Mendes: Legwand likely to break the curse of jersey No. 17 in Ottawa Check number 17 in your Ottawa Senators program and you'll see new winger David Legwand in the lineup. Ian Mendes of TSN 1200 explains that while 17 hasn't seen a ton of success in Senators franchise history, the veteran and former long-time Nashville Predator should change all that.

David Legwand played almost 1,000 games in the NHL wearing jersey No. 11 for the Nashville Predators.

But when he signed with the Ottawa Senators this summer, he wasn't going to take his old number back even though it was technically available.

"Yeah, I mean Alfie wore it forever and it's going to go into the rafters here one day as it should. He's a phenomenal hockey player and it's just something you just don't do as a hockey player. It never even crossed my mind," Legwand told me yesterday.

Instead, Legwand is going to wear No. 17 for the Senators this season - the same number he wore when he joined the Detroit Red Wings for the final 21 games of the regular season last year. He probably would have taken jersey No. 11 with the Red Wings - except it was already being used by Alfredsson.

Legwand says he's not a superstitious guy, but he chose No. 17 now because that's a jersey number he used to wear as a kid. But here in Ottawa, No. 17 hasn't brought a whole lot of luck to any forwards who have worn that sweater number in recent years.

In fact, the last forward to wear No. 17 for the Senators for an entire season was Bill Muckalt, who infamously went the entire 2001-02 campaign without scoring a single goal in 70 games. Since then, Denis Hamel was the only other forward to wear No. 17, producing four goals in 43 games in the 2006-07 season when he was shuttled between Binghamton and Ottawa. (It should be noted that defenceman Filip Kuba wore the jersey for parts of four seasons in between).

Looking at the last few forwards to wear No. 17 for the Senators, you will notice a distinct trend:

Denis Hamel (2006-07): 4 goals in 43 games

Bill Muckalt (2001-02): 0 goals in 70 games

Eric Lacroix (2000-01) 0 goals in 9 games

Colin Forbes (2000-01) 0 goals in 39 games

Colin Forbes (1999-00) 2 goals in 45 games

Chris Murray (1998-99): 1 goal in 38 games

That's a total of only seven goals scored in 244 games by forwards wearing this jersey number in the last 15 seasons. Or about one in every 35 games - which means if that curse continues, Legwand would score two - or maybe three - goals this season.

However, the smart money is on Legwand having a nice offensive season for the Sens, considering he is coming off a 51-point season last year. Somewhere between 12-15 goals seems like a realistic target for Legwand, who will start the season on the Sens' first power play unit. That's a far cry from Muckalt's 2001-02 season, when Roger Neilson - who coached the team for the final two regular season games - put him on the club's top power play unit in the regular season finale in an attempt to buy Muckalt a goal. That strategy proved fruitless for Muckalt, but Paul MacLean seems very confident in Legwand's ability to help the Senators' power play.

The Sens head coach likes the diversity of having some left-handed shots like Legwand and MacArthur on the first unit power play and believes that Legwand was a driving force in the Senators scoring five goals with the man-advantage in their final two pre-season games.

"I think David had a lot to do with getting it organized and having things done. Along with Erik, I think the two of them really took charge and said, 'Listen, here's what we're going to do' and they went on the ice and did it," MacLean said.

Legwand will make his Sens debut on Thursday night in Nashville in a building he is very familiar with, having been the Predators' first draft pick back in 1998. This will mark the first time he's been back in the city since the trade that sent him to Detroit on deadline day last spring, although he doesn't sound like he will be too emotional.

"It's weird going back. Getting traded at 2pm eastern time, I think I was out of there at 7pm and I haven't been back since, Legwand told reporters yesterday. "It's interesting - it's kind of a chapter that is over in our lives and we've moved on."