Three Canucks Takeaways From The 2025 World Juniors

The 2025 World Juniors saw three Vancouver Canucks defenders partake in the IIHF tournament. With the prospects ranging from a first-round pick on Team Sweden to a 2024 seventh-round pick on Team Switzerland, fans got to see a variety of defensive talent from the youth in Vancouver’s organization. Here’s one takeaway from each prospect’s World Juniors performance.

Basile Sansonnens: Still needs more development, and that’s okay

Team Switzerland

Defenceman

0G, 0A in 5GP

Round 7, 221st overall in 2024

Switzerland almost didn’t qualify for the quarterfinals, only making it after beating Kazakhstan 3–1 in the last preliminary round game. Prior to that, they didn’t win a single game, losing 7–5 to Sweden, 2–1 to Slovakia, and 5–1 to Czechia. The odds of making it to the semi-finals were slim for Switzerland, as they ended up squaring off against a Team USA that eventually took home Gold. In their final game of the tournament, a 7–2 loss to USA, Sansonnens played 11:51 and took a penalty for holding that led to a shorthanded goal for Switzerland.

One thing to keep in mind from seeing Basile Sansonnens’ performance in this year’s World Juniors is that he’s still 18. Freshly drafted this past offseason, Sansonnens is in his first season as part of the QMJHL’s Rimouski Océanic. While he didn’t register a point in his team’s five games, he had two shots on goal and played an average of 14:26 per game. Given time and growth, Sansonnens will improve incrementally.

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Sawyer Mynio: Will have a big question to answer at the end of the season

Team Canada

Defenceman

0G, 1A in 3GP

Round 3, 89th overall in 2023

This year, Team Canada was knocked out by Czechia for the second World Junior Championship in a row. Their highly-penalized Gold medal campaign was ended by a 4–3 loss in the quarterfinals, in which Canada racked up nearly an hour’s worth of penalty minutes. Canada’s scoring woes were a central part of their tournament effort, as they finished sixth in the tournament in total goals-for across all games with 13. They finished last in the standings in scoring efficiency.

To start the preliminary rounds, Sawyer Mynio was not registered by Team Canada and sat out until an injury to Matthew Schaefer brought him into the lineup. In his first game, Mynio collected his first and only point of the tournament off a goal by Caden Price. He played primarily on the third pairing throughout his three tournament games, averaging 13:04 in ice time.

The biggest news about Mynio during the World Juniors actually didn’t occur as part of the tournament. On January 4, Mynio was traded from his longtime WHL club, the Seattle Thunderbirds, to the Calgary Hitmen for a hefty package including Sawyer Mayes, Linden Burrett, two first-round picks, and two fourth-round picks.

Mynio turns 20 in April, which means he faces a pretty daunting question regarding his career. He could opt to stay in the WHL for one more year, or try his luck at making one of Vancouver’s affiliated organizations. With his performance in the World Juniors, Mynio could definitely push for a spot on the Abbotsford Canucks. However, Abbotsford is also home to a large pool of defencemen, meaning that Mynio would likely get less minutes or may not even play. He’ll have to weigh his career options at the end of this season.

Tom Willander: Don’t rush to trade him for a win-now player

Team Sweden

Defenceman

2G, 3A in 7GP

Round 1, 11th overall in 2023

Tom Willander placed the highest of the three prospects within the tournament, as Team Sweden came fourth in the standings after a 14-round shootout loss to Czechia on the final day. Sweden ended up in the Bronze medal game after suffering a 4–3 loss to Finland in overtime. The game-winning goal was scored on a Finnish 4-on-3 advantage after Willander was sent to the box for a holding penalty.

Despite the unfortunate loss to Finland, Willander had a great showing during the tournament. He was a consistent minute-eater for Sweden’s defence, leading his team in time on ice for five of the seven games they played. His defensive prowess shone through in his on-ice awareness and dependable presence on the blueline.

Offensively speaking, Willander impressed with two goals and three assists. He scored both of his goals and an assist during Sweden’s match against Switzerland, which also happened to be one of the games when he tallied less time on ice. He also had 27 total shots on goal throughout the tournament, which tied him for the third-highest total on his team.

With trade rumours circling around the Canucks, from his performance at the World Juniors, the team shouldn’t rush to trade Willander for a player who can help them win-now. Willander’s solid defensive play and added offence are important tools for Vancouver to have in their collection of prospects.

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