Wood Ready To Take On Final Junior Season In ’23-’24
WENATCHEE, Wash. – After an all-star season with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Neepawa Titans in 2022-23, forward Briley Wood has designs on finishing his junior hockey career on the right note this season. As he enters the 2023-24 campaign, Wood will enter as a 20-year-old, making this his final year before he reaches the division’s age limit.
Wood grew up in the town of Rivers, in rural western Manitoba, and often played against future Winnipeg teammate Conor Geekie as a youth before reuniting on later teams. Coming through the Yellowhead Chiefs program, he looked more than ready to stake a claim on a junior roster spot – after posting 67 points over two years for the Chiefs’ U15 team, he charged onto the scene for the Yellowhead U18 program with 106 points from 2018 to 2020.
Though he got his first taste of junior hockey early in the 2019-20 season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, that junior experience came in fits and starts for the first couple of seasons thanks to COVID in Canada – he played five games in the WHL that first season, but was not able to make his return to the Hurricanes before the leaguewide shutdown in mid-March. He appeared in 13 of Lethbridge’s 24 games in 2020-21, splitting time with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Neepawa Natives, where he played in 10 games and earned his first four junior points.
The following year, as life returned to normal, he became a regular part of the Lethbridge lineup, with five points in 58 contests. He split time between Junior “A” and the WHL again in 2022-23, this time scoring a pair of goals for the ICE and scoring a team-high 57 points for the newly-renamed Neepawa Titans. That total was just what he needed to earn a spot on the MJHL’s top all-star team at the end of the season.
“Playing in Neepawa really helped,” said Wood. “I got a lot of confidence, and they’re a great organization. The staff really helped me develop as a player, to make the jump back up to the WHL.”
With Neepawa out of the MJHL playoff picture, he went back to Winnipeg in March and became a constant in the ICE postseason lineup, playing in all 19 ICE playoff games and scoring four points. His third-period goal in Game 4 against the Saskatoon Blades was the eventual winner in the game that clinched Winnipeg’s spot in the WHL Final.
Now, Wood’s expectation is to stay in the WHL and to be an impact player. He got an inside look at how the game’s stars ply their trade last week, earning an invitation to the Colorado Avalanche development camp and making a splash in the 4-on-4 Burgundy and White Game that highlighted the week.
“It was an awesome experience,” said Wood. “The pace of play was really fast, and I just had to adjust to that.”
He certainly has the pieces to put together – Wood was hailed in Winnipeg last season for his skating ability and versatility, as well as his skills at the faceoff dot. The full picture looks to be a bright one for Briley Wood no matter what the 2023-24 season brings his way.
