Alumni Profile: Mathieu Perreault

In 2022 Mathieu Perreault hung up his skates on what can only be described as an amazing career in the game. Appearing in more than 700 National Hockey League games, the skilled centreman competed for the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens over the course of his 13 years in the NHL. When Perreault competed in the American Hockey League ranks, he won two Calder Cup championships back-to-back in 2009 and 2010 with the Hersey Bears.

But, before the bright city lights of The Show and the glory of two AHL championships, the product of Drummondville, Que., cut his teeth in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. In fact, it was the Acadie-Bathurst Titan who drafted the speedy forward 18 years ago. Perreault was drafted second overall in the 2005 QMJHL Entry Draft by the Titan and quickly took his place in the lineup for Acadie-Bathurst when the puck dropped on the 2005-06 season.

In 62 games in his rookie season, he scored 18 goals and had 34 assists for 52 points. The following year he broke out totaling 41 goals and 78 assists for 119 points, good for second in team history in points and second in assists in one season. He made the Canadian Hockey League’s Second All-Star Team and earned the QMJHL’s Michel Briere Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player. He also made the league’s First All-Star Team that season.

In this third and final year for Acadie-Bathurst, he brought his scoring total up to 34 goals and 80 assists for 114 points finishing as the league leader in points and assists. When the buzzer sounded on Perreault’s final year with the Titan, he was named to the CHL’s Second All-Star Team and won the QMJHL’s Jean Beliveau Trophy for leading the league in points. He also earned the most assists across the QMJHL that season and made it’s Second All-Star Team.

The following season he was in a Hershey Bears jersey. I guess you can say, the rest is history.