Suzdalev, who had seen almost all of Mateiko’s recovery up close, including his early attempts to skate at the end of the 2025-26 season.
“Seeing him walk for the first time, because we saw how tough he had before that, that was emotional,” Suzdalev said. “And I think when coming back to training camp and seeing him in good form, that was a good scene, too. He looked unbelievable.”
Mateiko’s first game back was the Capitals’ preseason finale against the Philadelphia Flyers on September 26, when the team’s minor-league prospects upset the Flyers’ Opening Night roster. In the memorable 5-1 victory, Mateiko played 14:34 of ice time, recording two shots, two hits, and two blocked shots.
He then returned to the AHL and started the year with the Bears. After scoring just one goal in 27 games last season, Mateiko has already scored two in his first six games this year. His first goal came eight months and 23 days after his injury and came in the Bears’ second game of the season, burying a two-on-one break with Andrew Cristall.
Eriks Mateiko’s first goal since his injury – Oct. 4
“I would say it just felt special because I hadn’t scored in a while,” Mateiko said. “It definitely felt awesome. Like I didn’t have that many goals even last year, so it’s just that all together felt really nice.”
On October 17, he banged home his second goal of the year, finding a rebound just outside the crease and scoring on the Providence Bruins.
Eriks Mateiko’s second goal – Oct. 17
Protas, now in his rookie season with the Capitals, has kept in close contact with Mateiko this fall, and couldn’t be more thrilled to see his success.
“I’m really happy for him and hopefully he’s gonna keep it going,” Protas said. “The way he battled and [went] through it, it’s really impressive.”
Behind the scenes, Mateiko continues to work and dedicate himself to the process, knowing that he will continue to improve as he gets stronger.
“I think we have one of the best doctor groups in the American Hockey League, if not in all of hockey, in my opinion,” Helmer said. “They do a great job. They make sure the patient and the player is healing well. They’re always looking after them, checking in. And our trainers do a great job, too. They’re very professional, and it starts with Jason Serbus (Capitals head athletic trainer) in Washington, and it just trickles down. So he was in great hands, and as you can see, he recovered pretty well.”
While the Olympics and skate cut were the headlines, the true takeaways of Mateiko’s comeback story were his emotional intelligence and his group of friends, who would not let him suffer with his thoughts alone.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He understands it,” King said. “The attitude he has towards the game. I mean, he listens. He takes a lot of notes, but he asks a lot of questions. So when stuff like this happens, he was pretty even-keeled. Whether he’s playing or not playing, he’s still that even-keeled type of person.”
“He’s very mature for his age,” Helmer added. “For a young guy like that to go through something that he did, it just shows you how mature he is and how he handled things. And his parents did a great job raising him. And when you see that, it makes you pretty proud.”
