Canucks Prospects At The 2025 World Juniors Update: Willander and Team Sweden Fall 3–2 In Bronze Medal Game

The 2025 World Juniors conclude on January 5, with USA and Finland fighting it out to take home Gold later tonight. Vancouver Canucks prospect Tom Willander and Team Sweden faced off against Czechia for Bronze, with Czechia ultimately placing third on the podium after a 14-round shootout.

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Historically speaking, the World Juniors have not been kind to Team Sweden. They’ve only won Gold twice in the history of the tournament, back in 2012 and 1981. Since their most recent Gold medal, they’ve lost in the finals four times. In the same span of time, they’ve been dropped to the Bronze medal game seven times.

Team Sweden’s Bronze medal matchup was a close one, with Willander and his team ultimately going to a shootout. Sweden won the coin toss and opted to shoot second. In 14 rounds, Sweden scored twice while goaltender Marcus Gidlof made 11 saves. After three regulation periods and a full 10-minute overtime, Willander played 28:06. While he didn’t make it on the scoresheet today, he had five shots on net.

Despite the unfortunate result, Willander had an impressive World Junior Championship. As he prepares to head back to Boston University to wrap up the 2024–25 regular season, fans shouldn’t be surprised to see him in Vancouver and Abbotsford blue and green in the near future.