Canucks Prospects At The 2025 World Juniors Update: December 26

The 2025 World Juniors is officially underway. Boxing Day saw two Vancouver Canucks prospects hit the ice as Tom Willander and Basile Sansonnens played their first games of the tournament. Here is a look at how the two defensemen performed.

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Willander played a key role in Sweden's 5-2 victory over Slovakia. He led all Swedish players in ice time at 24:31 and finished the game with three shots on goal. Willander also recorded the secondary assist on Sweden's second goal of the game while seeing significant time on the first power play unit. 

Preliminary Round Schedule:

Dec. 27 vs Kazakhstan- 2:00 pm PT
Dec. 29 vs Switzerland- 9:00 am PT
Dec. 31 vs Czechia- 2:00 pm PT

Sansonnens and Switzerland had a rough start to the tournament, losing 5-1 to Czechia. The Canucks 2024 seventh-rounder played 15:33 and was able to showcase some strong defensive play throughout the game. Sansonnens played this game on Switzerland's third pair and was partnered with 19-year-old Eric Schneller. 

Preliminary Round Schedule:

Dec. 27 vs Slovakia- 10:00 am PT
Dec. 29 vs Sweden- 9:00 am PT
Dec. 31 vs Kazakhstan- 9:00 am PT