Matthias' hockey career can be divided into two distinct acts.
The 6-foot-4, 231-pound center, selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round (No. 47) in the 2006 NHL Draft, was traded to the Florida Panthers for Todd Bertuzzi on Feb. 27, 2007. The Mississauga, Ontario, native spent parts of seven seasons as a role player with the Panthers before becoming well-traveled and eventually signing with the Winnipeg Jets on July 1, 2016.
Matthias' hockey career can be divided into two distinct acts.
The 6-foot-4, 231-pound center, selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round (No. 47) in the 2006 NHL Draft, was traded to the Florida Panthers for Todd Bertuzzi on Feb. 27, 2007. The Mississauga, Ontario, native spent parts of seven seasons as a role player with the Panthers before becoming well-traveled and eventually signing with the Winnipeg Jets on July 1, 2016.
Matthias made his NHL debut for the Panthers on Jan. 18, 2008, and the next day scored his first two NHL goals in a 5-3 road loss to the Washington Capitals. But after two more games, Florida returned Matthias to Belleville of the Ontario Hockey League, where he finished the season.
Matthias played 16 games for Florida during the 2008-09 season before he made his first opening-night roster in 2009-10. He played 55 games and led Panthers rookies that season with seven goals, while his 16 points tied him with defenseman Dmitry Kulikov for the most among Florida's first-year players.
After playing in 79 games in 2011-12, Matthias saw Stanley Cup Playoff action for the first time in Florida's first-round series loss to the New Jersey Devils. He scored his first NHL postseason point with an assist in Florida's final victory of the series, a 3-0 win in Game 5 that put the Panthers up 3-2.
Matthias scored five goals over a three-game stretch from March 26-30, 2013, which made him the first Panthers player to score 11 or more goals in a calendar month since Pavel Bure in March 2001.
Florida included him in the March 4, 2014 trade with the Vancouver Canucks that brought goaltender Roberto Luongo back to Florida. Following the trade, Matthias tied for third on the Canucks with 18 goals during the 2014-15 season. He got the first hat trick of his NHL career in a 5-2 win against the Boston Bruins on Feb. 13, 2015.
Matthias played in all six games of Vancouver's first-round series loss to the Calgary Flames that season, scoring his first Stanley Cup Playoff goal in Vancouver's 4-2 loss in Game 3. He would play for both the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche in 2015-16 before signing a two-year free agent contract with Winnipeg.
Internationally, Matthias scored three goals and four points in seven games to help Canada win gold at the 2008 World Junior Championship.
