Yesterday, the WHL bantam draft occurred and it’s usually something to closely follow simply because of the names of the players that get drafted.

But this year featured quite a few trades and one of which had some particular interest to Canucks fan as 2017 2nd round pick Jett Woo was moved to the Calgary Hitmen

Moose Jaw made the move to accumulate more assets with Josh Brook and Justin Almeida both not returning next season. This meant that the Warriors were almost certainly about to enter a rebuilding phase and Woo was their most valuable asset to kick start that plan.

It was fairly common belief that Woo would be on the move at some point this season for the reasons outlined above but the Warriors management clearly preferred to acquire an early first round pick for this season (11th overall) and other players that could help them much sooner rather than waiting for the season to start and then trade Woo for futures.

The timing of the deal unfortunately meant that although it was reported that the Vancouver Giants were interested in acquiring him, they couldn’t make it happen

The right handed defender will either play in the WHL or NHL next season as he is bound by the NHL/CHL agreement.

Unless he makes the Canucks, which is highly unlikely, Woo will head to the Hitmen with hopes of getting them further in the WHL playoffs after they were swept in the second round by the Edmonton Oil Kings. He and Egor Zamula should be the heavy lifters for the Hitmen on the back-end and it should allow Woo to take another step forward in his development.

Woo had sixty-six points (12-54-66) in sixty-two games with the Warriors this past season.