Beware of ‘Bison’: Matt Coronato out to validate No. 13 selection

Matt Coronato (Huntington, N.Y.) had a USHL-best 48 goals in 51 games last season with the Chicago Steel. (Rena Laverty/USA Hockey)

Cambridge, Mass., might have a bison sighting soon.

Matt Coronato will enroll at Harvard University this fall as a first-round NHL draft pick. It has been a whirlwind year for the Long Island native who grew up in Huntington, N.Y., and just won a championship with the USHL’s Chicago Steel, his second league title. On July 23, the first major step to fulfilling his pro hockey dreams came true when the Calgary Flames made him the 13th overall selection in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.

Now, the player who earned the moniker of “the Bison” in junior hockey for how hard he went to the net and drove the play in all three zones will take the next step in his career. The wider college hockey fan base and NHL fans in Alberta will be exposed to those attributes that allowed him to score a league-leading 48 goals in 51 games with the Steel.

With Coronato, it isn’t just about the prolific ability to finish, either.

He had an inclination that Calgary was more than interested in him as its top pick, but that didn’t change the excitement he felt at hearing his name called by Flames GM Brad Treliving.

“I did have a good feeling, actually,” Coronato said from Michigan while participating in the World Junior Summer Showcase via the Calgary Flames website. “I was really excited about it when I heard my name. It was really special, something I’ll always remember.”

You have to hand it to Coronato. He knows what he is, and there is a wide range of agreement among the NHL and independent scouting community about why he’s been so successful to date. There are myriad reasons for it, and all point to the way Coronato scores in bunches and the work he puts into it.

“I think the biggest thing about my game is my compete level. I’m really competitive,” Coronato said. “I always try to work, and I take a lot of pride in being a 200-foot player, contributing in all three zones. But (I’m) definitely a guy that likes to shoot the puck, get pucks to the net and find myself in the right spots to score goals.”

Calgary, like many NHL teams in the position to make Coronato their top selection, saw that he isn’t merely paying lip service to his positive attributes.

“This isn’t a perimeter guy or a guy that cheats to score. He’s a very well-rounded player, which is unique for a guy with his finishing skill,” Treliving said. “When you go back and look at his production and how he scores goals, it’s one thing to look at goal totals, but how do you score them? He drives possession, he’s responsible defensively, he plays inside the game.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the blue paint. He’s a strong kid. He’s a real thick, strong-bodied guy. He’s got the ability to play a real heavy game, and what we really like, obviously, is his ability to finish. That’s the hardest thing to do in this league, and he has a knack for it. How you score dictates how well that ability translates from the amateur level to the pro level, and we think it will translate well.”

The former Long Island Gulls minor hockey standout who later became a prep star at Salisbury School in Connecticut was not an early bloomer. Had anyone even the slightest inclination of what he was going to be at age 18, he never would have slipped to the third round of the 2018 USHL draft. There is no denying he was a steal for the Steel there, but his leap from solid draft candidate to surefire first-rounder has been helped in large part by his sheer effort and play away from the puck.

At 5-foot-10, 183 pounds, Coronato doesn’t have ideal pro size. He’s a good skater but lacks the pure explosiveness and top-end speed that tends to make NHL clubs more comfortable with drafting forwards early who are smaller in stature. Obviously, there’s more to it than just the skating for him to be drafted inside the top 15. After all, this is the same club who took a chance on a small but dynamic American USHL forward a decade ago named Johnny Gaudreau (Carneys Point, N.J.), albeit in the fourth round versus the first.

So, what is it about Coronato that made it bison season in Calgary?

“He just works so hard,” said a Western Conference NHL scout before the draft. “His shot is elite, but there are so many other dimensions to his game. Even if he isn’t a top-end skater, he has this relentless mindset that sets him apart from so many of the other players in this draft class. You can focus on his scoring, but it’s the pure determination and heart that is so captivating for me. Even if he didn’t go out and score more goals than anyone else in hockey this year, you’d still have a lot of time for him because of his compete and character.”

Additionally, Treliving mentioned Coronato’s versatility and ability to play both center and wing, making him even more appealing as the top player on Calgary’s draft board.

“It’s big,” Treliving said of how the first round played out for his team. “You need talent, and he’s got it. You don’t know how it’s all going to flow. I think certainly at the high end of the draft we had a fairly good idea of how it was going to go, but after four, who knows? But to get a guy with his ability to produce the way he does and just his overall game … and the personality … this is a high character kid, he’s a beloved teammate, he’s got leadership skill. All those boxes are checked.”

At Harvard, Coronato will be surrounded by some of the best talent in college hockey. Ted Donato and his staff are among the best recruiters in the NCAA, and after a lost year due to COVID, you can bet the Crimson and their faithful are champing at the bit to see the dynamic duo of Coronato and teammate Sean Farrell take their chemistry to another level.

Coronato’s big year came to fruition because he worked at it. Unlike other early picks in the draft who had been on NHL radars as top prospects for several years, he had to earn his way into the first round. Ending up getting picked closer to 10 than 30 is a testament to how impressive his all-around package was for Calgary.

“I liked him a year ago,” the scout said. “But honestly, I thought he would be a third- or fourth-round guy. For him to do what he did this season, to score the number of goals he did, but beyond that, just the way he did it and winning a championship on top of it. I don’t know that anyone in this draft has done more than Matt in a pretty short period of time to make himself an early pick like he has.”

The Bison is coming to Harvard. If the past is any indication, there will be a herd of fanatical supporters that get behind him early on. How long he stays in college is anyone’s guess at this point, but expect a pretty quick impact.

Coronato will earn the opportunities to take his game to another level in ECAC Hockey, and it should not be long before his pro team comes calling after that. Like most prospects his age, he has to get a lot stronger, but that won’t be a major obstacle for him.

“He’s in the gym; he’s a rink rat,” Treliving said. “He’s there first, he stays late. The character of this kid is special. He’s a smart kid, obviously. He’s going to a top, top school. So, when you blend it all together, it’s an exciting package of a top player and a top person.”

This article appeared in the print edition of the July/August 2021 New York Hockey Journal magazine.

Kirk Luedeke can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @kluedeke29.