Kings sign Jared Woolley to entry-level contract

Mar 26, 2025, 13:01 EDT

Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images

The LA Kings announced on Wednesday that they have signed defenseman Jared Woolley to a three-year entry-level contract through the 2027-28 NHL season.

The 19-year-old recently closed out his second regular season with the Ontario Hockey League’s London Knights, where he scored nine goals and 28 points through 68 games.

The Kings selected Woolley 164th overall in the sixth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft after he split the 2023-24 season between the Knights and the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s St. Thomas Stars.

With the Junior B-level Stars, he scored six goals and 21 points in a 19-game stretch before eventually joining London for 37 regular season games and each of their 16 games in the OHL Playoffs, on their way to winning the J. Ross Robertson Cup in the OHL Championship.

At six-foot-five and 205 pounds, the Oshawa, Ont. native brings a decisive size advantage and stood out as one of the more physically imposing players at the 2024 Rookie Faceoff in El Segundo, California.

“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,” said Marco Sturm, head coach of the Kings’ AHL affiliate Ontario Reign. “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.”

Given Woolley’s age and CHL status, he will not be eligible to play in the AHL until the 2026-27 season but could play in NHL games. However, his immediate focus is on the OHL Playoffs, as the Knights take on the Owen Sound Attack in the first round, after topping the league and Western Conference standings with a 55-11-2 record through 68 games.

Game 1 for the Knights is set for March 28. Meanwhile, the Kings sit second in the NHL’s Pacific Division on 89 points, trailing the Edmonton Oilers for the division lead by five points with 12 regular season games remaining.