The Blackhawks selected Xavier Villeneuve with their 34th overall selection and he's already making headlines. After the Blackhawks shamefully overpaid for Bowen Byram and sold their 4th overall selection, much of the media attention surrounding the draft has centered upon their second round selections in Xavier Villeneuve and Ryan Roobroeck.
The young pair has had much media attention in the days following the draft, and Villeneuve had some choice things to say about the Blackhawks history with the Stanley Cup through the 2010s. It's striking to really understand how young these newly drafted players are until they say something about growing up admiring certain players.
Villeneuve grew up admiring a Blackhawks legend
"I did, I was young, I was three years old, but, actually my brother was a die-hard Hawks fan growing up, and I loved Duncan Keith growing up, he was my idol, so, no, I watched pretty much all their good years, and now with Connor Bedard, it was fun to watch also, so, yeah."Xavier Villeneuve
Growing up in hockey during that time era was a wild one, and the Blackhawks were a hard team to miss. It's no different than a kid of the 90s growing up and idolizing Mark McGuire or Sammy Sosa, even though you weren't from their cities. Duncan Keith was one of the top players at the time, and one of the toughest to ever grace the ice in a Blackhawks uniform.
Villeneuve has a long way to go before he earns comparisons to a player like Keith, but his appreciation for Blackhawks history is already evident. For a fan base eager to embrace the organization's next generation, name dropping a legend is a pretty good way to make a first impression.
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