Ever since his Xavier Villeneuve broke through into the QMJHL two seasons ago, he's been slated as a guaranteed NHL draft prospect. In his two seasons with the Armada, the 5-foot-10 blueliner has amassed 105 points (20+85) over 115 games. 

While Villeneuve is widely considered a potential first round pick for the upcoming 2026 NHL draft in June, there's one major hesitation that has come up. His size.

In the 2025 NHL draft, 69 defensemen were drafted—of which, none were under six feet tall. This follows a trend over the past few seasons were NHL teams are valuing size on the blueline.

This is why it's promising that TVA Sports' Nicolas Cloutier has reported that Xavier Villeneuve was measured at 5-foot-11 at Armada camp this summer, as even a marginal increase in height may be enough to propel the star defensemen into the Top 10.

Villeneuve was ranked 14th by Scott Wheeler's preliminary NHL draft rankings, which you can read below.

Multiple QMJHLers Make The Athletic's Top 32 2026 Prospect Rankings As the Hlinka Gretzky Cup comes to a close and teams across the hockey world begin gearing up for the 2025-26 season, the upcoming 2026 NHL draft class is coming into focus. 

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