FanHouse David Legwand

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Central Division.

The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to build off a magical season. Columbus got its first taste of playoff hockey, while St. Louis returned to the playoffs after a far-too-long absence. Meanwhile, Nashville is trying to rebound after just missing the cut for the Western Conference playoffs.

Devils 5, Thrashers 1: The Devils jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and never really looked back on their way to a 5-1 dismantling of Atlanta. At one point, the Thrashers were being outshot by a 22-5 margin in the second period, while they went 0-for-7 with the man advantage. Travis Zajac, John Madden, Zach Parise, David Clarkson and Brian Gionta all scored goals for the Devils, who have now won nine of their past 10 games. Atlanta has lost five of six.

Stars 10, Rangers 2: Sean Avery's old team dismantles what could be his future team, as the Stars erupt for five third period goals on their way to a 10-2 win. Rough night for Rangers goalie Steve Valiquette who was in net for all 10 goals.

It was a great night of rivalries in the NHL on Tuesday, including a classic original six tilt in Boston, where the Bruins pulled out a 3-1 win over Montreal.

Tim Thomas stopped 34-of-35 shots, and even inserted himself into the rough stuff when he clobbered Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn just moments after he sent Aaron Ward into the boards.

Kostitsyn gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead early in the second period, until Zdeno Chara added a pair of power play goals later in the period. David Krejci put the game out of reach late in the third period, scoring 17th goal of the season, helping lead the Bruins to their third straight win. Montreal had won four in a row, and eight of its past nine entering the game.

Nikita Filatov, the No. 5 overall pick in this year's Entry Draft, entered play on Saturday night for Columbus with one goal in his first five NHL games. During the Blue Jackets 4-2 win over Minnesota, the 18-year-old rookie notched his first career hat trick -- and recorded an assist -- helping lead Columbus to its second straight win and sixth in its past eight games.

Steve Mason continued his strong play in net for the Blue Jackets, turning aside 21 of 23 shots to pick up his 15th win of the season. It's a big win for Columbus, as it entered the game trailing the Wild by one point in the Western Conference standings.

Mason is still leading the league in goals against average and save percentage, and he is still not an all-star. Crazy.

Paul Maurice made his debut in his second stint with the Hurricanes on Thursday night, and, well, it wasn't exactly an impressive showing by Carolina, as the Penguins walked out of the building with a 5-2 win. Sidney Crosby registered four assists on the night, while Petr Sykora picked up a pair of power play goals to lead the Penguins.

Carolina goalie Michael Leighton struggled most of the night, giving up the five goals on only 22 shots. He struggled with puck control and wasn't exactly helped by his defense, as they were guilty of a few costly turnovers in the defensive zone. With the Hurricanes trailing 1-0 in the first, Josef Melichar (former Penguin) turned the puck over to Pascal Dupuis who ripped a shot behind Leighton giving the Penguins an early 2-0 lead.

Ruslan Fedotenko and Miroslav Satan also scored for the Penguins, while Tuomo Ruutu and Matt Cullen scored the only two goals of the night for Carolina. Both goals brought the Hurricanes to within two goals on the scoreboard, only to have the Penguins quickly strike back, squashing any momentum Carolina may have built.

The Hurricanes have now lost four of their past five games.

The San Jose Sharks continued to distance themselves from the rest of the National Hockey League on Monday night, as they beat Nashville, 4-1, to improve to 16-3-1 on the season. The Sharks have earned at least a point in 11 of their previous 12 games, as they now have an 11 point lead over second-place Anaheim in the Pacific Division.

Brian Boucher started in goal for the sixth consecutive game in place of the injured Evgeni Nabokov, stopping 32 of 33 shots for the win. San Jose received goals from Devin Setoguchi, Jody Shelley, Patrick Marleau, and Thomas Plihal, while David Legwand added a shorthanded goal for Nashville midway through the third period.

Setoguchi has 22 points in the Sharks first 20 games, while he's also filled the net four times in his previous four contests. As a team, the Sharks have a league-high 73 goals, seven more than second-place Detroit. Meanwhile, Boucher continued his solid play in net, as he's now 6-1-1 on the season, including 4-1-1 since taking over for Nabokov.

Perhaps the most newsworthy item from the game, aside from the Sharks continuing to systematically dismantle whatever team lines up across from them, was the fact Nashville's Jason Arnott had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher when he was knocked into Boucher during the first period. According to the AP game report, Arnott was taken to a local hospital and is being held for precautionary reasons.

It's easy to get caught in all of the pre-draft hype that is kicking in to full gear this month. Every wide-eyed kid is a future NHLer, and will bring some measure of success to their NHL club, right?

Now that we are a decade removed from the 1998 Entry Draft, we can take a look back and see just how much of an impact that draft class had on the NHL. Lots of broken hearts, disappointment, a few pleasant surprises, and a trio of the game's brightest stars.

Rewinding back 10 years, the hype surrounding Vincent Lecavalier was fierce, and came close to rivaling that of Sidney Crosby. Lecavalier was the BIG center that every team craved. Remember, these were the days that everyone wanted their own Mats Sundin or Eric Lindros. Fueling the hype was the fact that the owner of the Lightning at the time referred to Lecavalier as 'The Micheal Jordan of Hockey'.

Just a little bit ahead of yourself, buddy?

Well, we know Lecavalier, after some growing pains, really did pan out into one of the best players in the game, although he's no MJ. In the age when most #1 overall picks didn't seem to turn out to be the best from that particular draft, Lecavalier broke that 'curse' and proved himself to be far better than the guy taken #2: David Legwand.

While the trading away of veterans Tomas Vokoun, Scott Hartnell, and Kimmo Timonen signaled a cleaning of the Nashville Predators' house, and reeked of a ' asset sell off', the Preds have quietly done a good job in securing their premium young players to long-term deals.

First, it was David Legwand, who signed for 6 seasons and $27 million. Now? It's Martin Erat, who was rewarded for his fine playmaking skills with a 7-year deal worth $31.5 million. W00t!

"Martin Erat is a perfect example of this organization's philosophy," Poile said. "He came to us as a seventh-round draft pick, and grew steadily into an elite player when given an opportunity to succeed. He has continued to take on more responsibility and is an integral part of our team moving forward. We look forward to his leadership and production for the next seven years."

As fellow FanHouser James Mirtle notes, Erat is getting paid quite handsomely for a guy who puts up a good-but-not-great 55-60 points a season. Given Erat's upside, he *should* be able to do better in the future, and he has the skills to do so.

Next up for the Preds? Ryan Suter and Shea Weber, the two cornerstone defensemen who will both want similar contracts, and one Dan Ellis, who won the #1 goaltender's job after Chris Mason laid a whole basket of eggs.

David Legwand had the blessing and curse of being the first player ever NHL Entry selected by the Nashville Predators, 2nd overall waaaaaaay back in 1998.

Despite the fact that the sale of the Preds is in limbo, and many other contracts were slashed and traded to greatly reduce payroll, the Preds seemingly had no problem coming up with the cash to lock Legwand down to a 6-year/$27mil deal.

"This is the first step moving forward under new ownership and is a sign of commitment, a desire to win and a desire to keep the core of our young team together in Nashville," said GM David Poile in a team statement.

Legwand is tied for second on the team this season in points (21) and assists.

Last season, he posted career-highs in points (63), goals (27) and assists (36), helping the Predators to their best finish in franchise history

$4.5mil per season for Legwand? That seems pricey, especially for someone know to have been a career underachiever.

Well, under the radar of most hockey fans, including myself, Legwand has greatly improved and developed over the past season-and-a-half, and has put up 84 points in his last 104 games.

From 1999 to mid-2006, Legwand was basically a guy with a lot of tools, but no toolbox to put them in. Putting up about a point every two games, Legwand was far from the franchise player that he was drafted to be, and was basically ye olde average player. Then, last season, Legwand finally found the spark and made the leap to being an impact player offensively, as well as a dependable defensive presence.

Legwand isn't a star by any stretch of the imagination, but he is important to the Nashville franchise, and his production merits a long-term deal of this nature. Let's not forget that Legwand is only 27 years of age, and still has many productive years ahead of him. Perhaps, he'll bring his game to another level and get to where he can reach the 70-point plateau.