Donavan Villeneuve-Houle got his first shot at the big time last week. The three-year former Bomber was invited to San Jose Sharks development camp.
Each year, NHL teams host special mid-summer camps only for top prospects and players with bright futures - a group the 24-year-old Villeneuve-Houle found himself in this year. Playing alongside top prospects and first-round draft picks, Villeneuve-Houle was one of 42 players to hit the ice.
As a Bomber, Villeneuve-Houle played three seasons in Flin Flon from 2017-2020, putting up 134 points in 155 games and finishing with 31 goals and 67 points in his final season, part of the Bombers’ famed “Four Horsemen” top powerplay unit with Alec Malo, Mason Martin and Cole Rafuse.
Since leaving Flin Flon, Villeneuve-Houle - who now goes by Villeneuve-Houle, not Houle-Villeneuve as he did in his days as a Bomber - played four seasons of college hockey at the Univ. of Maine, culminating last year with 24 points in 36 games with the Black Bears. At the end of the season, Villeneuve-Houle was signed to an amateur tryout contract with the San Jose Barracuda, the Sharks’ AHL team, playing four games and putting in his first professional point, an assist. Villeneuve-Houle is also signed to join the Barracuda for this coming season and is one of two former Bombers who are likely to start this season with an AHL team - the other is former Bomber captain Tyson Empey, who got to hoist the Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears last month.
At the Sharks camp, Villeneuve-Houle took part in scrimmages and practices against top NHL prospects, including first-round picks Sam Dickinson and Will Smith and recent first-overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini - during the team’s official prospect scrimmage July 4, Villeneuve-Houle and Celebrini were both on Team White. Despite being down 7-2 midway through the third period, Team White came back to tie the game with less than 20 seconds to go, but would lose 8-7 in a shootout.
Villeneuve-Houle is the latest Bomber to make an NHL development camp, but he is hardly the first. In 2019, former Bomber forward Caleb Moretz attended development camp with the Buffalo Sabres, shortly before starting his NCAA career with the Rochester Institute of Technology. Cal Schell appeared at the Toronto Maple Leafs development camp after wrapping up his Bomber career in 2022, while Flin Flon product Justin Lies went to development camp with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2022 before he got the chance to wear his hometown team’s maroon and white.
Former Bombers like Carsen Chubak, Andrew Johnston, Jesse Mychan, Alex Smith, Cole Wilson, Michael Young and others have also been named to NHL development camp teams.
