Prospect Info: Tom Willander: 11th Overall 2023 Draft (Rogle BK J20) - Part 02

[VanJack]

Granted I've only seen the YouTube highlight packages featuring Wilander; and followed him in last year's WJHC.

The thing I've noticed is that there really aren't any holes in his game. He's got superior skating skill for effortless gap control; and he's equally proficient in head-manning or skating the puck out of trouble.

I know some posters are concerned about his offense, but there's nothing wrong with his shooting skills. He gets a lot of mustard on his shot and he's very proficient at the one-timers from the sidewall.

Most every player coming out of junior or the NCAA has holes in their game. When Quinn Hughes graduated from Michigan, he had a muffin of a shot. But now, it's a 95mph-plus howitzer.

Wilander won't need much if any time to adjust to NHL hockey imo.

 

[Grantham]

Granted I've only seen the YouTube highlight packages featuring Wilander; and followed him in last year's WJHC.

The thing I've noticed is that there really aren't any holes in his game. He's got superior skating skill for effortless gap control; and he's equally proficient in head-manning or skating the puck out of trouble.

I know some posters are concerned about his offense, but there's nothing wrong with his shooting skills. He gets a lot of mustard on his shot and he's very proficient at the one-timers from the sidewall.

Most every player coming out of junior or the NCAA has holes in their game. When Quinn Hughes graduated from Michigan, he had a muffin of a shot. But now, it's a 95mph-plus howitzer.

Wilander won't need much if any time to adjust to NHL hockey imo.

I suggest catching his games live if you can. He is good, and a surefire NHLer imo, but his shortcomings on offence and being too passive are real. Highlights always look great. Sprong looks like McDavid in highlights.

I don't doubt he'll overcome some of these, but he'll never be an offensive star, he just isn't wired that way.

 

[Flik]

I suggest catching his games live if you can. He is good, and a surefire NHLer imo, but his shortcomings on offence and being too passive are real. Highlights always look great. Sprong looks like McDavid in highlights.

I don't doubt he'll overcome some of these, but he'll never be an offensive star, he just isn't wired that way.

Which is fine I think. If he hits a Hamhuis 2.0 level, we're absolutely gold for a long time.

 

[Breakers]

Pandolfo hoping a change in pairings stops this roster from taking a million penalties

 

[credulous]

Which is fine I think. If he hits a Hamhuis 2.0 level, we're absolutely gold for a long time.

hamhuis (and tanev) are terrible stylistic comparisons. willander's closest comparables in the nhl imo are guys like slavin and mikey anderson at the high end and more realistically whitecloud and siegenthaler

 

[Flik]

hamhuis (and tanev) are terrible stylistic comparisons. willander's closest comparables in the nhl imo are guys like slavin and mikey anderson at the high end and more realistically whitecloud and siegenthaler

Fair enough, I just meant in terms of offensive output, we don't really need Willander to be that guy

 

[JT Milker]

Fair enough, I just meant in terms of offensive output, we don't really need Willander to be that guy

That poster compared Hronek to Myers and said Ty Mueller was their favourite Canuck prospect. Take it with a grain of salt.

 

[HairyKneel]

Which is fine I think. If he hits a Hamhuis 2.0 level, we're absolutely gold for a long time.

Hammer wasn't passive though. You need a certain level of authority and aggression to be a good to great player. I admittedly haven watched a ton of this kid

 

[Breakers]

Gutsy win

A couple assists
Team is actually good 5v5 over extended periods problem is it rarely happens

I have no idea how the committee will rank this weekend, opening night loss, comeback win
Trailed a ton tonight, but tied it late.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

We need him now

 

[logan5]

I suggest catching his games live if you can. He is good, and a surefire NHLer imo, but his shortcomings on offence and being too passive are real. Highlights always look great. Sprong looks like McDavid in highlights.

I don't doubt he'll overcome some of these, but he'll never be an offensive star, he just isn't wired that way.

He has 9 points in 11 games with BU. How many points should he have to consider him a more offensive defenceman?

 

[pitseleh]

He has 9 points in 11 games with BU. How many points should he have to consider him a more offensive defenceman?

Especially when he’s not playing first unit PP time. He’d almost certainly be above a PPG if he were. He’s not at the Makar/Hughes/Fox tier but he’s producing similarly to guys like Werenski and McAvoy and miles ahead of guys like Toews and Skjei.

 

[HockeyWooot]

Seems to be tracking well decent chance to be a 2way top 4 dman with upside as a complimentary number 2?

 

[VanJack]

I suggest catching his games live if you can. He is good, and a surefire NHLer imo, but his shortcomings on offence and being too passive are real. Highlights always look great. Sprong looks like McDavid in highlights.

I don't doubt he'll overcome some of these, but he'll never be an offensive star, he just isn't wired that way.

I watched every game he played in the World Jr. Hockey Championships. I thought at times he did look tentative and played like he was avoiding mistakes.

But every once and awhile you could see him make a seeing-eye head-man pass or walk the blueline like a Quinn Hughes-lite. I think he has it in him. But might take a season or two of pro hockey before that side of his game starts to blossom.

 

[BluesyShoes]

He has 9 points in 11 games with BU. How many points should he have to consider him a more offensive defenceman?

It's not so much about points, its more if you just watch him play. He's simply not very confident with the puck on his stick in the offensive zone. My personal take is that he has the mind for it and maybe the puck skills, but he is really lacking the experience. He hasn't had the countless reps with the puck in the offensive zone that other offensive defenseman have had by this point in their careers, the kind of experience that informs offensive instinct. There's no substitute for those reps, although some smart players can pick it up more quickly than others. Building that instinct to make the right play comes largely from trial and error, a luxury that isn't afforded as you go up levels in hockey when margins get thinner and consequences higher.

My expectations at this point are that he doesn't ever really develop those skills to the point of being an NHL powerplay quarterback--which is totally fine. Even if he did, he'd have to build a time machine to go back and get the practice time in to unseat Quinn Hughes for those minutes.

What is important is that he can facilitate offense 5 on 5, and that comes much more from strong positioning and transition hockey, holding the zone, having the mobility to apply high pressure in the neutral zone against opposing breakouts, and the ability to feed and support his forwards effectively and let them do their job. He'll get lots of experience in that regard wherever he plays, and he seems to be able to turn on flawless structured hockey like a light switch when he needs to (Team Sweden WJC.)

I'd say it looks unlikely he develops a dynamic possession game in college, but who knows, maybe he keeps improving offensively for the next decade after he hits the pros, similar to how Hughes has come back every summer with new tools. I'll probably get flamed for this, but in the end you want players that leverage every cap-dollar in their time on ice, and having to pay two elite PPQB's is not necessarily a great problem to have when there's only ice time for one of them. Practically speaking, the best thing Willy can do for the Canucks offensively might be eating tough minutes to get Quinn more offensive zone starts.

 

[Breakers]

When Hughes was a sophmore he lost 3 of his top 4 defenceman, and 5 of his top 6 forwards and Josh Norris tore his ACL at the world juniors. So the coach said push the push the offense.

Willander’s sophmore season is about stabilizing this patchwork defense core. They don’t have that junior veteran in the roster.
They miss Ty Gallagher immensely as he transferred last minute and it has gutted them. It’s a bunch of sophmore babysitting freshman and a graduate transfer.
This season has very little to do offense, and more to do with killing penalties

 

[Snatcher Demko]

A lot of good defensive dmen often grow their offensive game over time. He may be putting up career highs in points in his late 20s, progression does happen that way.

 

[VanJack]

A lot of good defensive dmen often grow their offensive game over time. He may be putting up career highs in points in his late 20s, progression does happen that way.

D-Petey was called up to the parent Canucks today after less than 15 AHL games. And Wilander will definitely play games in Vancouver after BU is eliminated and he signs his ELC......likely in mid-March.

A future 3-4 pairing for the Canucks--Wilander and D-Petey. And it could happen sooner than a lot of people think.

 

[Snatcher Demko]

D-Petey was called up to the parent Canucks today after less than 15 AHL games. And Wilander will definitely play games in Vancouver after BU is eliminated and he signs his ELC......likely in mid-March.

A future 3-4 pairing for the Canucks--Wilander and D-Petey. And it could happen sooner than a lot of people think.

In that case both would presumably be paired with good veterans for steadiness and growth. I'm not sure how much positive impact we could expect in the first year or two.