His 16 points place him in a tie for 25th amongst all NHL rookies. Willander’s totals only trail five rookie defencemen: Matthew Schaefer, Alexander Nikishin, Artyom Levshunov, Canucks teammate Zeev Buium and Swedish World Junior teammate Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Of note, Willander has played the fewest games (45) of the group, with the next closest having played eight more.

And he started the year doing so in limited minutes. Before the Hughes trade, Willander was averaging 13:42 time on ice per game. That average has risen to 16:29 in Hughes’ absence. The increase in ice time reflects the trust Willander has earned from his coaching staff. There were aspects of his game that he needed to improve on, which the coaching staff analyzed early in the season.

“Well I think one thing we saw early on with him was his gap [control],” Canucks assistant coach Brett McLean said back in November. “Sometimes he was getting beat wide, maybe judging NHL speed – which is normal, obviously first time seeing it – but he seems to have done a very, very good job with that lately. So if he’s able to handle the rush well against, then he can obviously add to our rush offensively like we’ve seen.”

As Willander continues to grow and get more comfortable at the NHL level, the skating ability that he possesses will only continue to be showcased more often. He even recognized early on in the season that his game was slowly improving.

“I feel more comfortable with the puck generally,” Willander said after his fourth NHL game. “I think I fit into the way we play a bit more. But I think confidence to just kind of move and use my skating more with and without the puck.”

Willander was able to pull the puck off the wall on his strong side and quickly find Jake DeBrusk in the middle of the ice for a shot that will result in a Kiefer Sherwood goal off the rebound. The quick pass resulted in the Kraken penalty kill getting out of position and allowing for the scoring opportunity to be created.

The right-shot Swede has historically plateaued at the 25-point mark throughout his hockey career: with Rogle BK Jr. in the Swedish Junior League in 2022-23, and with the Boston University Terriers in the NCAA in 2023-24. His 16 points in 45 games have him on pace to hit that 25-point mark. To match his career high in any league as a rookie defenceman in the NHL is a testament to his growth and willingness to get better at every level.

If Willander can reach 30 points, he would place in the top-150 in NHL history for points among rookie blueliners, joining marquee names such as Hampus Lindholm, Ivan Provorov and Hall of Famer Chris Pronger. But if Willander plays the remainder of his games this season, he will finish with 70 games played, which would be fewer than all three of Lindholm, Provorov and Pronger did in their 30-point rookie seasons.

Aside from his point totals, Willander’s maturity has started to show as of late. After a recent 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks, in which Willander scored, pushed his point streak to three games, but  on a three-game point streak, but he was overly critical of the way he and his team played:

“I don’t think we played good anywhere today. I think pretty much every detail was bad,” Willander said. “Can’t name anything good today.

“I thought, at least, I didn’t do a good job [on the power play]. I think there’s a lot of stuff I can look through from this game. I didn’t like much about my game. I thought I had some poise at times, which is good, and maybe some flashy moves, but I think I’ve got to be a lot harder, better on retrievals, and make better plays.”

You can watch the full Willander availability here (1:51 mark):

While many players who are not participating in the Olympic Games are planning beach vacations, Willander has his eyes set on improving his game over his two-week break.

“I was told that Tom went back to Sweden to do some work on his game with his strength and mobility coach,” Donnie & Dhali’s Rick Dhaliwal shared. “Willander does not take anything for granted. He saw some things that he can improve on and he chose to utilize this opportunity, this break, to get it done.”

With 25 games left to play after the Olympic break, Willander will look to continue growing, developing, and earning more of the coach’s trust as the focus shifts from playoff contention to personal growth. Willander is proving, with both his words and actions, that he wants to be a player who leads by example in righting the ship that turns the Vancouver Canucks back to contending status.