Michael Matheson, just one year removed from captaining Boston College, was named the top defenseman at the 2016 IIHF World Championship and helped lead Canada to the gold medal.
Matheson was one of three NCAA alums on the Canadian blue line - joined by Chris Tanev (RIT) and Ben Hutton (Maine) - that defended goaltender Cam Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville) as Canada won nine of 10 games in the tournament.
Talbot posted a .940 save percentage in eight games, with a tournament-leading four shutouts including a 2-0 win in the gold-medal game. Matheson earned a spot on the Media All-Star team and was named the best defenseman by the tournament directorate.
Matheson had six points in 10 games, tied with Miami alum Chris Wideman of the United States for second in scoring among tournament defensemen. It caps a memorable season for Matheson, who completed his BC degree in December, made his NHL debut in February and played five playoff games for the Florida Panthers.
An impressive first pro season capped by a big honor for @MMatheson7 https://t.co/3l2pa7eRUW pic.twitter.com/P4fOaa4a8B
— College Hockey Inc. (@collegehockey) May 23, 2016
A native of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Matheson chose the college route in part for the strength and conditioning opportunities it offered, a decision he detailed in this article.
“My dad and I sat at our kitchen table and put schedules side by side,” he said. “We just took a basic college schedule and a basic QMJHL schedule, and looked at how often the games were and in juniors, you’re playing pretty much every two days and there can be a lot of travel at times, so getting in lifts would have been hard. On a typical week at BC I can get in at least three good workouts per week.”
Matheson earned All-America honors at BC and captained the Eagles as a junior. In 2014 he and Hutton were the two defensemen named first-team All-Hockey East and second-team All-American.
Former Bowling Green Hobey Baker Award winner George McPhee was the co-general manager of Team Canada, which won its second gold medal in as many years.