Do you think British Columbian native David LeNeveu thought the first time he would dress for a New York Rangers game would be to back up Henrik Lundqvist in the Stanley Cup Finals? Neither did we, but that's exactly what happened when season-long back-up Cam Talbot fell prey to a mysterious injury mid-series. Although LeNeveu, 31, didn't actually play against Los Angeles, his 12-9 (1.74) combined record in 23 games with Providence and Hartford of the AHL looked good on paper. While the life-long minor leaguer and his Hartford teammate Jason Missiaen could both conceivably get a call from their parent club in the upcoming campaign, they will very likely spend most of their season stopping pucks for the Wolf Pack.
LeNeveu is an organizational goalie whose best role may be that of a backup goaltender in the AHL.
AHL veteran will provide organizational depth for Columbus.
Depth goalie returns from Austria to be a backup in the AHL.
David LeNeveu, the second round pick of the Coyotes in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, has not been able to put together a solid season at the NHL level. Two seasons ago, he was the one time backup to Curtis Joseph, and last season he was reassigned to the Coyotes AHL affiliate San Antonio Rampage. In 37 games with the Rampage, he went 13-20-2 and a 2.97 GAA along with a .907 save percentage. With the signing of David Aebischer and Alex Auld, he will have to fight extremely hard to get back to the Coyotes team.
The goalie of the future all of a sudden has some competition! With Curtis Joseph back for another year and Mike Morrison pushing for the backup position, LeNeveu will need to be on his game. Should he win the backup role, he could see 30 games on a very talented Coyotes team.
Only 22-years-old heading into the 2005-06 season, LeNeveu is considered one of the best prospects in the Phoenix organization. He broke all of Ken Dryden's records while at Cornell University and continued his hot play in two minor league seasons in 03-04 and 04-05.
