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2023 NHL Draft prospect profile: Tom Willander is a jack-of-all-trades

Rögle BK

Rögle has become a nursery for young talent in Sweden, and following in the foot steps of Nils Höglander, Moritz Seider, Marco Kasper, William Wallinder, and Montreal Candiens prospect Adam Engström is a another young Swedish defender — Tom Willander. The exception is that while Willander will be drafted out of Rögle he will continue his development at Boston University after only a year with the South Swedish club.

Willander can be described as a jack of all trades but king of none; he skates well, has good vision, reads the game well, moves the puck with ease, and can play a physical game. However, none of the main traits really stand out when compared to the other big prospects in the draft. He isn’t as physical as Reinbacher, and he isn’t as smooth as Sandin-Pellikka.

What Willander has is a passing game where he can generate a lot of speed, with precision on the puck, creating breakout passes and counter attacks. It is this skill that has made him an important part of Rögle’s U20 championship winning team, and something that also made him stand out for Sweden in the WU18 Championships.

Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
Date of birth: February 5, 2005
Shoots: Right
Position: Defence
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 179 lbs.
Team: Rögle BK (SHL)

Having moved up though the Swedish system, and crowning that development with a national championship, it is across the Atlantic where his development will continue. This could be a smart move for him in order to get used to the more physical game on the North American ice surface in NCAA. It will also be very interesting to see if the core of his game, the breakout passes and transitional play, improve.

With the talent factory that Rögle has become, it is interesting that he will leave. From afar it does seem that he can’t see himself do the same journey as teammate Adam Engström did last year even if there are spots open on the defensive line in the SHL team. Undoubtedly Willander bets on himself to adjust to another style of hockey with ease.

The hockey IQ and the way he can control the game with breakout plays and zone exits and entries gives a team something very important to build upon. His passing game. He can generate quite the speed with his pass and he uses it to catch opponents off guard, and create devastating attacks for his teammates to score up on.

Rögle U20’s, and Sweden U18’s, has also used Willander to quarterback the power play, something he can do with ease. As he runs the power play from the point, he uses the same technique as when he generates his power in his passing game to deliver a both fast and accurate wrist shot.

As with most young defenders, the areas of improvements are his physical game and his defensive reads in the offensive zone.

Starting with the offensive zone, he wants to play physical, to pinch and his speed to be able to create a numerical advantage for his team. One SHL coach said, “You need to teach them poker, they need to know when to fold or when to bet”. This is the same with Wallinder. He needs to understand when to use all his good attributes to his advantage and not cause his team harm in the form of a rapid developing counter attack.

For his physical game, it is something that comes with maturity and development. He does, however, need to build up both core and upper body strength to be able to separate players from the puck with hard hits and not only with poke checks and technique if he is to become a solid NHL defenceman down the line.

Preliminary Rankings

Dobber Prospects: #22
Elite Prospects: #23
FCHockey: #37
Hockey Prospect: #49
Hadi Kalakeche: #42
McKeen’s: #23
Bob McKenzie (TSN): #46
NHL Central Scouting: #30 (European skaters)  
Corey Pronman (The Athletic): #15
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): #27

The tools are all there and he makes for an enticing package. A team will be able to develop him to a solid second-pairing defender if all goes well. It is smart by him to openly commit to Boston University before the draft, showcasing that he is happy to go the college development route and show the teams that they will have easy access to his development.

However, Willander will need time to develop. He won’t be ready in two years time, most likely he will need some AHL time before he is ready for the big club after college as well.

2023 NHL Draft prospect profile: Colby Barlow is a sniper
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