Since arriving alongside Charlie Coyle in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche last summer, Miles Wood has been as advertised for the most part. The 30-year-old utility winger spent his first season in Columbus finding his role alongside a constantly rotating carousel of other forwards, taking turns with other players like Dmitri Voronkov and Kent Johnson alternating between second, third, and fourth line roles often.
The Blue Jackets stability issues up front aside, Miles Wood is a hard-working winger with one particularly special tool in his bag. While his 54-game campaign last season may not have been overly impressive, tallying just 8 goals and 6 assists for 14 points, it is worth mentioning Wood suffered a leg injury that kept him out of the lineup through the month of January. The lingering effects of which likely contributed to his unsure place in the lineup upon his return.
Nevertheless, Miles Wood's value throughout his career thus far is not defined by his point production (his peak being a 32-point season with the New Jersey Devils in 2018). The thing that intrigues me the most about Wood's toolkit is his pure speed. Listed at 6'2" and around 210 lbs, Miles Wood is in the 97th percentile of top skating speed league-wide according to NHL Edge.
Almost always the fastest person on the ice, it's an attribute that is incredibly fun to watch live as he creates chances by catching defenders off guard and leaving them in the dust. But speed alone isn't always enough to keep your spot in the lineup locked down forever. If he wants to avoid the press box they sat him in a few times by the end of the year this season, he may need to find more ways to add value.
Personally, if I had any advice for Wood entering this season, it would be to go study up on film of former Blue Jacket and new Stanley Cup champion Eric Robinson. The similarities in their playstyles were stunning to me while watching the Canes cup run this year. Both are speed demons who work best in a third-fourth line checking role, and both can be extremely effective in wearing down opposing defenses and adding sneaky contributions in tight games.
Wood has 3 years remaining on the deal he signed back in Colorado paying him $2.5 Million per year. In the modern era with a salary cap rising more and more each year, it isn't the end of the world if Wood continues to stay what he is, or even falls off in lieu of one of the hungry players on the Cleveland Monsters seizing a role in the forward core this year. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of a trade either, as the low cap hit combined with his small 6-team no trade list will make it a relatively movable deal if he keeps up his production.
For all intents and purposes, I hope he comes back healthy and productive and seizes his spot in the bottom six with no issues. Columbus is exactly the kind of place that has built a reputation around the blue-collar type of player Wood has turned into, and that only gets more true when considering the style of second year coach Rick Bowness. At the very least, he is only a handful of games away from blowing by the 100 goal and 200 point milestones in his career. Hopefully he can hit those marks and be a key piece in snapping the Jackets playoff drought this season.
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