Born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1980, Matt moved to Victoria at age two with his family. As a youngster, he was active and interested in all sports, but gravitated to ice hockey when he was around seven years of age. Matt played seven years of hockey at the Victoria Racquet Club and won back-to-back Pee Wee Provincial Championships as a 12- and 13-year-old.

 

At 16 years of age, Matt played Junior A hockey in his hometown for the Victoria Salsa where he went on to earn a full athletic hockey scholarship to the University of Denver after graduating high school from Mount Douglas in 1998. The University of Denver’s hockey team won the WCHA Championship in Matt’s freshman season. In his sophomore year at Denver, Matt was chosen to represent Team Canada at the 2000 World Junior Hockey Championships in Sweden, where the team won the Bronze medal. After playing in the World Juniors that year, Matt decided to leave university and play for the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL for the remaining four months of the season which was his NHL draft year.

 

2000 was a good year for Matt. In addition to his World Juniors medal, he was selected in the 2nd round, 43rd overall, to the Washington Capitals where he would play over 330 games for that team. He scored over 52 goals and assisted on 47 others during his stint in DC, including scoring 20 goals in the 2005-2006 season. There he was teammates with the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr and Ollie Kolzig.

 

Matt was again chosen to play for Team Canada at the 2005 World Championships held in Riga, Latvia, where the team finished in 4th place. In the 2007-2008 season, Matt was traded to his home province Vancouver Canucks where he would play parts of two seasons. He played the 2008-2009 NHL season in Tampa, Florida with the Lightning before playing his final NHL season with the Vancouver Canucks organization in 2009-2010.

 

Matt and his family then took his playing career overseas, playing five years in the German Elite League. His first two years were spent playing in Cologne, Germany where his daughter Abby was born. He finished off his playing career in Hamburg, Germany for a final three years of professional hockey.

 

Overall, during his professional hockey career, Matt played in over 850 professional games spanning 15 seasons. With his wife, Chelsea, and children Abby and Luke, Matt returned to Victoria and now works as a realtor at Avison Young with his well-known realtor father, Rick.