When Cam Ward, Carolina's chief puck-stopper, went down with a freak leg injury last season, the team called on Legace to fill the void. He shared time between the pipes with 'Canes rookie, Justin Peters, but the former player still squeezed in 28 games with a 10-7-5 record and a .907 save percentage. Such was a great effort by the veteran netminder, but Carolina decided to go with the younger prospect as the backup to Ward in 2010-11, causing Legace to become an unrestricted free agent in the offseason. It's tough enough to predict how backup goalies will fare in a season, let alone backups who are unemployed. However, if history is any indication, we believe he'll find another team at some point during the season for the role of backup duty.
Legace elected for a less complex surgery in April than he had also considered but the Blues brought in Chris Mason from Nashville because of the uncertainty about Legace's knee and the horrible backup goaltending they received from Hannu Toivonen last season. Mason is said to be given a shot at the #1 job with the Blues but judging by their performances last year, Legace has a good leg up on Mason going into 2008-09. As long as Legace stays healthy, we expect him to start 50 to 60 games and post numbers similar to the 27 wins, 2.41 GAA and .911 Save percentage he posted last year.
After a shaky start to the 2006-07 season, Legace really found his game under new head coach Andy Murray before arthroscopic knee surgery abruptly ended his season. Legace will start 2007-08 as the undisputed starter in St. Louis and will look to duplicate his magical run from last December to February. With a healthy defense and upgraded offense in front of him, Legace could put up decent numbers. Don't rely on him as your #1 fantasy goalie, but he's a solid #2.
Legace will be far from the fantasy option he was with Detroit, as losing the Wings' awesome defense in front of him won't help. He gives the Blues a legitimate netminder as they forge ahead in their rebuilding efforts, but look for a significant degradation of his rate stats, especially his wins.
Legace has a solid shot at being the No. 1 goalie in Detroit to open the year, but a lot depends on how quickly Chris Osgood gets well and what the Red Wings decide to do with intriguing rookie Jimmy Howard. Legace normally earns what he costs, on the idea that he never costs much, but even with more expected, we see him as a reasonable buy in most formats this year.
