Jett Woo’s Defensive Acumen, Dedication Propel Abbotsford’s Blue Line

Jett Woo has been a top-pairing defenceman for Abbotsford all season and has come into his own over the last few years with the club.

In his fourth year in the AHL, Woo feels the confidence in his game has really grown over the past year. He knows what he needs to do to have success and proves himself right, getting positive results from his hard work.

Setting goals is important to him and Woo has set a standard for himself in practices and games that help him stay consistent. He’s also enjoying every step in the process and is having fun with his teammates.

“I feel like I've been playing well both offensively and defensively, I’ve been defending strong, and having smart hits,” Woo said. “It's never really my goal to score a bunch of points but I've been doing pretty well this season.”

Through 25 games, Woo has 11 points (3-8-11) and his blueline partner, Christian Wolanin, has 18 points (2-16-18) through 22 games. The two have different styles that complement each other and in their second season together they’re firing on all cylinders.

“I think for me personally, it's just to keep it simple, be hard to play against and just move pucks,” Woo said. “I think Woly Wolanin and I play pretty good together, we've been doing that for a little while now and we’ve got that chemistry. I think we both know what the coaches and team expect of us. It makes it pretty easy for us to go out there every night and play with consistency.”

The Abbotsford coaching staff also know what to expect from him on a nightly basis. Head Coach Jeremy Colliton says Woo has a number of valuable skills in his toolkit as he works towards taking the next step.

“His ability to close quick whether it's up ice, in the neutral zone, shutting down rushes, or closing quick in the defensive zone to get stops and get us out,” Colliton said, adding why he thinks Woo and Wolanin are such a great defensive pairing. “He can help Wolanin get out of the d-zone and then obviously put Woly in a position where he can jump up and really help us and transition. They really fit well together. Woozi's such a good skater and he knows how to use his skating to get body position which makes him a really good defender.”

He’s fine-tuning this season; keeping track of the smaller details of his game to measure his improvement. He’s tallying his blocked shots on the PK and five-on-five, shot totals, average shots per game and his exits out of the zone percentage.

He used to focus on playing well away from the puck, and going hand in hand with watching his zone exits and shot totals, he’s leaning into developing more creativity with the puck on his stick.

“I’m working on what I'm doing with the puck. A lot of times I was trying to space myself out and be smart away from the puck, but now I'm getting more touches, I’m on the puck a little bit more and learning to do more with it,” Woo said, also mentioning he’s been working on playing more minutes and being able to defend on both sides of the ice.

Woo scored the go-ahead goal against the Ontario Reign on December 20th, helping the Canucks in the 5-2 win and earning the hatchet (team MVP) for the game.

Beyond the statistics, he embraces leadership, fostering a positive team culture and helping his teammates, whether they’re rookies or have been around the league a while.

“It's nice,” said Woo. “I remember when I was a rookie and I was nervous or whatever and some guys can be hard on you, some are really good to you. I think we've got a great group of guys so we have a lot of fun off the ice which makes it more fun on the ice.”

Woo has been a staple on the penalty kill and has dabbled on the power play. As Woo continues to add to his game at the AHL level, Colliton says it’s possible Woo could get more time on the man advantage.

Colliton felt Woo took a big step developmentally being moved to the top d-pairing last season after Guillame Brisebois, Noah Juulsen and Wolanin were called up to Vancouver.

“He had an excellent year last year. He's carried that into this year when we've needed him to carry a big load in all situations,” Colliton said. “He can play on the powerplay, there's been times where we haven't played him on the powerplay just because we need him five-on-five and on the kill just based on who we had the lineup and the minutes we needed from him. But as our defense gets stronger, and I think we're a little deeper now than we were even a couple of weeks ago, then maybe he will get a little more power play time and we'll see where it goes. He knows we all see him at the next level as a five-on-five, penalty kill guy but it's always fun to be on the power play.”

Woo’s commitment to hard work and setting personal goals has translated to a strong start to this season. With his sights set on furthering his development, Woo’s journey shows a player coming into his own as a leader and important piece for the Abbotsford squad.