Introduction
Matthew Tomkins (born June 19, 1994) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender for the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (AHL) while under contract to the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Playing career
Tomkins played junior hockey in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) for two seasons (2011–2013). He was selected in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. After junior career, Tomkins committed to the Ohio State University and played for their Buckeyes ice hockey team. After graduation Tomkins signed a one-year contract with the Rockford IceHogs of the American Hockey League (AHL), the affiliates of the Chicago Blackhawks, on June 27, 2017. He later signed one-year contract extensions with Rockford in 2018 and 2019. On January 23, 2020, Tomkins signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Chicago Blackhawks and was assigned back to Rockford.
However, Tomkins left North American and signed a one-year contract with Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) on May 28, 2021. On June 2, 2022, he signed a one-year contract with Färjestad BK of the SHL.
Tomkins returned to North America following the 2022–23 SHL season and May 10, 2023, he was signed as a free agent to a two-year, two-way contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tomkins made his NHL debut with the Lightning on October 15, in a 5–2 loss to the Ottawa Senators where he made 33 saves. Later during the 2023–24 season, on November 7, 11 years after he was drafted, Tomkins picked up his first NHL career win in a 5–3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
International play
After the NHL decided not to send players to the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tomkins was selected to Canada national team as one of three goaltenders. Tomkins was backup for the first two games of the preliminary round, a win over Germany and a loss to the United States. In the third game, he made his first start for Canada and got a shutout against China in a 5–0 win. Tomkins would follow by backstopping Canada to a 7–2 qualification round win over China again, before bowing out to Sweden in a 2–0 quarterfinal loss.
After his play in the 2022 Winter Olympics s, Tomkins was once again called upon to Canada national team at the 2022 IIHF World Championship. He did not play until the gold medal game, where an injury early in the third period to starter Chris Driedger forced Tomkins into the game, where Canada would eventually lose 4–3 in overtime to Finland.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
| Regular season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | W | L | OTL | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | GP | W | L | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | ||
| 2011–12 | Sherwood Park Crusaders | AJHL | 33 | 18 | 11 | 2 | 1,898 | 108 | 0 | 3.41 | .894 | 10 | 4 | 6 | — | — | 1 | 3.53 | 0.897 | ||
| 2012–13 | Sherwood Park Crusaders | AJHL | 44 | 22 | 14 | 6 | 2,533 | 108 | 4 | 2.56 | .924 | 10 | 5 | 5 | — | — | 0 | 3.26 | .899 | ||
| 2013–14 | Ohio State University | B1G | 17 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 928 | 43 | 0 | 2.78 | .911 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2014–15 | Ohio State University | B1G | 14 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 768 | 42 | 2 | 3.28 | .876 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2015–16 | Ohio State University | B1G | 14 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 775 | 50 | 0 | 3.87 | .888 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2016–17 | Ohio State University | B1G | 22 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 1,136 | 47 | 1 | 2.48 | .909 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2017–18 | Indy Fuel | ECHL | 25 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 1,382 | 80 | 0 | 3.47 | .912 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2017–18 | Rockford IceHogs | AHL | 8 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 445 | 30 | 0 | 4.04 | .871 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2018–19 | Indy Fuel | ECHL | 54 | 29 | 19 | 5 | 3,221 | 163 | 2 | 3.04 | .905 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2019–20 | Rockford IceHogs | AHL | 13 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 769 | 40 | 0 | 3.12 | .896 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2020–21 | Rockford IceHogs | AHL | 15 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 879 | 47 | 0 | 3.21 | .907 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2021–22 | Frölunda HC | SHL | 33 | 19 | 13 | 0 | 1,855 | 76 | 3 | 2.46 | .908 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 512 | 23 | 0 | 2.70 | .885 | ||
| 2022–23 | Färjestad BK | SHL | 32 | 20 | 12 | 0 | 1,918 | 81 | 2 | 2.53 | .911 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 403 | 18 | 0 | 2.68 | .905 | ||
| SHL totals | 65 | 39 | 25 | 0 | 3,773 | 157 | 5 | 2.50 | .910 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 915 | 41 | 0 | 2.69 | .895 | ||||
International
| Year | Team | Event | Result | GP | W | L | T/OT | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Canada | OG | 6th | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 178 | 3 | 1 | 1.01 | .963 | |
| 2022 | Canada | WC | 
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 8.31 | .786 | |
| Senior totals | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 199 | 3 | 1 | 1.01 | .963 | ||||