Penguins A to Z: Nathan Legare looks like a keeper
As the NHL prepares for a new season scheduled to start in mid-January, the Tribune-Review will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 48 individuals under NHL contract with the organization, from mid-level prospect Niclas Almari to high-profile trade acquisition Jason Zucker.
Nathan Legare
Position: Right winger
Shoots: Right
Age: 19
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 208 pounds
2019-20 QMJHL statistics: 61 games, 71 points (35 goals, 36 assists)
2020-21 QMJHL statistics: 14 games, 14 points (five goals, nine assists)
Contract: Three-year entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $809,167 that has yet to begin. Legare is a candidate to have his contract slide to, or begin in, the 2021-22 season.
Acquired: Third-round draft pick (No. 74 overall), June 22, 2019
Last season: Penguins scouts thought enough of Legare that they persuaded general manager Jim Rutherford to deal away three picks (fourth-, fifth- and seventh-rounders) in the 2019 draft to the Arizona Coyotes to move up and select Legare, a power forward out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Legare impressed Rutherford and company enough during training camp and a handful of preseason games that he was signed to an entry-level contract Sept. 20, 2019 even though he was bound to return to his junior team, the Baie-Comeau Drakkar only three days later.
Serving as captain of Baie-Comeau, Legare led that squad with 71 points (35 goals, 36 assists) in 61 games. By the time the coronavirus pandemic brought the season to a halt in mid-March, Baie-Comeau had claimed a playoff berth, occupying eighth place in the 10-team Eastern Conference.
Before the NHL’s trade deadline in February, the Penguins had some potential suitors kick Legare’s tires but no offers were seriously considered.
This season: While most leagues in North America were on hold throughout the fall because of the pandemic, the QMJHL attempted to power through, albeit with pockmarked, disjointed results as the league has experienced multiple stoppages throughout the 2020-21 season.
Baie-Comeau managed to get in 15 games, one of the highest totals in the league before the entire QMJHL went on hiatus Nov. 29.
Once again operating as captain, Legare was Baie-Comeau’s leading scorer with 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 14 games by the time the league went on hiatus.
On Dec. 20, Baie-Comeau, fourth in the East Division with a 6-9-0 record, traded Legare to the Val-d’Or Foreurs, who sit in first place of the West Division at 10-1-2.
The future: Given the QMJHL won’t restart until Jan. 22 at the earliest, Legare could be a candidate to receive an invitation for the Penguins’ upcoming training camp. With the NHL mandating teams operate with taxi squads of four to six forwards and/or defensemen, Legare has an outside shot of landing one of those gigs.
Long term, Legare is one of the Penguins’ top prospects, partly because of the overall lack of high-end prospects the organization has. He has a strong, accurate shot, and he is willing to mix things up physically. He needs to refine his skating and his defensive game if he is to advance to the NHL, but the base elements of an NHL-caliber top-six power forward are present.
That’s why the Penguins have kept him.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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