After dipping into the transfer portal to add Tyler Fukakusa, Northeastern has added another forward to the 2025-26 team in Matthew Perkins. Perkins entered the portal after playing two years at Minnesota-Duluth, in the NCHC. He will have two years of eligibility remaining. At least one CCHA school was also pursuing Perkins once he entered the portal.
Perkins is a 21-year-old, 5-foot-11, 175 pound left shot forward from Saskatchewan, Canada. He was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the 4th round of the 2023 NHL Draft. In two years at Duluth, he scored 20 points (7 goals). His freshman year he scored 15 points (6 goals) but his production tailed off as a sophomore. For the Bulldogs he played mostly left wing but Elite Prospects does have him listed as a center as well, and he won 48.3% of his faceoffs last year. He had 69 shot attempts last year, getting 38 on net (2.6%), pointing to some unlucky shooting fortunes. Prior to Duluth, he played for the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL with current Huskies forward James Fisher, where he helped the Phantoms win the Clark Cup with a 44 points (15 goal) season in 60 games. He also is an alumnus of the Humboldt Broncos program of the SJHL.
Perkins started the year on the UMD top line but finished the year on the Bulldogs’ fourth line but played games all year up and down the lineup. Scouts and evaluators pointed to his intelligence as his hallmark when he was drafted my Vancouver, detailing “NHL smarts” which would serve him well on the ice as the rest of his skills matured. From Elite Prospects: ““Awareness and intelligence drive Perkins’ game. He gets open for chances, skates his routes to create openings for teammates, and pickpockets opponents.”
Another observer called him a classic “glue guy” involved in both breaking up rushes and starting them the other way. This is supported in his advanced analytics from last year, where even with limited ice time he was in the 78th percentile of passing zone exits to stimulate transition. He was right above-average in multiple play driving categories, including passes (78th percentile), slot passes (69th percentile) and playdriving (59th percentile), and around league-average for takeaways and zone carry-entries as well. All of this points to a player that could be very serviceable in the Huskies’ lineup, potentially a third line addition that can play defense and hopefully produce offense at a better clip than the Huskies’ depth lines have done the last year or two. If he can rediscover the game he had as a freshman, he could even slide into the second line, where we project to have an open spot on the second right wing.
In Perkins, the Huskies are taking a swing for upside, which we love. He’s shown that he can produce points in arguably the toughest conference in college hockey, and his experience will be invaluable to a team expected to be heavily reliant of freshmen and sophomores up front. We would currently pencil Perkins into the RW2 or LW3 slot based on those factors, though his previous-mentioned flexibility gives them depth at center as well.
Welcome to Northeastern, Matthew! As always, go Huskies!