If you don’t remember Manny Legace, perhaps you might recall him as a goalie for the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues. Legace was once the starter for both teams for a spell and while he did all right in both places, he wasn’t able to carry either team to wild success. Legace did win a Stanley Cup in 2002 with Detroit backing up Dominik Hasek, but as a starter his two best seasons came in 2003-2004 and 2005-2006. His 05-06 season saw him get pushes for being a Vezina finalist after going 37-8-3 with a 2.19 goals against average and a .915 save percentage.
After spending last season in Germany after failing to win a job with the New York Islanders out of training camp, Legace is getting another chance to try and crack through with an NHL team. While it’s great news for Legace that he’s getting a tryout, the unfortunate part comes with which team he’s getting a shot with: Vancouver.
Chuck Pleiness of the Macomb Daily Times in Michigan has the details and thoughts from Legace.“It’s awesome,” Legace said. “I got the call when I was on the golf course and they invited me. They’ve got four or five goalies coming to camp. We’ll see how it goes.”
Last season, Legace attended the New York Islanders’ camp before being released. He played last season in Germany.
“It’s a big twist, a whole different mindset,” Legace said. “I’ve got to get ready for an NHL camp.”
Last year, Legace played for the Iserlohn Roosters in the German professional league. There he put up a 2.55 goals against average while winning 17 out of 40 games played. Going into camp with the Canucks, Legace is almost certainly playing for a job in the AHL as Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider have positions locked up in the NHL while prospect Eddie Lack will most likely be the starter in AHL Chicago.
If Legace can play well enough and earn a spot in the AHL, he’d most likely wind up being the first guy called up in case of injury for Vancouver. With Lack being just 23 years-old and getting him more starts in the AHL to be better prepared to be a NHL-level goalie, bringing him up to backup either Luongo or Schneider wouldn’t do him any good. That’s where Legace could potentially come into play but he’ll have to prove himself this September in camp to show he can handle it.