NHL Draft: Matthew Wood on the cusp of UConn history

On Wednesday, rising UConn sophomore Matthew Wood will be at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, waiting to hear his name called in the 2023 NHL Draft. If the slew of mock drafts and player rankings are to be trusted, Wood will join Tage Thompson as just the second Husky picked in the first round and could be the highest pick in program history if he goes earlier than 26th overall.

“It's a great tribute to Matt and all the hard work that he put in this year,” UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “It’s another feather in the cap for the program that we're continuing to build.”

Cavanaugh will be in attendance as well — just as he was back in 2016 when the St. Louis Blues selected Thompson with the 26th overall pick. But by the time Wednesday night rolls around, the coach can just enjoy the night since all of the work will be done.

The coach is no stranger to the draft process — the Huskies have had at least one player or recruit taken each of the last 10 years, not to mention all the players selected during his time as an assistant at Boston College — but it’s a little different when a potential first-rounder is involved.

Not only has he taken plenty of phone calls with NHL teams, but Wood has also generated plenty of media coverage as well with stories from NHL.com, The Athletic, and TSN, to name a few.

“It's a lot more intense,” Cavanaugh said. “There's so much more pressure, I think, on the NHL team to get that first-round pick right. So there's been a lot more conversations with teams regarding Matt than there are with a fourth- or fifth-round pick.”

Cavanaugh’s conversations with various teams rarely dive into Wood as a player. Instead, front offices want to know everything they can’t find out from seeing him on the ice. Cavanaugh helps paint the picture of the person behind the hockey player.

“They've probably watched him play more than I have,” he said. “They have a pretty good feel for what he is as a player. I just help them with the intangibles. They’ll ask me, ‘What’s his work ethic in practice? How is he in the weight room? Do his teammates like him?’ They want to know all the things they can’t tell by just watching him play.”

While Wood has been at UConn for less than a year, he has impressed quite a bit. As a freshman, he was the youngest player in college hockey and didn’t turn 18 until early February. Despite playing a sport known for having older players, Wood never seemed out of place.

“He fit in seamlessly. He certainly matured as the season went on but it's hard. It's not like he was a 17-year-old from Guilford, Connecticut. He lives in Nanaimo, British Columbia, which is a long way away from home. But his maturity level got better and better throughout the year. He's a very humble kid and I never thought about his age when it came to practice because he's such a good player and he's so committed to being the best player he can be.”

Most mock drafts and player rankings have Wood pegged between 10-20 with 10th overall to the St. Louis Blues, 12th overall to the Arizona Coyotes, or 13th overall to the Buffalo Sabres as popular landing spots.

Any team that picks Wood will be banking on his upside, though. Even though he’s got a cannon of a shot and strong puck skills, he’s still raw in NHL prospect terms. The biggest knock against Wood is his skating ability, though his competitive level has been questioned as well.

Elite Prospects graded his skating as a 4 (out of 10) while an anonymous scout told The Athletic they view Wood as a late first/early second-round prospect because there are “a lot of risks with him hitting because of his skating and compete.”

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman wrote that Wood’s “skating is an issue as he lacks the ability to separate and the pace of the NHL will challenge him” and that he’s seen Wood “take nights off.”

Cavanaugh pushed back against both notions but took particular offense to any questions regarding Wood’s motor on the ice.

“All the great players, none of them are always going full speed. If you watch them, they're processing the game, too,” Cavanaugh said. “So yeah, there are some players that go a million miles an hour all the time but very rarely are those guys top-10 scorers in the league. They're usually penalty killers or energy guys, they're not top 10 scorers in the league. So I don't think that's a fair assessment of Matt — at all.”

As for Wood’s skating, Cavanaugh pointed out that he’s still growing into his 6-foot-3 frame.

“He was 17 years old. He's still growing, and he's not matured yet,” he said. “Tage Thompson was not a finished product when he was at UConn and people talked about his skating all the time.”

Even if Wood’s skating still needs work, Cavanaugh doesn’t believe it’s a problem and pointed to a goal he scored in the regular season finale against Boston College as an example.

“There was a 2-on-1 and he beat everybody up the ice to score a goal,” Cavanaugh said.

“I don’t think his skating’s an issue at all,” he emphasized.

Whatever the evaluations may be, Wood will end up somewhere on Wednesday night. There’s a good chance he’ll make history as the highest draft pick in program history, too.

But whenever Wood hears his name called, Cavanaugh will be there for him.

“It's gonna be a momentous occasion for him,” the coach said. “I think that’s part of the job. When you recruit a kid and you bring them into the program, you're there to support them through the good times and the bad times. Hopefully, this is going to be a really special night for him.”