The Nashville Predators aren’t a franchise with a long history, but it starts with David Legwand. He was the first player they ever drafted back in 1998 and he’s the team’s all-time leader with 894 games played.
His days with Nashville might be numbered though as the Predators aren’t sure if they want to re-sign him when his contract expires in the summer of 2014.
“There’s lots of considerations,” Predators GM David Poile told The Tennessean. “Certainly, Leggy has been a big part of our franchise, and we would like to continue the relationship. I just want to see how the season starts.”
Part of that is due to Legwand’s age. He’s 33 years old and will turn 34 before the start of the 2014-15 campaign, so his best days might be behind him and he’s a risk in a multi-year contract.
It also remains to be seen where he fits in at this stage of his career. Legwand is a solid two-way center, but Nashville already has several veteran centers signed through 2014-15 in Mike Fisher, Paul Gaustad, and Matt Cullen. With that in mind, Poile wants to see if Legwand ends up maintaining a spot on one of the team’s top two lines.
In other words, Legwand might become the first player to ever log 1,000 games in a Predators uniform, but he’s going to have to prove himself one more time in order to reach that milestone.