Who are Matthew Wood's parents, Jamie and Carie? What is their nationality?

Matthew Wood is truly one of the most promising draft prospects and there has always been support for his love of hockey.

Carie, his mother, is the head of a primary school. At Vancouver Island University, his father, Jamie served as an academic advisor. Both are Americans.

Before this, Jamie Wood coached women's hockey teams in New Hampshire and Minnesota as an assistant.

Matthew transferred to Middlebury shortly after Cavanaugh's playing days at NESCAC rival Bowdoin to play collegiate hockey. Initial talks were relatively simple because of the connection.

“I spent pretty much a whole day with them, getting to know them,” Matthew Wood said of UConn coaches. “A lot of the time at my house, we weren't even talking about hockey. Just a lot about life, and I really like Cav’s views on everything outside of hockey. I really respect him.”

His father took him to an outdoor rink in Woodbury, Minn., where the youngster toddled onto the ice with much older kids. It was already clear Matthew’s love for hockey was something different, something serious.

“It would be freezing cold,” Jamie Wood said, “And a lot of the kids wouldn’t show up, or some would go on, but they would get cold and have to come off, but he would just go for the whole time and never come off. I would be sitting by the boards watching, and I’d be just freezing, but in those moments watching him, I knew he was having fun and he was really loving it.”

When Matthew Wood made his debut at the University of Connecticut, his father traveled 3,000 miles from the family’s home in Nanaimo, British Columbia to watch him.

“I can’t describe the relief I felt after that,” Jamie Wood said. “As a parent, you want to think you’re making the right decision, but for as many people as I had telling me that he was going to be fine, I had just as many people telling me he was making a mistake and he should not be going this year."

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Matthew Wood: The bright NHL prospect

Matthew Wood of the University of Connecticut was by far the most accomplished freshman in college hockey. Wood, who averages over a point per game at just 18 years old, is one of the most fascinating and divisive players available in the draft.

He is attractive because of his stature; he is 6'4" and around 200 pounds. He has the potential to become the NHL's next intimidating power forward given his build and skill set. He can be a first-line winger and an important power-play player.

The Pittsburgh Penguins look like the favorites to take him, but there are others like the Calgary Flames waiting to take him on board as well.

The Vancouver Canucks too want him, so Matthew Wood will be very much sought after during the draft.