According to a source with NHL, Blues Head Coach Andy Murray Will be named Jack Adams finalists on Friday.
Earlier Story
How does a goaltender go from NHL All-Star to the American Hockey League in one year?
To this day that answer isn’t very clear to Manny Legace.
Last February the Blues placed Legace on waivers when a feud between he and management eventually boiled over to the point it was impacting his performance on the ice.
I recently chatted with the veteran goaltender in Peoria, Illinois where Legace may have saved his career by leading the Blues affiliate into the AHL playoffs.
The 36 year old admits to letting things get to him and his biggest regret is allowing outside distractions to build up inside and ultimately affect his play.
The icing on the cake for Blues management was back in early February when Legace was awful against his former team in Detroit. After letting in five goals on eight shots Legace was pulled from the ice and is almost guaranteed to never be seen in a Blues uniform again.
It’s been widely speculated that Legace’s body language on the bench after exiting the game is what did him in.
“What did they want me to do smile? Laugh? I had my friends and family in the crowd and I was playing my former team who I wanted to beat. I was embarrassed.”
We all know by know it was much more than just that night in Detroit.
The issues involving the Blues and their goaltender actually began in April of 2008 when Legace informed the Blues he needed another knee surgery. Legace tells me an MRI showed a meniscus tear but the Blues were confident the ligament with heal on its own with proper healing time and rest.
Shortly thereafter Legace went on a mini tour where he had his knee examined by Doctors in New York, Cleveland, and Chicago.
Eventually Dr. Rick Lehman, out of St. Louis, performed an exploratory procedure to determine what was causing the discomfort in Legace’s knee. That’s when, according to Legace, Dr. Lehman discovered three bones spurs in the knee.
This obviously didn’t sit too well with John Davidson and company who quickly began searching for insurance in the most important position in hockey. They eventually landed Chris Mason from Nashville late last June at the NHL draft.
The trade frustrated Legace as he felt the writing on the wall was pretty clear and the 2008-2009 season would be his last in St. Louis. Mason has one more season remaining on his contract.
Legace tells me there shouldn’t have been any health questions at the time the Mason trade was executed considering he was on the ice working with assistant coach Rick Wamsley 2 ½ weeks before the draft.
Once the season began all it took was a single conversation with Legace to get the idea he was unhappy. The usual happy go lucky personality was missing from the player who had quickly become a fan favorite both on and off the ice. Legace didn’t shy away from expressing his feelings to those who were interested.
According to Legace he eventually got caught venting to the wrong person.
Early this season Legace was having what he thought was a private conversation with an individual inside the Blues dressing room. After venting for several minutes the conversation ended and before too long the individual was sharing with Blues management everything Legace had just said.
Management then called a meeting with their all star goaltender to address whatever issues that were plaguing their goaltender.
It goes without saying management wasn’t very happy.
At the time of the meeting Legace was off to a good beginning to the season winning his first four starts but it wasn’t long thereafter when he was obviously unhappy and even admitted he didn’t know where his head was at.It was at this time when management began feeling Legace was becoming a distraction inside the dressing room.
At one point in December Legace approached the Blues and asked for a trade.
While Legace will take responsibility for eventually landing in Peoria he does take exception to being labeled a bad teammate or a bad guy in the lockeroom.
When I brought this topic up he was quick to point out how he was the one who organized the pre-season golf outing, how he hosted the Blues Halloween party at his house, and it was him who had nearly the entire team and their families over to his house for Thanksgiving.
I will say not one player ever suggested to me, even in a private conversation, that Legace was a bad teammate. Even Chris Mason tells me he would often receive text messages from Legace after he was waived congratulating him on his solid play.
It would have been the easy way out for Legace to pack it in and carry a “poor me” attitude into the dressing room in Peoria. From the day he was sent down everybody from Blues Management, to Director of Pro Scouting Kevin McDonald, to Rivermen Head Coach Davis Payne raved about Legace’s attitude.
Carrying this attitude with him to Peoria is why Legace will play in the NHL next season. His play wasn’t too bad either posting a 14-7 -1 record with three shutouts in 23 games played.
You can make the argument going down and playing great hockey didn’t hurt his chances of getting an NHL contract this summer. Even his numbers in the NHL (13-9-2) weren’t all that bad when you consider all the injuries and how poorly the team had played when he was waived.
What Legace and is agent Allain Roy will need to do this summer is make it clear to other NHL teams that Legace is committed and healthy. I would expect the Blues do the right thing and give other clubs some positive feedback when they come calling this July to inquire about Legace. When you look at it from an objective point of view, the Blues got a lot of very good hockey out of Legace who leaves St. Louis with 63-49-15 record during his stay here. When you consider he played on sub .500 hockey clubs the previous two seasons, Legace probably gave the organization more than they expected when they originally signed him back in 2006.
Teams will likely get a chance to talk to Manny as well to see where his head is at. If anything, going down to Peoria, allowed Legace to get his focus and hunger back. You know he’s going to come into next season determined to prove he can still play. If you research Legace’s numbers in the primary goaltender categories (Wins, GAA, and save %) going back to 2003-2004, he ranks in the top 10 in each category.
Manny will have to be realistic in terms of how much money he’ll look to earn next season. He’ll have the advantage of being over 35 years old which means he’s eligible to have incentives included in his deal. You can expect Legace to ask the Blues for permission to speak to other clubs before July 1st.
Look, you can’t say the Blues made a mistake by basically releasing Manny when you consider how good Mason was and the fact the Blues did make the playoffs. I will say this though, I think giving Legace an opportunity to play in the NHL for another club this season would have been the right thing to do.
I understand the Blues didn’t want to risk losing Legace to a club the Blues were competing with to get into the playoffs. How bad would it have been if Legace was claimed by a team only to have it come back and haunt the Blues late in the season? We saw other teams such as Ottawa give Martin Gerber a chance to return to the NHL. Sources say Washington, Toronto, and Columbus all expressed interest in snatching Legace on a re-entry situation.
I Had people in hockey tell me the fact that the Blues chose not to use re-entry waivers made it look like it was personal between the Blues and Legace.
I could think of worse things than having Ben Bishop playing every night in Peoria. At least it worked out for the Rivermen who probably would not have gotten in the playoffs if it wasn’t for Legace.
It was strange for fans to see the relationship between the Blues and Legace evaporate so quickly. Probably even stranger for Legace, his wife Gi Gi, and their dog who have been living in a hotel for nearly three months.
Legace told me it’s extremely strange to see his relationship with the Blues go south so quickly especially when he says he signed with St. Louis because of John Davidson being there.
Legace loved playing and living in St. Louis and he says it’s unfortunate that things happened. He told me he wants to apologize to the fans saying that he’s sorry and what happened was his fault.
Rink Rats!
The Minnesota Wild has asked San Jose for permission to speak with former Toronto GM John Ferguson Jr. who is currently working with the San Jose organization.
Neil Smith has not been contacted by either Minnesota or Colorado regarding their GM vacancies.
Hearing Sharks D-man Dan Boyle could be headed to join Canada at the World Championships in Switzerland.
The NHL Jack Adams award will be announced this Friday May, first.
Blues Clues!
Ben Bishop was sent back to St. Louis prior to Peoria being eliminated from the AHL playoffs to have an undisclosed lower body injury looked at. He suffered the injury in Peoria and was brought back for precautionary measures only. Everything checked out fine with Bishop.
Aaron Palushaj was a healthy scratch in Peoria’s game 7 against Houston. He will be working out most of this summer in St. Louis.
Watching game 7 it’s obvious Alex Pierangelo has a long way to go. He will also spend lots of time this summer adding some much needed strength.
Tyson Strachan looked like an NHL D-man to me seeing him play on Monday night. He was easily the best player on the ice for either team.
More players than ever will be staying in St. Louis this summer to train with Blues Strength and Conditioning coach Nelson Ayotte.
Congrats to Blues prospect Brett Sonne (Calgary Hitmen) has been named the Western Hockey League’s Player of the Year!
Congrats to the St. Louis AAA Blues on getting thier U-16 club accepted into the Tier 1 Midwest Elite League.
Congrats to St. Louis Native John Rammage on winning a gold medal at the recent U-18 World Championships in Fargo, North Dakota. Don't be surprised if the Blues try and land Rammage at the upcoming NHL draft in June.
My final Blues Buzz radio show will broadcast live from Johnny Mac’s this Thursday night from 6-7 on KFNS am 590. I am hopeful Manny Legace will be joining me live at Johnny Mac’s located at 10100 Watson rd. We will be giving away our Blues Buzz jersey signed by every guest this year. My show will continue in studio throughout the summer.
More to come,
Andy Strickland
[email protected] 
St Louis Blues Blogger •1380 ESPN • 
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