The Columbus Blue Jackets have named Manny Legace the club's goaltending coach, team general manager Jarmo Kekalainen announced today. He joins the Blue Jackets after spending five seasons as the goaltending coach for the club's American Hockey League affiliates, the Cleveland Monsters and Springfield Falcons.

Legace, 45, enjoyed an 18-year playing career that included 11 NHL seasons in which he compiled a 187-99-41 record with a 2.41 goals-against average (GAA), .912 save percentage (SV%) and 24 shutouts (SO) in 365 games with the Los Angeles Kings, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Carolina Hurricanes. He was a member of Detroit's 2002 Stanley Cup championship squad and represented St. Louis at the 2008 NHL All-Star Game.

Legace went 24-5-5 with a career-best 2.05 GAA, .920 SV% and two SO in 39 games with the Red Wings in 2000-01. In 2005-06, he set career highs for wins and shutouts with a 37-8-3 mark, 2.19 GAA, .915 SV% and seven SO in 51 games with Detroit. In his All-Star 2007-08 season, he appeared in a career-high 66 contests with a 27-25-8 record, 2.41 GAA, .911 SV% and five SO with the Blues.

The Toronto, Ontario native helped Canada win a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympic Games a year after being named the top goaltender and winning a gold medal at the 1993 IIHF World Junior Championships. He was an AHL All-Star and earned the Baz Bastien Award as the AHL's Top Goaltender in 1995-96 and was an Ontario Hockey League All-Star and the league's Goaltender of the Year with the Niagara Falls Thunder in 1992-93.

In addition to working with goaltenders in the Blue Jackets organization for several years, Legace has extensive teaching and coaching experience. He opened his first hockey school in 1996, served as goaltending coach for USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks and has operated Legace Hockey Academy in Southeast Michigan since 2012.