Manny Legacé

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Position Goaltender
Shoots Left
Height
Weight		 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
162 lb (73 kg/11 st 8 lb)
NHL Team
F. teams		 St. Louis Blues
Detroit Red Wings
Los Angeles Kings
Nationality Flag of Canada Canada
Born February 4, 1973 (1973-02-04) (age 35),
Alliston, ON, CAN
NHL Draft 188th overall, 1993
Hartford Whalers
Pro career 1998 – present

Emanuel Legacé (born February 4, 1973 in Alliston, Ontario) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender with the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. He has also played for the Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Prior to being selected by the Whalers, Legace played in the OHL with the Niagara Falls Thunder and in the Roller Hockey League RHI for the Toronto Planets. Legacé spent the 1993–1994 season as a member of the Canadian National Team and played in 16 games.

From there, Legacé spent a lengthy apprenticeship in the minor leagues, largely for the AHL's Springfield Falcons between 1994–98. He was a star with Springfield, garnering First Team All-Star honors and the AHL's leading goaltender award in 1996.

He also played a brief stint for the ECHL's Richmond Renegades in 1996–97, and for the IHL's Las Vegas Thunder in 1997–98. On July 31, 1998, the Carolina Hurricanes, traded Legace to the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional draft pick in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft.

Although he spent most of the 1998–1999 season with the IHL Long Beach Ice Dogs, Legacé got his first NHL start with the Kings. While he played well in limited action for Los Angeles, he signed with Detroit on July 15, 1999. However, since the Red Wings had both Chris Osgood and Ken Wregget as veteran goaltenders, Legacé was left unprotected on waivers. He was then claimed by the Vancouver Canucks on September 29, 1999. Yet almost two weeks later, on October 13, 1999, Legacé was reacquired by the Red Wings from the waiver wire when the Canucks in turn left him unprotected. While Legacé spent most of his time playing for the IHL's Manitoba Moose, he did get some action in playing for the Red Wings, posting a perfect 4–0–0 record.

In training camp the next season, Legacé beat out Wregget to establish himself as the backup goaltender to Chris Osgood. Osgood had a very slow start, and Legacé subsequently saw much action. Posting a 24–5–5 record in 39 games, Legacé looked less like a backup goaltender and more as a prominent force to be reckoned with. However, Osgood regained his stride and resumed starting duties in the playoffs.

With the 2001–02 season, Legacé became backup to Dominik Hašek. Legacé played in 20 games and only saw playoff action to relieve Hašek during a loss to the St. Louis Blues; the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup that season.

The next season, with the retirement of Hašek and the signing of star goaltender Curtis Joseph, Legacé did see his workload increase from 20 games to 25 games in the 2002–03 season, but remained a backup.

Manny Legacé playing for the Detroit Red Wings
Manny Legacé playing for the Detroit Red Wings

At the start of the 2003–04 season, Hašek made the startling decision to come out of retirement and return to the Red Wings. Curtis Joseph was still being paid $8 million a year and, due to his hefty contract, was not looking to be traded or picked up by a team. While Legacé was initially going to be the 3rd goalie behind two goaltending juggernauts, the Red Wings opted to send Joseph to the minors, while Legacé was going to backup Hašek. Having taken a year off, Hašek had lost his form. Due to this, Legacé became the starting goaltender with Hašek backing him up.

Soon after, Legacé ended up injured as well, leaving the Red Wings to call up Joseph from the minors, along with Joey MacDonald to serve as his backup. Once Legacé returned, MacDonald was sent back to the minors, while Legacé and Joseph ended up serving as the new goaltending tandem of the Detroit Red Wings. Soon after, Hašek announced he was not going to return for the remainder of the season.

As soon as Joseph and Legacé became the solid goaltending tandem, Joseph injured his ankle in a contest against the San Jose Sharks, leaving Legacé to be the starting goaltender and having Marc Lamothe serve as his backup. Before the season was over, Joseph returned to the Red Wings and Lamothe was returned to the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins.

The Red Wings were set to face off against the Nashville Predators in the opening round of the 2004 Playoffs. While Legacé won the first two games, he did not perform to team expectations and was pulled in the middle of the fourth game in favor of Joseph, who ended up backstopping for the remainder of the series. The Red Wings won the series but lost the next series against the Calgary Flames.

Legacé played in Russia during the 2004–05 NHL lockout, but eventually decided to sit the season out, favoring to be close to his residence in Novi, Michigan.

Legacé was the NHLPA Representative for the Detroit Red Wings until 2005, when the role was assumed by Nicklas Lidström. Legacé has since become a vocal critic of both the league and the players' union, especially in regard to how both sides handled the 2004–05 NHL lockout.

For the 2005–06 season, Chris Osgood was re-signed by the Red Wings to compete with Legacé for the starting job. However, due to Osgood suffering a groin injury, Legacé was awarded the starting goaltender role for the Detroit Red Wings. By 27 October, 2005, with the Red Wings defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 5–2, Legacé set the record for the most wins by a goaltender in the month of October (10–1–0). Legacé was criticized for having a subpar performance against the Edmonton Oilers in the 2005–06 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The heavily favored Red Wings were eliminated from the first round in 6 games. While Legace's playoff performance was not up to the level he played at during the regular season, the Wings' general lack of offensive production and defensive lapses were also factor in their elimination. It should also be noted that that the Oilers were not a typical 8th seed, acquiring players like Sergei Samsonov and Dwayne Roloson prior to the trade deadline and having come one game away from winning the Staney Cup.

It was announced on June 10, 2006 by Ken Holland, General Manager of the Detroit Red Wings that Manny Legacé was not offered a contract before the start of free agency (July 1st, 2006), so that the Red Wings could look into available trades and free agents. On August 8, 2006, Legace signed a one-year contract with Wings` division-rivals, the St. Louis Blues[1][2]. In his first season with the Blues Legace played in 45 games, posting a 23–15–5 record. His season was cut short due to a mid-season concussion and season-ending knee surgery, but his play was solid enough to earn him a two-year contract extension with the Blues. The deal was signed on February 24, 2007.[3] Legace has enjoyed success with St. Louis in the 2007–08 season, and was named to the 2008 NHL All-Star Game.[4]

[edit] Awards

  • Member of the 2001–2002 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings
  • NHL Defensive Player of the Week (October 15-October 22, 2005)
  • Named to the 2008 Western Conference All-Star Team Coached by Mike Babcock

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Regular season

   
Season Team League GP W L T/OTL MIN GA SO GAA
1998–99 Los Angeles NHL 17 2 9 2 898 39 0 2.60
1999–00 Detroit NHL 4 4 0 0 239 11 0 2.75
2000–01 Detroit NHL 39 24 5 5 2136 73 2 2.05
2001–02 Detroit NHL 20 10 6 2 1117 45 1 2.42
2002–03 Detroit NHL 25 14 5 4 1405 51 0 2.18
2003–04 Detroit NHL 41 23 10 5 2325 82 3 2.12
2005–06 Detroit NHL 51 37 8 0 2905 106 7 2.19
2006–07 St. Louis NHL 45 23 15 5 2521 109 5 2.59
2007–08 St. Louis NHL 66 27 25 8 3665 147 5 2.41
NHL Totals 308 164 83 18 17215 663 23 2.31

[edit] Playoffs

   
Season Team League GP W L MIN GA GAA
2001–02 Detroit NHL 1 0 0 10 1 6.00
2003–04 Detroit NHL 4 2 2 220 8 2.18
2005–06 Detroit NHL 6 2 4 407 18 2.65
NHL Totals 11 4 6 637 27 2.54

[edit] International play

Olympic medal record
Men's Ice Hockey
Silver 1994 Lillehammer Ice Hockey

[edit] External links

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