Manny Legacé

Infobox Ice Hockey Player
position = Goaltender
shoots = Left
height_ft = 5
height_in = 9
weight_lb = 162
team = St. Louis Blues
former_teams = Detroit Red Wings
Los Angeles Kings
league = NHL
nationality = Canada
birth_date = birth date and age|1973|2|4
birth_place = Alliston, ON, CAN
career_start = 1998
draft = 188th overall
draft_year = 1993
draft_team = Hartford Whalers

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image_size = 220px

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.

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.

Years in Detroit

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 to have assumed the starting role for the team. However, Osgood regained his stride and resumed starting duties in the playoffs.

With the 2001–02 season, Legacé became backup to Dominik Hašek when Osgood was waived and claimed by the New York Islanders. 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 saw his workload increase from 20 games to 25 games in the 2002–03 season, but remained the team's backup.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 elite goaltenders, the Red Wings opted to send Joseph to the minors while Legacé served as Hašek's backup. Hašek, however, was not properly conditioned for a return to the NHL. Minor injuries and inconsistent play from Hašek thrust Legacé into the starting role. Injuries to both Hašek and Legacé opened the door for the Red Wings to call up Joseph from the minors, along with Joey MacDonald to serve as his backup. When Legacé returned from injury, MacDonald was sent back to the minors while Legacé and Joseph ended up serving as Detroit's goaltending tandem for the remainder of the season, as Hašek opted not to return to the team from injury. An injury to Joseph late in the season found Legacé temporarily working with minor-league goaltender Marc Lamothe, but Lamothe was returned to the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins when Joseph returned to the roster.

The Red Wings faced 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 briefly played in Russia during the 2004–05 NHL lockout, but eventually sat 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's injuries and general lack of conditioning, Legacé was awarded the starting goaltender role for the Detroit Red Wings. By October of 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). Unfortunately, Legacé's regular season success didn't follow him into the postseason, as the 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers stunned hockey observers everywhere by eliminating Detroit in the opening round of the playoffs.

t. Louis Blues

Prior to Detroit's elimination from the 2005-06 playoffs, Legacé indicated to the media that if Detroit failed to win the opening round of the playoffs, he wouldn't be returning to the team. On June 10, 2006, Ken Holland, General Manager of the Red Wings, announced that Legacé would be allowed to become a free agent. With the Red Wings acquiring Hašek once again during the offseason, Legace signed a one-year contract with Wings` division-rivals, the St. Louis Blues on August 8, 2006. [http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/UPDATE/608080427] [http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=173662&hubname=] . 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 on February 24, 2007. [http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app?articleid=289531&page=NewsPage&service=page] Legace has enjoyed success with St. Louis in the 2007–08 season, and was named to the 2008 NHL All-Star Game. [http://blues.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=349463] Despite Legace's numbers, the Blues failed to qualify for the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

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

tatistics

Regular season

Playoffs

International play

External links

*hockeydb|3081
*nhlprofile|8459308