Stefan Legein Newest Tough Guy on the Flyers

by Geoff Detweiler on Oct 20, 2009 12:43 PM EDT in News Comment 16 comments

What is already more than a trend, the Flyers added yet another tough guy to their team. Today, the team traded defensive prospect Michael Ratchuk to the Columbus Blue Jackets for right wing Stefan Legein.

Legein was a second round pick (37th overall) in 2007 after back to back 100 PIM seasons in the OHL. He showed some scoring touch in the OHL, netting 135 points in 109 games over his last two campaigns there, but has only 4 points and 4 PIM in 34 career AHL games.

In return the Blue Jackets received Michael Ratchuk, a second round pick (42nd overall) in 2006, with 85 AHL games under his belt. Last year, he managed 17 points in 77 games, finishing a minus-7 on the year.

Legein, you may find out by Googling him, "retired" from hockey at the age of 19. Puck Daddy did a story on the strange retirement in which this bit of information was mentioned:

Portzline offers another theory: Legein came back from a shoulder injury last season and wasn't the same guy, either as a player or a person. He wasn't in great shape at Columbus developmental camp, and didn't stand out there either. "Right now, they've been told only that he's 'lost the passion' needed to play the game," writes Portzline. He also gets this quote from Howson: "We knew there were issues with Stefan going back to last spring. We've talked through it with him and we haven't had any success."

Interesting. After returning, Legein had one goal in 26 games. This year, he's off to a better start with 2 goals and an assist in 6 games. Needless to say, this looks like the Flyers taking a chance on a guy. Here's the scouting report on Legein from Hockey's Future:

Blessed with blazing speed, the Oakville, ON native plays a game tailor-made for the new, less-restrictive NHL. His work ethic and dedication to improving his game have been lauded by coaches, teammates, and scouts alike.

As far as Ratchuk goes, Phantoms reporter Tim McManus reported that he was a healthy scratch for both games this past Saturday and Sunday. If the team wasn't going to play Ratchuk, taking a chance on a forward doesn't appear to be a bad idea.

Lastly, the SBNation Blue Jackets blog, The Cannon, had this to say about Legein in their Draft Preview:

Legein had a promising junior career with Niagara of the OHL, being a part of two Team Canada world junior teams in the process. This past summer however, Legein announced that he was retiring from hockey. There are many rumors out there as to why he made that decision, but this past January he returned to hockey joining the Syracuse Crunch. He is still a solid prospect, who can play in the bottom six an agitator with scoring ability, but he has a long way to go to regain the trust of the CBJ brass.

After the jump, a few YouTubes for you.

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I didn’t want to hang Cloumbus out to dry with a half effort.

Certainly an interesting pick up. He equated himself to a Sean Avery type player. Pretty unimportant move though . . .

by flyrsfrk05 on Oct 20, 2009 4:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Another “second chance” from Homer, sure, but the Phantoms’ offensive depth has been a bit problematic and we have more solid defensive prospects than can be dealt with at once. As much as a big deal was made about losing Sbisa, the organization is certainly deep enough to continue without so much as a bump in the road. We’re better off losing him (and Ratchuk, for that matter) than Marshall or Bourdon. Those two are going to make up some kind of defensive pairing in a few years.

by Ben Feldman on Oct 20, 2009 7:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yeah… not sure they tough guy thing is the way to go any longer. With salary caps, one dimensional players seem to be on the way out. If he gets his scoring touch back, then,not too bad. Otherwise, yeah not too important.

by Mike B on D on Oct 21, 2009 9:23 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

to me this sounds more like a move to give Ratchuk some playing time, Flyers have done this a lot in the past moving guys who are buried in our system to get them more playing time to help their career, adding another forward with higher potential that Ratchuk seems like a good move but yeah pretty unimportant

by chrislanci on Oct 21, 2009 10:06 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Seems like we picked up a solid AHLer. With the defensive depth we have in our farm system, why not take a shot on this guy.

by SkookFlyerfan on Oct 21, 2009 4:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Fast, feisty, offensive potential? Sounds like Scottie Upshall to me. Hopefully he’ll be better.

If Giroux ends up permanently at center, it’s not like the Flyers have a surplus of RW awesomeness waiting in the wings. Can we wait to see if he’s better than Andreas Nodl before everybody waives off the trade as unimportant? Nobody thinks this guy can be better than Asham or Cote?

Tough crowd.

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by ronnybrook.blog on Oct 21, 2009 4:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

While he may not be an official authority, I did like what Tim McManus (the beat writer for the Phantoms) had to say about the trade:

After sleeping on this for a night and talking to some people, I think this is a real good trade for the Phantoms. No offense to Mike Ratchuk, but the Phantoms have other prospects who play his style. With Legein, it’s all about untapped potential. There’s a big upside to be discovered here — he was a high-round pick, a guy touted as a can’t miss NHL-er, and he’s played less than 30 AHL games.

This is a low-risk, very high reward move that also happens to swap a position we have a lot of depth at with a position we don’t have a lot of depth at. It may not be important, but it also may be a move that looks like a steal. We’ll know more in a couple of months, but Legein still has NHL-level talent.

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by Geoff Detweiler on Oct 21, 2009 10:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

strange to hear about a guy with mental issues being a assistant captain on the talented World Junior Teams hopefully a change of scenery will do him good

by chrislanci on Oct 22, 2009 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wouldn’t say “mental issues”, mainly because I hear that phrase and think Terrell Owens, Ron Artest, or Steve Downie. While not optimal, he was at least honest about the fact that he lacked desire. I’d rather an athlete say I need to take some time off – not to record an album, ala A.I. or Mr. Artest – rather than go through the motions. I liked his explanation here too:

“It was a long year for me and I guess everyone handles everything differently,” Legein told NHL.com. “I was tired, I was beat up, but I obviously realize (leaving the game) may not have been the right choice for me now. But it was one of those things you have to do; you can’t just fake something like this. It’s a career, so I did what I had to do and now I’m back trying to work back to where I was.”

That was late September of this year.

Again, this may turn out to be a deal that nobody remembers because neither player made anything of himself, but if the only knock on this guy is that he took half of a season off – rather than work ethic like Alexander Daigle – it could be a steal.

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by Geoff Detweiler on Oct 22, 2009 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Downie has turned out to be pretty good as many of us thought would happen. He’s first line again on Tampa Bay with LeCavalier. We did get Matt Carle so it’s not like we didn’t probably win that trade but I still wish we could’ve held onto him to make our forward depth that much better.

by Will21 on Oct 22, 2009 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He also played for Greg Gilbert in juniors. Sounds like he will become a fan favorite in GF and be hated everywhere else. Much like Claude Lemieux was or Sean Avery is today. The guy you hate to play against, but would love to have on your team.

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by Dan Morency on Oct 22, 2009 11:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I’m hoping he’s more Lemieux than Avery, since at least Lemieux had nine 25-goal seasons.

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by Geoff Detweiler on Oct 22, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Man, Detroit hated Lemieux. He did take some shots on Red Wing players during those epic playoff series between the Avs and the Wings. Love it!

by flyrsfrk05 on Oct 23, 2009 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Watched the Phantoms game last night (beat Hartford 3-2). Legein was all over the place throughout the game while playing on the third line with Kalinski and I think Kaspar, and had a shorthanded breakaway where it looked/sounded like he hit the post (AHL Live just live feeds the main camera, and doesn’t do replays). Backlund looked really good. He made some nice saves, and the two goals he gave up were probably unavoidable (both were when the Phantoms were shorthanded): one was a pretty much slam-dunk from a cross-ice pass just outside the crease, and the other was on a rebound in a scrum just outside the crease.

By the way, the Phantoms’ radio guy, Owen Newkirk, is great. Reminded me a little of Don Earle…

by Ben Feldman on Oct 24, 2009 10:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Every report out of Glens Falls says that Backlund has looked great all season, even before he played those preseason games with the Flyers and looked terrible. I find it weird that he wouldn’t have at least shown some glimpses of what he’s apparently showing with the Phantoms.

Was AHL Live free last night?

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by Travis Hughes on Oct 24, 2009 2:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Watching him last night made me wonder the same thing. Though, I remember us (DragonGirl0583 specifically) saying during the preseason that he had everything along or a bit above the ice, but he couldn’t stop anything up high. If I recall correctly, there weren’t too many shots ticketed for the crossbar that didn’t go straight into him. I don’t remember many glove saves (if any at all?), so that might be why he’s doing so well at the AHL level. Course, one game is a small sample size.

Yeah, AHL Live was free last night. I think I read somewhere that they decided to have the preview last night in part because of Chelios’ debut with the Wolves, but it just so happened that the Phantoms were playing as well. I was pretty pleased, but I’m not going to pay $7 a game (or ~$170 a year) to watch the Phantoms. Same thing with Center Ice — I’ve really enjoyed the preview, but it’s not worth even the ‘Early Bird’ price of ~$163.

by Ben Feldman on Oct 24, 2009 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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