Scouting Snapshot: Xavier Villeneuve's ankle-breaking seven-point weekend
Back in fall 2024, one of our first reports on Xavier Villeneuve finished with, “[The 2026 NHL Draft cycle] can't come soon enough.”
It's here, and it hasn't disappointed thus far.
Villeneuve, with his Lane Hutson-esque footwork and fakes, has put on a show this season, creating a season's worth of highlights in just nine games. To show for it, he has 13 points – impressive but somehow underselling his offensive impact.
That production is ramping up, as he's popped off for 10 points in his last five games, including a seven-point weekend. In the two-game series against the Newfoundland Regiment, he continued to show growth across his game.
With possession, Villeneuve looks more explosive, without losing the same exceptional quickness that made him a star producer in his first two QMJHL seasons. He has just about every skating skill in the book, and now he explodes past opponents with a single cutback or a couple of crossovers, amplified by his ability to collect, handle, and pass pucks with his feet moving a mile a minute.
Add in the elite vision and high-end handling, and it's easy to see how he's the owner of the 2026 draft's best highlight reel so far:
Improved play selection has only complemented that added explosiveness. While Villeneuve still puts on a show with his rapid-fire fakes, spins, and dekes, he's playing a more translatable offensive game. He quickly fakes to open shot-pass lanes, spots one-touch options, and has increasingly become a rush threat through his off-puck activation game, as highlighted in our report of his five-assist game on October 10th:
“He opened the scoring with a rush and cross-ice pass on a 2-on-1 that started with a well-placed rim on a retrieval before flying up the ice and picking up the puck in a battle. The other really impressive assist was a hard one-time slap-pass for a deflection – he continues to show a one-touch and quick-possession game. He hammered the post twice, once with a powerful wrister for the point and another time after cutting off the wall, poking away possession, and creating a breakaway for himself at the end of his shift.”
Like Hutson or even Quinn Hughes before him, the major questions around Villeneuve will be defence and physicality. At 5-foot-11, he's already taller than both, but he weighs just 157 pounds. He might never become a true cycle killer in the NHL, but he has impressive stick work and added a lot of contact skills, setting picks for his teammates to pick up puck unpressured, initiating contact well before touching the puck, and using his lower centre of gravity to knock opponents off balance. Developing that side further, while continuing to work on his ability to hold the middle of the rink while defending the rush, should be enough to give him defensive value in the NHL.
A month ago, Elite Prospects ranked Villeneuve at No. 9 in our preliminary draft ranking. If he keeps this up, there's a good chance that not only does he hold that spot, but he could rise further.
