The Montreal, Quebec native impressed in his youth with the North Shore hockey team in the QAHA then with Lac St-Louis Lions of the Quebec Midget AAA Hockey League before making his Quebec Major Junior Hockey League debut with the St-Jean Lynx in 1993-94. That same year, Jason lead Team Quebec to a gold medal in dazzling fashion at World Under-17 Hockey Challenge where he scored the tying and game-winning goal in the final game against Team USA. The following year he represented Team Canada at the World Under-18 Tournament in Mexico City - taking home the gold medal. He was chosen 34th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft after scoring 55 points and registering 259 penalty minutes with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Laval Titan's and played in the Canadian Hockey League all-star game. In 1996 he was returned to the QMJHL where he led the Granby Predateurs to the President's Cup - winning the coveted Guy Lafleur Trophy as the playoff MVP and then on to a Memorial Cup Championship where he was named as a first team all-star. That same year he was named team Captain for the West Team at QMJHL all-star game. The next year Jason was a member of Team Canada when it won the gold medal at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Switzerland.