Northeastern has secured its first commitment directly out of the Canadian Hockey League in Jacob Mathieu, an ’04 center playing for Rimouski Océanic in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. NCAA eligibility rules were changed to include CHL players earlier this season.
Mathieu is a 5-foot-11, 190 pound left shot center from St.-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, Quebec, and is currently playing his fifth season with Rimouski. He is captain of the team for the second straight season. He currently has a 31-18-49 stat line in 41 games, and is on pace to score 50 goals this season. He leads Rimouski in goals by a wide margin, and is second on the team in points. In the entire QMJHL, he tied for 4th in goals, 18th in points. Last season he put up 63 points (35 goals, T-11th in the QMJHL) in 55 games.
His game has really taken off as he’s gotten older, improving his point and goal totals each of the last three seasons. In total, he has scored 184 points for Rimouski over his career, good for top 20 all time in the organization’s history. By the end of the season he has a real chance to cross the 200 point mark and crack the top 15. He was invited to Vegas’s Development Camp after the 2024 NHL Draft as an undrafted invitee, where he attended with future teammate Cameron Whitehead. Rimouski will host the 2025 Memorial Cup, meaning Mathieu will have a chance to match up against the league champions from around the CHL.
Mathieu is rated as a 4.25/5 star prospect by Neutral Zone, arguably the most respected scouting service in the business. He was the second-highest-ranked ’04 out of the QMJHL, and the 6th-best ’04 in the entire CHL. Neutral Zone’s scouting report states Mathieu “plays a lot bigger than his stature, he’s a scoring power forward in a 5-11 frame. Relentless in all three zones and can really drive offense. He’s gritty and hard-nosed to play against, definitely doesn’t back down from anything. He relsishes going to the dirty areas of the ice to create time and space for himself and his linemates, great in traffic, good vision, processes the game very well. He has an outstanding release and can get it off in a hurry.” They go on to say that his size probably held him back from being an NHL pick, but he’s grown immensely in his time with Rimouski. Skating and raw speed are area where NZ said he can improve on.
Elite Prospects added this ahead of the 2022 NHL Draft, the first where Mathieu was eligible to be drafted: “He knows his options, prepares his passes with deception, and pulls them off with good timing, waiting for lanes to open, moving his feet to find those lanes, and the puck rapidly before they close. He has a good sense for positioning, for where the play is heading next, and how to support that play.”
Mathieu’s play on the ice is evident in his statistics, but his character off the ice is just as impeccable. He is a fixture in his community, volunteering his time and energy to many causes, ultimately leading to him being named the runner-up in 2024 for the QMJHL Humanitarian Player Award. In his time in Rimouski, Mathieu has been involved with blood drives, bake sales for the benefit of local hospitals, local law enforcement to reward good drivers in school zones, promoting the importance of reading and responsible alcohol consumption, and even played a major role in transforming hospital visits into animal therapy sessions for pediatric patients. He’s said that he feels it’s a responsibility to give back to a great hockey city, but also as captain he feels he bears some responsibility to set an example and be a leader for his team. In an interview with local news, he talked about how rewarding it is, saying “We are lucky, we are in a privileged position and we are aware of what is happening around us. It makes us happy to make gestures like this.”
Jacob Mathieu appears to be an impressive young man that carries himself like a leader on and off the ice, and while on it, he has continuously improved his game year after year to the point where he is considered one of the top QMJHL prospects in his age group committing to college hockey. A power forward mold who is tenacious in all three zones is exactly the type of player Coach Keefe loves to build him team with, and Mathieu’s goal scoring ability as well as his ability to play center naturally will immediately fill a need in the 2025-26 version of the Northeastern Huskies. We are excited to watch Jacob finish his CHL season and compete in the Memorial Cup, and look forward to his arrival at Northeastern in the Fall.
Congratulations Jacob on his commitment to Northeastern. As always, go Huskies!