Former PEI Rocket defenseman Matthew Hobbs commits to STU

Matt Hobbs
Courtesy QMJHL

Matthew Hobbs, a three year veteran of the QMJHL, has agreed to play for the Tommies this coming fall.  Hobbs most recently played for the Victoriaville Tigres after a 2 1/2 year stint with the PEI Rocket where he was an assistant captain for 2 seasons and was made team captain this past season.

A native of Shawville, Quebec, Hobbs is an excellent leader and a real work horse on defense.  He possesses a big shot from the point and has been leaned on in all situations for his previous teams.  From a November, 2011 QMJHL article by Marcel Vander Weir "Hobbs doing it all for the Rocket" we can get a pretty good picture of the type of player Matt is;

The 5-foot-11, 204-pound Hobbs gets tapped on the shoulder for powerplays, penalty kills, and will double-shift if a game is close. 

That shows the value and stability a defenceman like Hobbs brings to an organization, said assistant coach Corrado Micalef.

“He’s the guy that we use against the best lines on the other team,” said Micalef. “Some nights he logs really a lot of minutes. If he can breathe, often we say, you OK? And he gets back out there. He plays a lot of hockey for us and really carries the bulk of the load on the back end.”

With the commitment of Matt, the Tommies have added three defensemen this season including Marc-Andre Levesque and Jordan Thomas.  St. Thomas lost Andrew Andricopoulos, Brian Main, and Erick Tremblay to graduation and only recently found out that Chris Van Laren will not be returning to STU, electing to stay in his hometown of Kingston, Ontario to attend university there.

Welcome to the St. Thomas family Matt.