{"id":246266,"date":"2025-10-28T19:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/246266\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:29:08","slug":"canucks-call-up-tom-willander-for-nhl-debut-against-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/246266\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks call up Tom Willander for NHL debut against Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The future has arrived in Vancouver.<\/p>\n<p>Fellow defenceman Victor Mancini (undisclosed) was placed on IR, while Derek Forbort (undisclosed) was transferred to long-term IR.<\/p>\n<p>Willander, the 2023 first-round pick, signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Canucks in May, making the jump to professional hockey.<\/p>\n<p>The Swedish defenceman has spent most of this season in the AHL, playing five games with one goal and one assist.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a smart player. He&#8217;s got good skill, he&#8217;s got good feet. Just keep guys in front of you and extend your coverage and make hard plays,&#8221; Canucks head coach Adam Foote <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CanucksInsider\/status\/1983243945409949828\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Willander was briefly called up by the Canucks earlier in October, but did not appear in a game.<\/p>\n<p>He did get his first taste of NHL action in the pre-season, when he averaged 16:33 of ice time and took two shots on goal over three games.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;ll be thrown right into the lion&#8217;s den for his regular-season debut in front of what is sure to be a charged-up crowd for J.T. Miller&#8217;s first game back in Vancouver with the Rangers.<\/p>\n<p>The Canucks (5-5-0, fourth in Pacific Division) are battling a spate of injuries, with Quinn Hughes also day-to-day as he deals with a lower-body injury.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s unclear if Hughes or Mancini will suit up against the Rangers.<\/p>\n<p>Puck drop is set for 10 p.m. ET \/ 7 p.m. PT with live coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future has arrived in Vancouver. Fellow defenceman Victor Mancini (undisclosed) was placed on IR, while Derek Forbort&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-246266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}