JoltBlog

(Editor’s note: Matthew Wood was drafted at No. 15 by the Nashville Predators on Wednesday.)

BASEL, Switzerland — On the day Matthew Wood’s freshman year at the University of Connecticut was wrapping up, his assistant coach, Tyler Helton, was supposed to meet him at the rink and drive him to the airport.

Advertisement

But when it was time to go, Helton couldn’t find him. That was until he stumbled across him in the shooting room.

“I was like ‘We gotta go! We’ve got to go off the Boston here, we’re going to be late,'” Helton said on a recent phone call, explaining how he had to drag him off the ramp. “But that’s just his personality.”

Helton’s not the only one with a story like that of Wood, NHL Central Scouting’s No. 4-ranked North American skater for the 2023 NHL Draft.

Those who’ve worked with him will tell you that when you’re 6-foot-4, you’re not supposed to be able to handle the puck in tight to your body like Wood can, or shoot it as quickly as he does. Helton says Wood has “crazy-good hands for how big he is.”

Additional reading: NHL Draft 2023 prospect rankings: Bedard No. 1, Will Smith rises

But he also knows that Wood, who just led his Huskies team in scoring with 34 points in 35 games as the youngest player in college hockey, has been working on those hands daily for years.

“We’ve had a lot of kids that work pretty hard,” he said, “but he might work at it more than anyone else, just constantly stickhandling.”

Matthew Wood buries a pretty set up from Macklin Celebrini!#U18MensWorlds pic.twitter.com/LiJWfmGblw

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 27, 2023

So does Craig Didmon, who was Wood’s coach and general manager for his two seasons with the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies. Didmon calls his stick skills “exceptional” for his size, but said that he “worked hard for a lot of years to get there.”

So does Ben Walter, the head coach at Trinity Western University and a fellow native to the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Walter, who after retiring from his own playing career returned to the island to work with the hockey academy Wood used to go to, has been his skills coach in one form or another since he was 13. He knows firsthand that the atypical hands Wood now has didn’t develop overnight.

Advertisement

“I wouldn’t say he’s always had the skill in tight to his body to the point where it’s at now, because it’s something he has worked on to get to where it is,” Walter said. “I think with Matty, he’s got that sense for the game and he’s just comfortable with the puck. He’s comfortable in any situation and he’s looking to make a play in any situation. That’s what separates him from his peers is his ability — whether it’s in the skates, or picking up a pass with one hand on his stick, that sort of thing he’s always working on. And it stems from his love for the game. He wants to be out there and he wants to be working on his skills.”

That work ethic has made him, now in consecutive seasons, one of the fastest-developing players in this year’s draft class.

It may have turned him into a top-10 pick, too.

When Didmon looks back on his time working with Wood, he can’t believe the progress he made.

Wood, who is now a 193-pound winger but played mostly at centre under Didmon, chose the Jr. A to college route specifically because he was always a tall, lanky kid who needed to develop his strength and his skating and saw the benefits of “less games, more workouts and more time to practice.” He was also encouraged down that path by his father, Jamie, who used to coach Division I women’s hockey before meeting his mother, Carrie, and moving to Nanaimo where he now works as an academic advisor at the university on the island (Wood also has two younger sisters, 16 and 14, who play volleyball and do gymnastics).

After growing up going to see the local Nanaimo Clippers play, he chose to play for the Grizzlies to the south after watching now-Avalanche forward Alex Newhook come through town with them.

In his first of two seasons with the Grizzlies, he wasn’t even supposed to play as a 15-year-old, but was able to come a year early when his U18 AAA league shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Grizzlies played a shortened season in a bubble.

Advertisement

That season made a world of difference. Though he was still considered a rookie when he returned for his second year, he’d already played in 18 BCHL games and registered 13 points.

Still, after that impressive introduction against kids who were often four and five years older than him, Didmon said he didn’t expect Wood would do what he did in his one and only full season with his team: At 16 and 17, Wood led the BCHL in goals (45) and points (85) in just 46 games, winning the league’s Rookie of the Year Award and being named a First Team All-Star.

Helton didn’t expect him to have the kind of freshman year that he had at UConn, either.

“We knew he had a chance to be a special player. I don’t think I would have told you at the beginning of the year that he would have led our team in points, I don’t think that would have been the case, but I think by the end of the year he was arguably the best player on our team and he was playing in most situations for us,” Helton said.

Even Didmon, after watching him outproduce names like Newhook, Kent Johnson and Tyson Jost in his under-17 season in the BCHL, still didn’t expect him to go into college hockey and be a point-per-game player.

“We sort of recognized that he was developing real quick (but) I was maybe concerned when I first thought about college at 17 for him,” Didmon said. “But then when I thought about it I knew how hard he works so I knew he would spend his summer training as hard as he can to get ready for that, versus coming back for another season in a league where he has already won a scoring title. So I think it was the right move and it forced him to be that much better and be that much more prepared. That’s why I think it was a good decision, because it pushed his limits.”

Wood has always had a way of pushing those limits, getting better, and finding one new level after the last.

Advertisement

That has included equal work on his skating as on his hands. For a time, Wood’s skating was considered to be a question mark. That’s no longer the case.

“His skating just kept getting better,” said Didmon. “So I don’t worry about his skating because it has just been on a steady incline and progression over the last three years.”

Walter says it’s something that “he has worked very hard on” as a bigger kid all the way up. But Walter could also always tell it was going to get to where he needed to get it.

“He was always still growing into his body and going through that part of his life, but the skills were there and the passion was there for sure,” Walter said. “I’m really happy for him. There’s always been people who have doubted him along the way and he keeps proving them wrong.”

Helton argues Wood’s skating is “completely fine.”

“We’ve had this conversation with a lot of teams and people go after his skating and I don’t think it’s fair if you actually watch him go in straight lines a little bit,” Helton said. “I think college hockey’s pretty fast, and our league’s fast, and there wasn’t a game this year where I thought ‘jeez, Matty looks behind or he looks slow’ but there were times where I was like ‘whoa, he blew by that guy.'”

As his draft year at UConn progressed this season, Huskies staff got into the habit of inviting scouts out to their practices to that they could see his skating up close.

“I think sometimes people think he can just look a little aloof in games and I think that’s a habit that he’s gotten better at and is starting to break. And he’s just going to get stronger too,” Helton said. “And I mean, I watched him when he played with Connor (Bedard in minor hockey), so we’ve watched him for a long time, and his skating has improved and then from the start of this year to now, it’s gotten a lot better. And it’s only going to continue to get better. If a team chooses not to draft him because of his skating, I think that’s crazy. I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.”

Advertisement

NHL Central Scouting took note of that progress in his skating, too, moving him up four spots from their midseason list, where he ranked eighth, on their final list.

This week, it has also been on display in his third stint with Hockey Canada in the last year.

After scoring two goals in four games as Canada’s 13th forward as an underager at last year’s U18 worlds in Germany, and another five points in as many games in their run to gold at last summer’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup, Wood now leads Team Canada in his return to U18 worlds with six goals (his nine points also sit tied for second on the team) through the tournament’s first five games this year in Switzerland.

Before the tournament started, Team Canada head coach Jeff Truitt told The Athletic on a phone call that he expected that Wood would be one of his top forwards as a returnee. Then he put him on his first line with 2024 sensation Macklin Celebrini and fellow top 2023 prospect Calum Ritchie.

“He’s a big forward that we know he can score, he can provide a lot of net-front presence for us, he’s got a great skill set and great hands, and he’s a tremendous learner of the game,” Truit said. “I’ve got to know him and just how much he loves the game and loves to compete. When you come from the NCAA and you’re playing against older guys and then you come back to your peer group, you’re expecting him to lead the way in poise, understanding positional play, and situations and just the hardness of the game because he’s got that type of experience. Let’s face it, those older guys are quick and strong and he’s a 17-year-old guy that has really blossomed in his first year.”

Wood calls himself “an offensive threat whenever I’m on the ice” and says his biggest strengths are that he “can score from anywhere, make plays, be hard to play against, and don’t take the defensive side lightly.”

He says those tools have been honed in skates with Walter and his dad, and that his improved skating has been helped along by work filling out his frame and adding power in the gym with his strength coach, Clay Smith of Prime Performance.

Advertisement

After a year of playing against older, stronger players than his peers, he feels like he can dominate now that he’s back with his age group.

Walter gives all the credit to Wood and the time he has put in.

“He’s a great young man. He’s humble, and well-spoken, and polite, and a great kid to work with. But the thing that I love about him is he has that fire inside,” Walter said. “He gets into a competitive situation, whether it’s a game, or a practice, or even in the middle of the summer with a handful of players on the ice, when it’s time to compete, he’s got that switch that he can flip. And that’s what has really served him well. It’s kind of the best of both worlds where he is a great person but he’s also got that competitive edge that drives him.”

As does Didmon.

“He’s very competitive. Whenever there’s any type of competition he’s right in there. He wants to be the best,” Didmon said. “But he’s got all different sides to him. I mean, I had him at 15 and 16 and he was like any other kid but when it’s time to focus on the game, whether it’s in the gym or on the ice, he just turns on a different personality. He comes to the rink and works extremely hard, and takes every drill like it’s his last, and that’s why his learning curve is so steep.”

Helton said he saw an “astronomical” difference between the kid and the player who showed up at UConn’s campus last summer and the one he had to yank to the airport.

Some of that he credits to the guidance of people like fifth-year transfer Justin Pearson, who Helton said became “like a big brother to (Wood).” But most of it was a credit to him and how quickly he matured and grew up on and off the ice. Helton calls Wood “down to earth and super humble,” and said he was able to integrate himself into the team smoothly because there was never any “I’m going to be a first-rounder” aura to him.

Advertisement

“He’s probably one of the most mature 17-years-olds that I’ve been around. Even just from a hockey standpoint, he acts like a pro already. Hockey-wise, you don’t have to get on him. He’s very coachable, he’s very mature that way,” Helton said. “It’s a big jump for any kid coming from junior hockey when you have a billet family, and his family lived an hour-and-a-half from where he played and saw him a lot. So to go from that to moving across the country at 17, I did it when I was 20 and I was lost my first month of the school year and didn’t know what I was doing. So for him as a 17-year-old, he was super impressive. And he’s a quiet kid when you met him at first. And then once you start to get to know him, his personality comes out. It’s fun seeing him now because he was a shell of himself when he first got here.”

Matthew Wood how you doing!!!

UConn 3 Yale 0 pic.twitter.com/9toA4ENHaz

— UConn Men's Hockey (@UConnMHOC) January 27, 2023

Today, as Wood wraps up his draft year before heading to Nashville to hear his name called early in the first round on draft day, people like Walter, Didmon and Helton have promised themselves that they won’t be surprised by what he does next.

Didmon says he has watched Wood “constantly adapt” one too many times to think he won’t continue to. After adding layer after layer, he’s now got too many weapons to deny his potential.

“The shot got quicker, the release got quicker, more accurate, whatever it is he just seemed to be one step ahead of the goalies all of the time with his shooting and his release,” Didmon said. “And he’s just very talented and from the dots in he’s dangerous from anywhere now.”

And yet even after all that he accomplished this year, which also included leading the Huskies in assists despite being known as a scorer, Helton argues he’s still underrated.

“Obviously people talk about his shot but I think his playmaking ability probably gets knocked down more than it should,” Helton said. “I think he’s got an ability to make high-end plays. What he was able to do as a 17/18-year-old at our level is pretty hard to do.”

Walter believes teams that pass on him do so at their own peril.

Advertisement

“He’s the youngest player in college hockey and he puts together a season like that, how can you doubt anymore?” he said. “I’m sure at this point that he’s going to be successful wherever he ends up.”

(Photo: Richard T Gagnon / Getty Images)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k21scG1hZ3xzfJFsZmlsX2eGcLrHpWSdqpGbwW65wK2roZ2nYsSwu8No