Neat name, but does he have pro game?
Woo has strength to play in NHL, but one scout believes he may not be a top-end guy
The 2020 NHL Entry Draft is less than two weeks away. The Vancouver Canucks don't have a pick until the third round. As they prepare for the draft, we're evaluating the top 10 prospects in the system, today at No. 8 with Jett Woo.
The Canucks have hit home runs in the first round in recent years, but a top 10 list means checking out more than the players who will make it, as the best teams find players in the edges of the draft.
Is Woo one of those guys? In a world without COVID19 he'd be ready to make the step into pro hockey after four years in major junior.
We'll see where he lands this season.
If you haven't seen Woo in person, here's a picture: imagine an outdoor toilet that's built out of brick.
The young man is a solidly built hockey player. He's not a towering giant, but a moose would have a hard time knocking him over. Call him a medium-sized tank. Check off one important box on the list of things that are good signs in a prospect.
The thing you would notice if you've never seen Woo play but you've looked up his stats is that the defenceman has posted tidy points totals in the WHL.
Sure, it's an offencefriendly league, but one of the revealing things that tells you if a defenceman has a chance to make it in the show is if he can put up points in junior, even if you aren't considered a “creative” player. Tick off another box.
A good rating from a scout? There's a third item in his favour.
“I think he'll endear himself to fans and coaches wherever he is,” Rhys Jessop said this week.
Until this summer, Jessop was scouting the WHL for the Florida Panthers. (He's looking for a new gig now, like so many of his colleagues.)
Jessop said Woo has good hockey sense, and positions himself well defensively.
“His competitiveness and physicality really stand out. He's solid off the puck and brings a consistent off-puck presence, especially in the defensive zone.”
These are all traits a defenceman clearly needs.
That said, Jessop isn't sure Woo will be a points producer in the NHL, if he gets that far.
“He consistently executes low-risk, low-reward controlled plays with the puck, quickly identifying passing outlets and delivering those passes well enough,” Jessop said. “But I don't see him providing much offence in the NHL.”
That said, it's another thing in his favour that he can play well when lined up against top-end skill players, even if that's not his primary skill set.
The other question mark will be how he changes the shift in physical play that's inherent to moving from junior hockey, where he was stronger than most, to pro hockey, where he's just one of many strong players, and then on to the NHL, when he'll be an average-sized player and may not be able to bowl over opponents like he did in the WHL.
A year ago, Canucks Army's statistical modelling system gave Woo a very good chance of not just making the NHL, but thriving. He scored at a rate in his first post-draft season similar to the likes of Tyson Barrie, Shea Theodore and Josh Gorges, three NHL veterans that any young blueliner would like to be compared to.
But after a 2019-20 season in which he didn't make the Canadian world junior squad and his point totals declined, that projection is a little less rosy. Woo's performance now has him in the range of players such as Mark Pysyk, Johnny Boychuk and Aaron Rome. All serviceable NHL defenders but a clear step down from the range he was sitting in a year ago.
A big reason for the shift was a decline in power-play points. Woo's even-strength production remained the same but he also put up six short-handed assists in 2018-19, something he didn't repeat in 2019-20.
In other words, he remains an interesting prospect, but he's far from a lock to develop into a high-end contributor in the NHL.