Villemure played a season in the junior leagues with the
Guelph Biltmores of the
Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). He then spent ten years in the minor leagues, principally with the
Vancouver Canucks of the
Western Hockey League (WHL), the
Baltimore Clippers and the
Buffalo Bisons of the
American Hockey League (AHL). He was a star in the minors; in each of his final two seasons in the AHL,
1968–69 and
1969–70, he won the
Les Cunningham Award with the Bisons as the league's most valuable player, leading all goaltenders in the playoffs the second year to backstop the Bisons to the
Calder Cup in their final season. During his minor league career, he led his league in goals against average three times and in shutouts five times. During this time he was called up on several brief occasions by the New York Rangers, with whom he had signed in 1964. The
1970–71 season saw Villemure called to the NHL for good as the Rangers' backup to
Eddie Giacomin. Over the next three seasons, Villemure recorded a sparkling 66–27–10 mark, with ten shutouts and a goals-against average never higher than 2.30, and shared the
Vezina Trophy with Giacomin in 1971. He played in the
NHL All-Star Game all three seasons, allowing only a single goal and recording the lowest career GAA of any All-Star Game goaltender. The Rangers were a powerhouse at that time, finishing second in the league, and reaching the
Stanley Cup Finals in
1972, being the runners-up in both the regular season and playoffs to the
Boston Bruins. Due to Giacomin injuring his knee in the semi-finals against the Chicago Black Hawks, Villemure played in Games Two, Five, and Six. By the
1974–75 season, with both goaltenders aging, Villemure had become the number one goaltender in New York, but had only modest success, and was traded to the
Chicago Black Hawks in the off-season. He backed up
Tony Esposito and appeared in only 21 games in two years, and he retired after the
1976–77 season. In 2009, the book
100 Ranger Greats ranked Villemure No. 48 all-time of the
901 New York Rangers who had played during the team's first
82 seasons. ==Career statistics==