By the Numbers: Matthew Wood

When the Kraken announced the trade that brought Matthew Wood to Seattle, general manager Jason Botterill praised the 21-year-old’s size (he clocks in at 6-foot-4), skill, hockey intelligence and offensive potential.   

“I’m a pretty offensive player,” Wood said after his first Kraken practice. “I like to produce, score goals… (I) love to improve all parts of my game.” 

We can of course look at a stat line to see what a player is capable of, but beyond those numbers, what goes into understanding how Wood contributes on the ice and why that matters? 

Let’s dig in. 

Shooting the Puck 

To score, you have to shoot, and Wood definitely does that. He joins the Kraken averaging just above ten unblocked shot attempts per game. On his new team, that ranks fourth in shot volume only behind Jared McCann, Bobby McMann and Jordan Eberle.  

According to Sportlogiq, he’s executed the most offensive generating plays per 20 minutes of ice time of his career.

Getting Dangerous 

And it’s not just that Woods shoots; it’s that he shoots the puck from the right places. Looking at his shot map through fourteen games with Nashville, you can see that the Nanaimo, BC native comes in close before he gets a shot off.

While Wood isn’t necessarily a “set up shop in front of the net” kind of player, he’s effective at getting to the most dangerous areas of the ice in the slot and in front of a goaltender to challenge for a scoring chance.  

This season, among NHL players, he already ranks in the 90th percentile in the percentage of his shots coming from the slot, and the 79th percentile in recovering rebounds in the offensive zone.

In this clip, Wood (NSH 71) stays high in support of the play and makes himself an option mid-slot for a pass from behind the net. That pass challenges Colorado’s Scott Wedgewood to evaluate where the next shot might come from, and Wood wastes no time getting a shot off, and then following through on multiple rebounds.

With all this shooting should more goals be coming? The way Wood is executing suggests yes. League average shooting percentage right now is 11.6. Wood is sitting at just 5 percent. Well below the average and well below the 16.5-percent he finished at last season. He also is generating more shot quality per game this year than last, yet he has just under two fewer goals than he should based on the shot quality he generates.    

That margin of actual-to-expected goals was the largest on the entire Predators’ roster. Those two disparities suggest regression towards the mean is likely and his shooting percentage will rise and the goals he should be scoring will come.   

Gaining Possession 

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To shoot you must first have the puck and this is where a player like Wood is opportunistic. He currently ranks in the 93rd percentile in loose puck recoveries in the offensive zone. 

Watch Wood here. He supports a board battle, recovers the loose puck and quickly feeds Steven Stamkos net front for a goal.

Berkly Catton, who played with Wood on Team Canada at the 2023 IIHF World U-18 Championships, lit up describing what he knows about his new teammate’s game.  

“He’s smart,” Catton said. “He can make plays all over the ice, especially in front of the net, the slot area, he’s dangerous.” 

Holding on in the Right Ways 

Another nuance of Wood’s game is not just getting and shooting the puck but also being able to hold onto it in ways that benefit his team. 

This season he’s averaging 34 seconds of 5-on-5 possession time across all zones with an average of 17 of those seconds coming in the offensive zone. In Nashville, only Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg, and Ryan O’Reilly averaged more; and in Seattle, Wood again ranks fourth already behind Mackie Samoskevich, Matty Beniers, and Catton. 

Just watch this play in Nashville’s game versus Tampa Bay. Wood challenges the Lightning exit, gains possession (so quickly even the camera operator has to catch up!) and then rushes towards the goal. Wood fights through J.J. Moser’s attempt to slow him down and draws a penalty in the process.

Put all this together – shot volume, shot quality, possession - and it leads to a player who is very effective specifically in the offensive zone. And Lane Lambert is encouraged by what Wood will hopefully contribute. 

“(Wood is) a big body, plays both center and wing,” Lambert said. “We think he’s got a great hockey IQ (and) from everything I’ve heard from everyone I know, he’s a great kid.” 

All data as of Nov 1, 2026 via Sportlogiq | Teamworks, NaturalStatTrick.com, hockeyviz.com and Evolving-Hockey.com