Most have definitely not had Wood's career path, either. He was playing prep hockey three seasons ago. Calling him just another 21 year old is incredibly misleading.
Wood isn't a refined hockey player right now. You'll get no argument from me. But this "wash out of the league" stuff is overboard at this point.
I agree that he is not just another 21 year old, but the fact that there aren't many comparisons to him doesn't give me a ton of hope, either. The (realistic) hope is that he can become a Chimera/Bergenheim type who drives opposing D nuts. There's just a long way to go for that to happen.
The only reason it's not overboard to talk about him washing out of the league in a couple years is because some GMs in this league are desperate for guys who will fight and Wood is certainly that.
It was his first pro season and he ended up playing a ton of games and seemed to tire by the end, so I'm curious to see how he is this year.
Who is the last rookie that played predominantly on the 4th line that managed 17 points and 8 goals in 60 games?
I'm not sure. Wood doesn't fit that criteria either, so I'm curious who you're talking about. Henrique was Wood's most common linemate and they played together almost a third of the time - Wood scored 5 of his 6 5 on 5 goals with Henrique on the ice. Also Wood played on the top PP unit for most of the 2nd half of the year.
Needs refinement to be a 4th liner... That is a nonsensical statement. When is the last time time we had a 21 year old (predominantly)4th liner with 17 points in 60 games? He's already better than any 4th liner we've had in a while in his first 60 games in the league.
I can list off a bunch of guys he's not better than - S. Gionta most of his time here, Bernier, Ryan Carter, Jacob Josefson, Tuomo Ruutu in 2014-15. I'll say it again - he scored 1 goal as a '4th liner'. Wood away from Henrique was on the ice for .96 G/60 which is the same garbage rate the 4th line has put up here for forever.
You certainly wouldn't judge a 21 year old #4 overall with 128 games of NHL experience by the same standard. You probably wouldn't judge any other rookie by the standard you are judging Wood.
I don't care about draft position 4 years out from the draft and have said so many times - when I hear people accuse me of this, it strikes me as perhaps that it's them who are the people who judge by draft position. But I expect rookies to have an awareness of the D zone, how to play in the neutral zone, and so on - Pavel Zacha had all of that, for instance, and that's why I think he can still be a very good player even if he didn't score a whole lot or show up much on a highlight reel last year.