Back on Canada Day the Jets signed Shawn Matthias to a two-year deal to add some centre depth to the roster although he often played the wing having found chemistry playing on a line with Joel Armia and Adam Lowry.
However his season was an injury plagued one as he detailed during his end of season media scrum last week at the MTS Centre.
In his first pre-season game in his first shift he tore some muscles off his ribs and cracked the end of his ribs off. While this hampered his pre-season training he was able to kick off the regular season with his new club and actually got the first goal of the season to start the 2016-17 season for the Jets. He managed to play all nine contests in October contributing two goals and two assists on the Jets 3rd line.
However November didn’t begin well for Matthias who got caught up with Capitals defenceman Dmitri Orlov in the 1st period of a game at MTS Centre. Matthias was in considerable pain and stayed down on the ice for some time. Eventually the trainers came to get him and #16 needed help to get off the ice, not putting any weight on his left leg.
He was placed on the injured reserve on November 2nd and wouldn’t return to action until December 22nd when he got into a game against the Canucks. According to Matthias he had torn his MCL and PCL in his knee.
While clearly not 100% the Ontario native played until March 13th when a fight with the Predators Cody McLeod ended his season. “As soon as he grabbed my shoulder it just came out” Matthias told us in his media scrum also indicating that this was a pre-existing condition that went all the way back to his Junior days.
When we spoke to Matthias on his initial conference call it was clear he was excited to be a member of the Jets and based on his exit interview it is pretty clear he is hungry to show folks what a healthy Shawn Matthias is capable of bringing to this team.
“I’m just excited to be healthy and to show them what I have. I don’t think I really ever did cause I was hurt all year. I think I had five healthy games all year in the 45 games I played.”
