Kings sign defenseman Jared Woolley to three-year, entry-level contract

The LA Kings have signed defenseman Jared Woolley to a three-year, entry-level contract.

Woolley was the team’s sixth-round pick at the 2024 NHL Draft and his signing makes it three of four drafted players now signed to entry-level contracts. Woolley is a player the Kings traded up to acquire back in June and a guy who they seem to be quite excited about. Woolley brings a ton of good physical traits, with the size and physicality of a bruising defenseman, but has underrated puck skills and is capable of making plays, even if it doesn’t always show up offensively.

An exciting prospect to keep an eye on for down the road.

Instant Analysis
The Jared Woolley pick was really fascinating to me when hearing Director of Scouting Mark Yannetti explain the process.

Woolley was actually a player the Kings targeted when he was playing Junior B hockey, even in his draft year. The Kings thought they’d take him late, as a seventh-round pick, and earth an under-the-radar steal. Midway through last season, though, Woolley was recalled by the OHL’s London Knights, one of the premier programs in Canadian Junior Hockey and he played the rest of the season as a regular with the team, all the way to a second-place finish at the 2024 Memorial Cup. Little bit higher profile meaning the Kings had to move up into the sixth round to select him.

In watching Woolley at the 2024 Rookie Faceoff held in El Segundo this past fall, Woolley’s size and physicality jumped off the page. In talking to him in person, it somehow jumped out even more. There I stood, in the Kings locker room, looking up at this 18-year-old who simply towered over me. He is listed at 6-5 and he certainly felt like it. The player spoke with gentle with his words, yet purposeful. I walked away impressed with one of the youngest prospects in the system and one of the youngest and least experienced individuals at the entire event, yet someone who still found a way to make a mark. often times, it’s not until the Draft +1 or Draft +2 season that a player really stands out in a rookie event. Wasn’t the case for Woolley.

What I also liked was hearing both Yannetti and Ontario Reign Head Coach Marco Sturm speak about Woolley. Yannetti was naturally overseeing the process that led to the Kings selecting him. He spoke about each element of his game that complements the size, physicality and hockey sense and how he feels there’s another step there with his skating and puck skills that would elevate his profile from that of maybe just a bruiser to a legitimate defenseman at the NHL level when everything rounds out. Sturm, who isn’t afraid to give an honest evaluation, seemed very excited to get the opportunity to work with Woolley down the road. He spoke about the defensive side of his game and the size/reach combination that comes with being 6-5 and feels there’s a lot to work with and also a lot still to add-on, as you’d expect with a player that young.

This is a signing for the future, certainly, with OHL and AHL development still to come. Woolley isn’t even AHL eligible until the 2026-27 season. But an exciting player nonetheless.

For Woolley in the present, he and the London Knights won the Western Conference in the OHL this season and will begin their playoff run against Carter George and the Owen Sound Attack in Round 1. London won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season champions for the second straight season and will now look to repeat as the J. Ross Robertson Cup winners, for another berth in the Memorial Cup.

Ontario Reign Head Coach Marco Sturm on Jared Woolley
There’s definitely something there. He has that size, he can actually move, he has good reach, he had a good fight [at the Rookie Faceoff], so that really opened a lot of eyes, but there’s also a lot of stuff we have to teach as well. There’s definitely something to him. You can see it, you can feel it. With some of the kids, you can’t wait [to work with them] and he’s one of them.

Mark Yannetti on Jared Woolley
We talk about potential and it’s very rare a kid hits his top potential. I think this kid hits his top potential. Size, solid skating base that will improve with strength. As you see with bigger guys sometimes, he’s probably an average projected skater, it’ll come a little bit more than that, there will be a power element that develops, there’s this natural physicality, a natural heaviness. His skill is bordering on average, but his hockey sense, the “catch all hockey since” is good. There’s a puck moving ability which probably elevates him from that normal, average third pair D6 to a higher level, a higher level defensive first puck mover. When I say that, I don’t mean offensively, I mean quick transition, flow up the ice, quick up the ice, forwards don’t have to wait. It’s the thing for me that separates third pair defenseman above replacement value and third-pairing defenseman that help win games.

From the team’s official release –

Woolley, 19, recently completed his second season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he posted nine goals and 28 points (9-19=28) in 68 games with a plus-49 rating, 75 penalty minutes (PIM) and two game-winning goals. Woolley’s plus-49 placed third among all London skaters and OHL blueliners, and sixth among all OHL skaters.

Selected by the Kings in the sixth round (164th-overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft, Woolley split the 2023-24 campaign between the London Knights and the St. Thomas Stars of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League (GOJHL). Following a 19-game stretch with 21 points (6-15=21) for the Stars, the 6-5, 215-pound defenseman notched five points (3-2=5) in 37 games for London. The Port Hope, ON. native played in all 16 of London’s playoff games in the 2024 OHL Playoffs, registering three points (1-2=3) and winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup in the OHL Championship.