Willander the Great

Absolutely! A couple weeks ago when I was reviewing lists of players that should be available at trade deadline, immediately Lindholm jumped out at me as the top prize and the player that would likely have the greatest impact on a lengthy playoff run. His skill set combination is so rare, and he is exactly the type of player that helps teams win.

Another +3 today for Willander. So solid. With Pettersson logging big minutes, Lekkerimaki leading the tourney in goals and Willander leading the tourney in +/- I’m so pleased with these results. Now fingers crossed they can take out the Americans and win gold on their home soil. That would just make this tournament a perfect one.

Another shutout! This kid is unreal!

Yeah to tell the truth, I’m just assuming that with Lane Hutson being their number 1 d man that he’s seen a bit tougher match ups. But I could very well be wrong about that.

I just took a look at Willander’s stats and his team leading +12 is so impressive. The average play on his team is +4, and the next closest player to him is +8. Lane Hutson has put insane offensive numbers, but he’s rocking a -2. Although he is their top defencemand so he’s likely had some tougher matchups than Willander. I know that +/- only tells part of the story and that it’s not a perfect stat, but it is still indicative of one’s overall game. Having a smooth skating, RHD with a solid D game, high hockey IQ, who oozes leadership and who can chip in some points is so exciting to me.

When a player is drafted has zero relevance. All that matters is what they become. And Hronek has become a stud. Having said that, the player that the Red Wings drafted with that first rounder, ASP, could go on to have a solid career, so it’s way too early to tell who won that trade. Nonetheless, we absolutely needed to give Huggy Bear a proper RHD to play with, and we also needed to show guys like Pettersson that we’re serious about winning with them. This trade did both of that.

Yep, when we have the top three scorers in the NHL, through one fifth of the way through the season already, then we definitely do have to reward this team with another top 4 D man.

That was an incredible pass!

Quinn was so good again tonight. He and Hronek are likely my favourite D pairing I’ve ever seen in my 42 years of watching Canucks hockey (granted I don’t remember much from those first few years lol!) In fact all of the Hughes bros are unreal. Looking at the NHL stats right now and Luke is one point out of first place for rookie points, Quinn is one point out of first place for D points, and Jack leads the entire league in points by a country mile.

@Wall of Wonder By any chance did you watch the game? I’m curious to hear how his overall game was. Sounds like the team as a whole laid an egg, but hopefully there were some positive takeaways from Willander’s game.

I was thinking the exact same thing about Naslund! He reminds so much of him. This kid is looking special.

I’m so stoked to see this kid have the NCAA debut that he did, but I must say that I’m not the least bit surprised. I thought he played exceptionally well at the U18’s and he looked very confident defending against America’s super powered offence in that tourney. I remember trying to watch ASP at the U18’s because I thought that’s who the Canucks would target in the draft, but by the end of the tournament I was completely sold on Willander because in my opinion he just looked like the better all round defensemen. PS my username on CDC was “YearoftheNuck” and some of you probably heard me saying exactly that in the 2023 Draft Forum leading up to the draft. If so, sorry for repeating myself lol!

I love Hansen. I think he’s completely correct here too.

I just read in the province that Garland said he’ll be starting on the top line tomorrow. Hopefully he could put together a string of good games with them and increase his value a bit.

I’m really liking Hronek too. Soucy and Cole are looking solid as well. It’s crazy to think about how bad our D was last year other than Hughes of course. We still have holes, by my goodness our back end is so much better off than it was at this time last year.

I recall really liking Thomson during his draft year. To be honest I haven't followed him much since, but I would definitely be all for taking a flyer on him.