{"id":541024,"date":"2026-04-04T22:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541024\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T22:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T22:19:30","slug":"why-the-maple-leafs-recalled-defenceman-william-villeneuve-from-marlies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541024\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Maple Leafs recalled defenceman William Villeneuve from Marlies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Maple Leafs have recalled defenceman William Villeneuve from the Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis.<\/p>\n

With veteran defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson<\/a> (lower body) out of the lineup for the game on Saturday night in Los Angeles against the Kings, the call went out to the right-shooting Villeneuve for insurance purposes.<\/p>\n

Coach Craig Berube told media in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon that there would be some other game-time decisions as some Leafs are banged up. On Saturday, Berube told media that Villeneuve will not play against the Kings.<\/p>\n

At practice on Friday, the Toronto defence pairs were Morgan Rielly-Philippe Myers; Jake McCabe-Brandon Carlo; and Simon Benoit-Troy Stecher.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Oliver Ekman-Larsson #95 of the Toronto Maple Leafs controls the puck during the third period against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on January 8, 2026 in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Villeneuve has been recalled by the Leafs a few times in the past several years but has not yet made his National Hockey League debut. A fourth-round pick by the Leafs in 2020, Villeneuve leads Marlies D-men in scoring this season with 28 points (three goals and 25 assists) in 58 games.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also second among all Marlies in penalty minutes with 64.<\/p>\n

Possible participation<\/p>\n

Whether Villeneuve gets in a Leafs game remains to be seen, but considering that the team has been eliminated from playoff contention, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to catch a glimpse of what he could provide.<\/p>\n

During the Olympic break in February, Villeneuve was recalled for a couple of Leafs practices. He missed some games in December as he dealt with a bout of mononucleosis.<\/p>\n

We caught up with Villeneuve at the end of February.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenging year a little bit physically,\u201d Villeneuve said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think my game has been exactly what I wanted it to be. But I\u2019m turning a corner and trying to focus on the last stretch of the season and be the player that I know I can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about being a little bit more direct. I think my defending has been a little bit better, but sometimes when you start overthinking, you don\u2019t move the puck as quick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph Woll will start in goal against the Kings.<\/p>\n

tkoshan@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

@koshtorontosun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Maple Leafs have recalled defenceman William Villeneuve from the Toronto Marlies on an emergency basis. With veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[825,5,3821,793,20,5172,4,782,881,66,31,1725,5171,26189,21972],"class_list":{"0":"post-541024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-craig-berube","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-joseph-woll","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-maple-leafs","13":"tag-mapleleafs","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-oliver-ekman-larsson","16":"tag-the-kings","17":"tag-toronto","18":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","19":"tag-toronto-marlies","20":"tag-torontomapleleafs","21":"tag-villeneuve","22":"tag-william-villeneuve"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116348766171467568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}