A couple of blue-line questions are waiting for the Maple Leafs as training camp approaches, and William Villeneuve sits right in the middle of one of them.
Toronto has been trying to sort out the right blend of veteran stability and younger depth on defence, and Villeneuve’s name keeps coming up because this is no longer a developmental wait-and-see situation. He’s 24 now. At this point, the Maple Leafs need to figure out whether he can be an NHL defenceman or whether he’s still stuck on the edge of that conversation.
Last season with the Marlies, Villeneuve put up 30 points in 61 games, with 27 assists, good for eighth on the team in scoring. The production was solid, but the deeper numbers tell a more complicated story.
He had just 13 even-strength points, which ranked fourth among Marlies defencemen. That matters, because a lot of his reputation has been built around his offensive upside, especially on the power play, where he earned time on the Marlies’ top unit.
That power-play work is part of the pitch, but Toronto needs more than that before it can trust him with an NHL role.
Villeneuve did get a three-game look with the Maple Leafs last season, and he handled it well enough. The team around him was in rough shape at the time - battered, exhausted and having trouble moving the puck - and he came in, kept things simple, played about 16 minutes a night, made the right passes and didn’t get pushed around.
He looked steady. He looked useful.
He looked like a breath of fresh air.
Still, a short run during an injury-riddled stretch is not the same thing as winning a job outright. And that’s where the comparison to Justin Holl starts to make sense.
Holl, a right-shot defenceman who spent a long stretch trying to establish himself in the NHL, signed a one-year, $900,000 deal with the Washington Capitals this summer after spending most of last season in the AHL and getting a brief stint in St. Louis. The coach in Washington is Spencer Carbery, who spent two seasons as an assistant with the Maple Leafs in 2021-22 and 2022-23, when Holl was part of Toronto’s blue line.
Carbery knew Holl well from those days. He saw him every day, understood what kind of defenceman he was and, just as importantly, what he wasn’t.
So while Holl may have been a bit of a whipping boy in Toronto, Carbery still wanted him. That makes the signing at least worth noting, even if it’s also possible it was simply a normal depth move for a known NHL player who can give a team minutes, penalty killing and some physical play.
Either way, the familiarity was there.
For Maple Leafs fans, the interesting part is what that says about the kind of role Villeneuve is chasing. Holl carved out a job as a dependable right-shot option who could handle some minutes and help on the penalty kill. Villeneuve is trying to show he can become something in that lane, too.
The challenge is that the Leafs’ defence should be better this season, which may mean fewer openings than the ones Villeneuve found last spring. He may not get the same kind of chance to slide in and settle things down. If he wants to stick, he probably has to force the issue instead of waiting for a break.
That’s what makes camp such an important test. Villeneuve has the puck skills, the experience and enough offensive ability to make a case.
Now he has to show he can matter when the power play isn’t doing the heavy lifting. Sometimes a player only learns what he is once the easy chances are gone.
This could be that year for Villeneuve.
In Other News...
Alex Tuch Brings Washington A Milestone Chase Fans Will Track
Alex Tuch arrives in Washington with the kind of resume that suggests he can slot into just about any situation. Drafted by Minnesota in 2014, he was later picked up by Vegas in the 2017 expansion draft, spent four seasons with the Golden Knights and then moved on to Buffalo, where he logged five seasons and helped the Sabres get back to the playoffs. For the Capitals, he is more than just another veteran addition, because his track record points to a player who has already handled different roles and different pressure points across three stops.
There is also a bigger number hanging over Tuchs move that fans will be tracking as the season unfolds. After the 2025-26 campaign, Washington brought him in via a sign-and-trade and locked him up on an eight-year extension reportedly worth $84 million, a clear sign of how the organization views his place in its future. The next milestone chase adds another layer to watch, and it gives Capitals supporters one more reason to keep an eye on every point he piles up. [Read more 🡒]