Matthew Wood was really standing out at Nashville Predators training camp before suffering a lower body injury just before the opening night rosters were finalized.
After starting the regular season on injured reserve, there's some good news for Wood that he is now back ready to skate and will first go on assigment to the Milwaukee Admirals.
Wood has yet to make his debut for the Admirals and was eyeing an opening night roster slot for the Predators before the injury. Now that the Predators have settled on an opening night roster that produced a 2-1 win in the season-opener against Columbus, they'll look to keep that intact at least for a few games while Wood might see some AHL experience before working his way back up to the NHL.
Matthew Wood back from injury with his long-term sights on the Nashville Predators, but will begin this next stint with his Milwaukee Admirals debut
This also makes logical sense because to put Wood back in there, you'll have to make a difficult subtraction somewhere. That could Joakim Kemell, or it could be a player that requires waivers to move him off. Someone like Ozzy Wiesblatt, or they'd have to waive someone like Tyson Jost.
Then you have Brady Martin, who is likely just playing his nine games before being sent back to the OHL for the rest of the season as an 18-year-old who isn't eligible to play in Milwaukee yet.
It's not ideal how this worked out for Wood because injuries are never ideal, but this could end up at least being a blessing in disguise that Wood gets to play a huge role for the Milwaukee Admirals to start the season off. Then eventually, and sooner rather than later, he'll get his NHL call-up in the next few weeks.
The Milwaukee Admirals begin their 2025-26 campaign on Saturday night at the Rockford IceHogs. affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. Wood will join other Predators forward prospects high up in the system like Zachary L'Heureux, Cole O'Hara, Reid Schaefer and David Edstrom.
This could end up working out as an opportunity for Wood to get a small taste of life in the AHL, finetune his game and get into top form before he makes his push to be a regular in the Nashville Predators lineup for the rest of the season once he finally get back up there.
Once that time comes for Wood to get the call-up back to the Predators, Head Coach Andrew Brunette should have a better idea of what is clicking in the lineup and who might need to be moved back to Milwaukee or even waived. My first guess would be Tyson Jost really has to perform well to keep from getting waived, and Kemell or Wiesblatt will also face the possibility of getting sent back down if they deem him not entirely ready for full-time NHL action.
Jost and Wiesblatt would have to be waived and possibly claimed by another team, while Kemell is waivers excempt. Wood is also waivers excempt.
Wood was drafted by the Predators 15th-overall in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft and played in six NHL games last season while notching an assist and putting eight shots on net.