What to expect from new Canucks defence prospect Tom Willander
The Vancouver Canucks have a new top prospect in right-shot defender Tom Willander.
The 11th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, Willander was the most rapid riser across public draft rankings this past season, and was considered a late first-round pick for much of the year. By the time the annual event rolled around, it was clear that the 6-foot-1, 179-pound Swedish defenceman was going much higher than that.
Willander’s elite mobility, mature defensive habits, and the sheer potential he possesses ultimately won out for the Canucks, who massively bolstered the future of their back end with the selection.
How Willander blends high-end mobility and defending
Being able to defend the ever-increasing speed that is on display in the NHL is essential for any young defenceman looking to make his way into the league.
Willander’s edge work, along with his ability to match attackers step-by-step with his four-way mobility presents an instant advantage when defending the rush. But raw ability is for nought if the right habits don’t follow hand-in-hand.
Luckily, the Stockholm-born rearguard has both in spades.
Always looking to drive puck carriers to the perimeter of the ice, Willander’s processing is one of his greatest assets. Against straight-line attackers, he is near impossible to beat on the outside — he will simply guide you to the outside until there is no room to carry the puck further.
Against more nuanced transitional puck carriers who attempt to change speeds and the vectors of their routes, Willander is just as capable of employing his stick and timing his poke-checks to completely halt an entry. He’s just too powerful of a skater laterally.
His mobility blends when defending against pressure as well. Willander, despite lacking some strength, often drops low and can leverage his weight to pin opponents on the outside. He almost mobs them, and if they escape, he tracks them down, harassing and disrupting them until he can work them to the boards. Willander also reads and locks down secondary threats — like backdoor plants or tip threats, working boxouts and stick lifts, locking onto them early.
Proactive positioning and an active stick further highlight his defensive efforts.
Willander’s puck-rushing and breakouts
Part of what makes Willander such an intriguing prospect is his transitional profile. Able to weave through traffic like Vancouver’s most seasoned cyclists, the Swede is constantly incorporating weight shifts, changes in direction, punch-turns, and of course, speed, to burn out of his defensive zone and easily carry the puck through on the entry. Willander hunts for pockets to jump through, often blending some basic-level playmaking after he turns the defender.
He’s so manoeuvrable that if he goes back for an open-ice retrieval, there is almost no chance for a forechecker to trap him. This is significant because the forecheck is something a lot of big-ice players struggle with when they transition to North America. He overcomplicates some plays, trying to work flashy puck handle plays to slip forecheckers, but for the most part, he’s a nightmare below the goal line because he can move so well.
While carrying the puck into the offensive zone is valuable in its own right, Willander lacks the high-end playmaking necessary to create offence off these rushes. Much of his pass attempts are from the perimeter of the ice, which requires a lot of layering to even reach teammates, and usually leads to chaotic plays in the crease. He makes the right reads in terms of identifying the most dangerous pass option, but his execution wavers. Instead, Willander will often take the puck deep, lap the offensive zone and start a cycle. That room won’t be available in the NHL, and he will have to learn to attack from the middle out.
Luckily, Willander possesses some projectable breakout habits he can fall back on. He works pucks in motion, avoiding pick-offs, can stretch the puck from a distance, and finds teammates in stride right after beating a forechecker.
What is Willander’s offensive ceiling?
Outside puck rushing potential of Willander’s transition game, one of the biggest question marks centres around his offensive potential. One of the biggest indicators of translatability comes from scoring rates. Only producing 25 points across 39 games at the Junior 20 Nationell level is not exactly ideal.
The caveats to that are plain as day when examining Willander’s tape, however. When he is able to activate through the slot, blending his edges and puck handling, he looks truly dynamic.
While the activation in the above clip is more of a rarity in his game, Willander constantly flashes skill on the blue line, mostly based on getting more pucks on the net. The new Canucks prospect almost always works to move pucks off the walls and into the more dangerous slot area, often revving his feet proactively as he takes pass receptions. Simple body manipulations and lateral pushes allow him to beat high pressure and get cleaner shots through. His shooting tool is nothing special, but he wires low-tippable shots that sometimes find twine.
Off-puck he even flashed some ability to sneak down the backdoor lane, behind defensive coverages for an easy tap-in goal.
Willander’s playmaking in sustained pressure is very similar to how it is in transition. He plays too fast off the walls, attempts hard-to-complete feeds, and fails to find passing lanes or opportunities to slip pucks through opponents en route to his teammates.
Daniel Wagner of Vancouver is Awesome wrote about Willander’s recent switch to the defence position — a change that only happened two years ago. That’s a short amount of time to learn the nuances of the position in the offensive side of the ice. With his base-level tools and shooting habits, don’t be surprised if the offensive game, particularly his playmaking grows significantly in the future.
Future
Willander has all the qualities to at the very least, devour minutes at the NHL level in a top-four role. The defensive habits and mobility blend is already impactful and will only expand as he gets stronger. Add in potential growth to his offensive game and his dynamic mobility in the transition and Willander could be so much more.
Going to Boston University this next fall, Willander will play in a strong program, loaded with NHL prospects. Minutes, aclimatizing to the smaller ice surface, and the NCAA development track record further add to the positive outlook of his profile. He might even be a more effective defender on the smaller ice because he will be able to close on attackers even faster.
Extremely articulate in his answers, Willander impressed in a post-practice interview during the Canucks development camp, centring all of his answers around improving his game. He even highlighted his goal as a new Canucks prospect,
“I’m hoping they [the Canucks] give me the same passion that I’m willing to give them. I really like this place and obviously, they took a first-round pick to get me here, and I want to make a difference here.”
Seems a perfect fit for an organization that needs difference-makers on the blue line.
"I really like this place. [Canucks] took a first round pick to get me here. I want to make a difference here."
🗣 11th overall pick Tom Willander speaks on the city of Vancouver, the level of play after first on-ice session, and more.@ToyotaPacific | #Canucks pic.twitter.com/LQAQzKkNHM
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) July 2, 2023
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