Chicago Blackhawks land top prospect already being compared to NHL elite players

Xavier Villeneuve could be a fixture on Chicago's blue line for a decade, or Blackhawks fans might never see him play a single NHL game at all.

That's the honest range of outcomes for the 5-foot-11, 163-pound defenseman Chicago took early in the second round this year.

The comparison everyone reaches for is Lane Hutson, another undersized second round pick who's turned into a legitimate star in Montreal.

That's clearly the dream outcome here. But for every Hutson, there's a bust like Nicolas Beaudin, and nobody around Villeneuve is pretending otherwise.

Alexandre Jacques, his coach last season with Blainville-Boisbriand in the QMJHL, put it bluntly.

"You don't expect him to become a superstar, but you know he can play on the third line, so it's a safe pick," Jacques said of a typical big, safe defenseman. "For Xavier, it's like you're hitting a home run. He's either going to be a Lane Hutson or he's not going to play."

Chicago didn't need another safe, third-pairing prospect. The organization already has other pieces who project into that exact role.

A hip injury nearly cost him his draft stock entirely

What GM Kyle Davidson wanted was star upside, and Villeneuve offered more of that than anyone else still on the board at 34th overall.

"He was just one of those guys that really popped for me when I met him in person," Davidson said. "I just felt the passion oozing out of him."

That passion traces back to his father, who introduced him to hockey at age 4 growing up in Quebec.

"It's going to sound cocky, but it was always my dream and I always believed in it, even at 9 years old," Villeneuve said.

The season started exactly how a draft riser's should. He racked up 36 points in 35 games, while also earning tougher defensive matchups he'd never gotten before.

Then a hip injury sidelined him for more than two months, and he never fully found his rhythm again, especially defensively, in his return.

"The 2.5 months without playing kind of caught up to him," Jacques said. "In the playoffs against big guys, it was a little tougher for him."

Villeneuve didn't sugarcoat it either.

"It was not a good season for me. It didn't go the way as planned," he said.

He considered shutting it down early to protect his draft stock, and in hindsight, he probably should have. Chicago, however, was thrilled with how it played out for them.

He's heading to Boston University this fall, a program he chose partly because it's the same school and staff that helped turn Hutson into what he is now.

"Being in Montreal, everyone loved the Habs, so they were drawing the comparisons," Villeneuve said. "What he's doing right now is unbelievable. Hopefully I can get there soon."

His former coach sees a real path there too. "He's going to be able to do things at the offensive blue line that we had never seen before," Jacques said, pointing to the trend defensemen like Hughes and Hutson have started.

The physical development still matters. Chicago hopes he can eventually build toward a thicker frame, somewhere around 180 pounds.

None of that changes the core question. Villeneuve is either a genuine home run pick or he never sticks in the league, and BU is where that answer starts getting written.