Kings prospect Jared Woolley is quickly ascending and building the resume to prove it

Coming off a victory in the Memorial Cup, Kings defensive prospect and 2024 sixth-round draft pick Jared Woolley is now a three-time champion after hoisting his second consecutive OHL Championship earlier this season and first Memorial Cup last week. Selected 164th overall last summer, Woolley is rising quickly within the Kings’ prospect pool and his journey towards the NHL seems to be rising on a parallel path.

At 6–foot-5, 207 pounds, Woolley certainly does not need to prove his size but he has proven over this past season that he is more than just a big defenseman. Often in the late rounds of the draft, teams will take skaters with unique and hard to come by features with the hopes that those prospects can put things together and hit the jackpot. With Woolley, that wasn’t the case as Mark Yannetti, the Kings Director of Scouting and his scouting staff had identified the Oshawa, Ontario native as a promising late-round steal in the draft before he even established himself in the OHL during the 2023-24 season.

Heading into his draft year, Woolley began the 2023-24 season playing for the St. Thomas Stars in the GOJHL, commonly referred to as Junior B hockey and the feeder league into the CHL and OHL. After collecting 21 points (6-15-21) in just 19 games with the Stars, Woolley got the call up and joined the London Knights, the top team in the OHL.

“I remember being told that Woolley had been called up to the London Knights and that was a real downer for me because I thought he was a hidden guy,” Yannetti said. “Junior B hockey isn’t really heavily scouted compared to the CHL. He was guy that even early on in the [2023-24] season we were intrigued with. He started out low and consistently moved up as a steady riser, putting himself in a position where we could draft him.”

Fast forward through the 2023-24 season and Woolley totaled five points (3-2-5) across 37 games mainly in that fifth defenseman role on the depth chart in route to an OHL championship. Having ascended quick up the ranks during his 17-year-old and 18-year-old seasons, Woolley entered an offseason with plenty on the line regarding his future, but not much clarity.

“Going into the draft last year, I didn’t really know what to expect,” Woolley said. “I started my NHL draft year playing Junior B hockey. I just kind of worked my way up. I knew I had to make the [London] Knights to have a chance at being drafted. I did finish my draft year with Knights, we went deep too, winning the OHL championship, but we lost in the final game in the Memorial Cup Finals. So, going into that [draft] day I didn’t really know where I sat, but I thought I should be taken. I just didn’t really know when it’d be drafted, and I didn’t really know necessarily who it was going to be.”

Putting in perspective the Kings interest and belief in Woolley, the Kings moved up in the draft, trading a sixth-round and seventh-round pick to draft Woolley at 164 overall, a move that Yannetti explained goes against all of their analytical philosophies in terms of value. Following the 2024 draft, Woolley made his way to El Segundo and participated in the team’s development camp, a place where both Woolley and Yannetti learned a thing or two.

“I didn’t realize how big he was until I sat down when I met him the first time. His head was big and his body was big and long. You see him frame now and he’s not even close to being done growing,” Yannetti described as his first impressions.

As for Woolley, development camp was a starting point for learning, further focusing on what it takes to play at the next level and adding pieces to his untapped potential.

“There’s lots of things you learn and pick up when you when you go to [development] camps for your first time; whether it’s development camp or you’re with the big dogs [NHLers] at training camp in September,” he detailed. “The big takeaways for me were just a lot of the little things and how much they make a difference. Whether it’s tying sticks up in front of the net so they can’t tip the puck, how you’re coming off the blue line, or offensively, maybe when to go or when not to go and pinch. You realize those little things like can result in bigger things if not done correctly or done at the right time and those are the biggest things I learned at camp last summer.”

Photo by Michael Miller/ISI Photos/Getty Images

Enter the 2024-25 season and Woolley returned to the Knights but again found himself on an absolutely stacked blue line. Alongside a pair of first-round draft picks (Sam Dickenson and Oliver Bonk), a projected 2025 first-round draft pick (Henry Brzustewicz) and a midseason trade that also brought in an offensively talented 20-year-old fifth-round draft pick (Cam Allen), Woolley’s opportunities for heavy minutes and offensive upside were limited.

Nonetheless, Woolley didn’t let that hold him back as he still produced, almost doubled his time on ice average and proved that both his offensive upside and continued growth as a defenseman are trending in a great direction. Notching 28 points (9-19-28) in 68 regular season games this season, only two of those points came on the man advantage. Further evidence of Woolley’s growth as a defenseman told season and specifically offensively, his non-power play offensive production of 26 points (8-18-26) tied for the second most non-power play points among London defensemen.

“I think that’s all part of getting better, just slowly add things to your game,” he said. “When I was picked [by the Kings in the draft] last year, they knew I could play defense, so now they may want to see a little bit more offense and over time I think you just add those skills and you continue to get better and better.”

Woolley continued to be an impact player into postseason play racking up another nine points (2-7-9) across 16, helping his Knights repeat as OHL champions as the team rolled through the playoffs dropping just one game total across four different rounds of postseason play. Now, with a pair of J. Ross Robertson Cups on his resume, Woolley and the Knights returned to the Memorial Cup looking for revenge.

After going undefeated round robin play to earn a bye into the Memorial Cup finals last season, the Knights fell to their fellow OHL counterpart, the Saginaw Spirit, losing to a team they’d defeated seven times during the regular season. With past experience in hand, the Knights this time around went 2-1 in round-robin play before winning in the semifinals to reach the championship game, where he and his teammates defeated the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers 4-1 to change the ending.

“It’s been great to finish the season with a championship,” he said. “It’s really the only way you can make the offseason start on a positive note. When you lose, especially in the finals, it’s not a great way to start the offseason because of the mental hurdles you have to overcome after being so close. So, when you can win it all, it just makes everything better as you begin to prepare for the next season.”

With his game continuing to grow and evolve, the confidence Woolley is playing with is the result of hard work. Putting in the extra time to add pieces to his game was his goal and he’s done that over the last 12-plus months.

“I mean, it’s really everything you can ask for. You want to keep trending upwards with your game individually and the more you can do that, the better position you put yourself in.”

As for what Woolley hopes to accomplish this offseason, the already large frame is hoping to… well, get larger.

“I’d say the biggest thing for me is just continuing to get stronger. I’m a pretty big frame but I definitely have to make sure I make use of that, so I’d say getting stronger is my biggest priority this summer.”

Self-described as “a two-way defenseman and reliable. I can add value on both ends of the ice, but I think reliable is one of the best ways you could describe me,” Woolley is rounding out his game while showing value on both ends of the ice. Plus, who doesn’t love a reliable defenseman?

Fans can catch Woolley and the rest of the Kings prospects in El Segundo come late June – early July at the 2025 Development Camp following the 2025 NHL Draft. Dates and times have yet to be confirmed or announced.

Vaughn Most Improved Player: Jared Woolley#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/ssGiJsOP4W

— London Knights (@LondonKnights) June 5, 2025