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Another year of growth is the goal and expectation for Tom Willander in 2026-27

Photo credit: © Bob Frid-Imagn Images

By Jacob Fraser

Aug 7, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 7, 2026, 02:11 EDT

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Tom Willander’s rookie season with the Vancouver Canucks was full of ups and downs. That’s to be expected, though, for a young defenceman. The team was terrible, and the defensive environment on the ice was not conducive to success.

However, there were positives to take away from his first season. For starters, Willander wasn’t even expected to play the full year. He began the year in Abbotsford, where he played only five games before making the jump to Vancouver. And never looked back, finishing the year with 70 NHL games played. There were some flashes. He showed his skating and puck-moving ability. Not everything was pretty all the time, but at least fans got some flashes of a future top-four defenceman in his game.

Now, with that being said, this season is about continuing to develop and becoming more consistent. It’s tough for a young player to make the jump to the NHL from the NCAA. Going from playing weekend games to a full 82-game schedule, which now becomes 84, more consistency night in and night out should be expected in year two from Willander.

Last year, Willander spent most of the season paired alongside veteran defenceman Marcus Pettersson. This year he’ll likely be stapled alongside Canuck free agency signing Jamie Oleksiak. Having another big, defensively minded veteran partner to lean on should be a big help for Willander as he develops his game. Although he did have a similar partner last season, with the team’s new coaching staff focused on young player development, he should be insulated and given the freedom to explore the offensive side of his game while having the ability to make mistakes.

With the defensive system under Adam Foote last season, mistakes were much more costly because of the team’s man-on-man style of play. Assuming the team plays a style similar to what Manny Malhotra deployed in Abbotsford last year, someone like Willander should be able to make more mistakes that won’t be as costly for the team.

While it’s difficult to fault Willander for his point totals last season, 21 in 70 games is actually half-decent production from a rookie blueliner. Though adding an expectation for point totals seems a bit redundant for a second-year defenceman, it would be good to see an increase, especially if he becomes more of a regular on the power play.

So, with a desire for him to increase his point totals, and taking into consideration what the team should look like systemically on the ice, let’s dive into Willander’s goals and expectations for the 2026-27 season.

Meeting expectations: 25 points while playing top four minutes.

The point totals aren’t the important piece of this; it’s the minutes. Last season, Willander averaged 16:59 per night. Following the departure of Tyler Myers, Willander saw an increase in time on ice. With the Canucks only addition on the right side being Luke Schenn, we expect he will be the one to fill that second-pairing role while Schenn takes the third pair and penalty killing minutes.

Filip Hronek will still take the brunt of the load on the right side, but having Willander there to take around 18 or 19 minutes a night would be a good step for the young defenceman. That being said, taking that ice time is one thing; while we do want him to succeed in that role, the most realistic expectation is that he’s fine in this role. He doesn’t need to become a legit top four defenceman in order to meet expectations. We just want to see that he’s capable of playing those minutes and not looking completely out of place, as he did at times last season.

This amount of ice time will inherently come with tougher matchups, so seeing him hold his own consistently would be a big step for Willander in year two.

Exceeding expectations: 30 points while becoming a legit top-four defenceman

Once again, the point totals are secondary. Exceeding expectations in this scenario is not just filling a top-four role, but thriving in it.

This doesn’t mean Willander needs to become this superstar defenceman who can go out and shut down Connor McDavid. It just means he can become a second-pairing defenceman who can eat up 20 minutes a night and look in control while he’s on the ice.

To exceed expectations, we want to see Willander consistently in control. Whether it’s in the defensive zone, showing his ability to fend off opposing team’s players, keeping the danger away from the Canucks net or in the offensive end, jumping up into the play and getting in on the offence.

This team is very young defensively. So if he’s able to step up and stand out amongst his teammates, such as Elias Pettersson, Jamie Olesiak and Luke Schenn, while becoming the team’s bona fide third-best defenceman, that would be a big plus for Willander and the Canucks future on the backend.

Below expectations: 15 points while playing third-pairing minutes

Any kind of regression for Willander would be below expectations; that’s obvious. That being said, it would also be a disappointment if he had to be extremely sheltered all season long. The fact that he’ll likely be playing with Oleksiak means he’s already going to have some insulation, and that’s a good thing for a young defenceman. But it’s going to be a difficult thing to see if, on top of that, he’s having to matchup against other teams’ bottom sixes because he can’t be relied on defensively.

We want to see Willander take on some tougher matchups and be relied upon defensively here and there, so if Malhotra has no trust in the young Swede, that is going to be well below expectations heading into this season.

On top of that, it would be great to see Willander getting some power play time. But if he’s untrustworthy at five-on-five, he likely wouldn’t be rewarded with those opportunities, which in turn could stunt his offensive growth.

Overall, what we want to see from Willander is him becoming a solidified top three defenceman on this team. It’s going to take a fairly big step to do so, but with a new coach and new systems, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

He doesn’t need to be a superstar this year, but we’d like to see him take the next step in his growth and develop a more consistent game. If that happens, then this season will certainly be a success for Willander.

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