The New Jersey Devils have re-signed forward Nathan Legare to a one-year, two-way, league-minimum contract. Legare spent the bulk of this season in the AHL, where his 102 penalty minutes confidently led the Utica Comets. Legare also played the first three games of his NHL career this season, with a minus-one standing as his only notable stat change.
Legare was originally drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third round of the 2019 NHL Draft, following a statement year where he posted 45 goals, 87 points, 52 penalty minutes, and a plus-37 in 68 QMJHL games. Legare also served as an assistant captain on Team Canada’s World U18 Championship roster, and added four goals in seven tournament games. He returned to the QMJHL for the following two seasons, and donned the captaincy for the Bai-Comeau Drakkar in both years. But his scoring took a noticeable dip – with Legare totaling 71 points in 61 games of his age-19 season and 38 points in 33 games of his age-20 season.
Pittsburgh signed Legare to his entry-level contract in 2019, and he played through the first two years of the deal in the AHL in 2021-22 and 2022-23. The pair of years were relatively uneventful – with Legare totaling 35 points, 106 penalty minutes, and a minus-25 in 125 total games. Those numbers weren’t enough to plant his feet, and Pittsburgh oped to trade Legare to the Montreal Canadiens ahead of the 2023-24 season. He was part of a package that also contained Casey DeSmith and Jeff Petry exchanged for Mike Hoffman and Rem Pitlick. Legare spent one season with the AHL’s Laval Rocket before being dealt to the Devils in a 2024 swap for Arnaud Durandeau.
The deal he receives today is the same one that Legare signed with New Jersey soon after that trade. This re-up will carry the bruising forward through the 2025-26 season in the AHL, and hopefully give him a platform to further develop his pot-stirring identity. Throughout his career, Legare has totaled 72 points and 269 penalty minutes in 248 AHL games.