Matthew Wood is Opening Some Eyes at the U18s

Matthew Wood was the youngest player in college hockey this season. He started the season as a 17-year-old and turned 18 in February as he finished his first NCAA season with UConn. Wood had 11 goals and 23 assists in 35 games to lead the Huskies in scoring.  

“I thought college would help me work on things like playing with pace,” Wood stated like a veteran. “It’s a fast, strong game with strong guys, and I thought that would get me ready for the next level and push me.” 

At the U18 World Championship in Ajoie, Switzerland, Wood had a hat trick for Canada in a recent win over the Czechs. He has five goals and seven points in the first four games.  

Wood is almost 6’4” and is still growing. So, every season he’s going to have to make adjustments to his game to get used to that. His physical game is good but will get a lot better. He already gets the two-way responsibilities of a winger, and he hopes to play center at some point at UConn, but that hasn’t happened yet. 

He can make a slick drop pass or control the puck in the offensive zone. Once he’s set near or around the net, he’s hard to move off the puck and that’s going to get harder over time. 

Wood’s play on the power play is instinctual. He excels with quick movement but also knows when to strike. He has a wrist shot that can be lethal even from long distances. 

Wood has the vision of a center, and that’s what teams will try and determine when they place him on their draft boards. I think Wood will get better with his skating. He works on his explosiveness, and I see his long strides helping him now and a lot more over time. 

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Wood is hard to project because he’s so young, and his development cycle is a bit different. My guess is he will be a second-line talent, now that’s on the wing. As a center, it’s hard to tell until we start to see him playing that position in college. One thing is certain, there’s a high ceiling with this player as we head into the 2023 NHL Draft. 

Here is where I have Wood currently ranked. His rankings are all over the board and my feeling is he is rising. All it takes is one team to decide they have to have him, and he could go higher than what’s expected. He may be the most unpredictable player, next to Matvei Michkov, as to where he goes in the first round.