The Winnipeg Jets have offered a professional tryout contract (PTO) to goaltender David Leggio, according to Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe.
Leggio has had an interesting career. An undrafted goaltender, Leggio has been a journeyman since graduating from Clarkson University, posting occasionally strong numbers in the AHL. He also played a game for the U.S. during the World Championship and has had an AHL rule named after him.
In the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons with the Rochester Americans, he played well, posting a .917 and .924 save percentage respectively. He kept that going the following season, posting a .913 for the Hersey Bears.
However, last season was tough for Leggio. He spent the majority of the season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, where he had a less than ideal .861 through 23 games.
“It’s been stressful in some way,” Leggio told Hoppe. “Anytime… you don’t know where your next paycheck is going to come from it’s hard to plan things.”
If Leggio earns a contract inside the Jets organization he may be a little buried in the depth chart. At the NHL level, the team has Ondrej Pavelec and Michael Hutchinson. In the AHL, promising prospect Connor Hellebuyck is likely to get the majority of the workload. (Hellebuyck took the starting job at the World Championship for the U.S. this spring after the team had him as a third stringer behind Tim Thomas and Leggio the season before.) Jets prospect Eric Comrie is also set to get AHL time this year in his first full pro season.
“You’re only as good as your last game, last year,” Leggio told Hoppe. “People may look at my statistics last year and have question marks. But I … have confidence in myself, in what I’ve done at the American League level and the minor league level.”
Leggio hasn’t closed the door on playing in Europe if he fails to find a job inside an NHL organization.
Watch the play below to see why the AHL changed rules because of actions by Leggio. He faced a 2-on-0 and decided to knock the net off its pegs intentionally in order to give the other team a penalty shot rather than have to face the 2-on-0.
Lots of familiar names are taking PTOs this season. Keep up with all the tryout contracts with The Hockey Writers’ 2015 PTO Tracker.
