Im not overlly educated on this years draft, but wouldnt Willander go in the 3-6 range this year?
Purely on prospect quality, Willander as he is now would be similar to a 9th or 10th overall pick in a vacuum, or thereabout.
The top 4 (Schaefer, Misa, Hagens, Martone) is pretty solid, and in my opinion much more high-end than Willander is.
Then I'd say that I've got all of Desnoyers, Frondell, Smith, and Eklund on a higher tier as prospects too. I wouldn't trade any of those guys 1-for-1 for Willander.
I'd say that Willander would be pretty interchangeable for a guy like O'Brien and Mrtka right now (9th or 10th, checks-out), and that he'd be ever-so-slightly higher on an hypothetical draft board than guys like McQueen, Lakovic, and Aitcheson.
Long story short, people are talking crap about this draft being weak but it really isn't that bad and they're exaggerating quite a bit. This draft is more like 2017 than it is 2012 in my opinion.
As for what Willander would actually bring back in a trade, well, I'd actually say that depends on a team's composition in their prospect pool and how much they are willing to give for a defenseman that will quite probably play-out his junior year with BU and then may want to test free agency come August 2027 by also playing NCAA for his senior year.
I imagine any trade for Willander would be made with the team that tries to acquire him getting the opportunity to talk to him about an NHL contract and getting some amount of feedback on that.
Barring that, I actually think Willander's trade value may be negatively impacted quite a bit.
Canucks fans looking for a top pick straight-up for Willander will not get what they're looking for, I think.
But Willander could be a major part of a package for a 2C for the Canucks, that much is true.
