[Love]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

Matheson had an illustrious 3-year college career at Boston College, scoring 71 points in 112 games, as well as serving as the captain in his last year. He jumped into the AHL and proved to be already very good in that league, and then he earned a call up at the end of the year heading into the playoffs, where he looked right at home in the NHL. He earned a job out of camp last year, and by partway through the year had earned top 4 ice time. He's a good playmaker and can make some good offensive plays off the rush. He's still learning about the d-zone at the NHL level, but he was just as good as any Panthers defenseman in his own zone last year. He's also gone to the World Championships the last two years where he scored 13 points in 20 games.

If you haven't heard of Matheson yet you'll soon realize that he's going to be a mainstay in the NHL as a top 4 two-way defenseman for a long time. Ian McCoshen, also out of Boston College, graduated to the NHL as well this year and he looks to be trending the same way Matheson did, making Demers expendable. Hopefully Ekblad can get his game back on track, because those three are going to be part of the Panthers core defense for a very long time.

Matheson is 23, McCoshen is 22, Ekblad is 21.

Who's a more popular defenseman around the NHL that you would liken his game to? He's a player that has always really intrigued me, but I don't watch him nearly enough.