"We lost a season for no reason," Legace told The Associated Press. "We should've crumbled last September when the owners wanted a salary cap."
Despite at least one report indicating the NHL's labour situation is essentially resolved, the league and the players' association deny that is true.
The Los Angeles Times, citing anonymous sources close to the negotiations, said Thursday the agreement would feature a hard salary cap linked to 54 per cent of league revenue, a 24 per cent rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers.
The salary cap would be $37 million US and wouldn't include medical and dental benefits and pension payments, the newspaper reported.
"They're not going to announce anything until it's 100-per cent finished and I'm sure they're not going to do it before the all-star game," said Legace, referring to baseball's all-star game Tuesday night in Detroit. "I'm hearing it's all but done and the lawyers have been looking over it, and that it could take 14 to 20 days."
Legace said Goodenow did a great job negotiating for the players in 1994, but that the NHLPA executive director failed them during the current negotiations.
"It makes no sense what we ended up doing," Legace said. "For years, Bob was telling us, `No cap. Owners aren't telling us the truth about their books.' Then out of nowhere, he gives the owners a 24-per cent rollback and it looked like we were panicking.
"Then after saying we wouldn't even consider a salary cap, he backed down on that at the last minute just before the lockout. It was too late, and now we're taking a worse deal."
Legace said when he was a players' representative for the Red Wings during the 2003-04 season, he publicly said the union should accept a salary cap.
"Bob came to one of our games and screamed at me in our dressing room after I said that," Legace said. "He freaked out on me. He thought I was showing a sign of weakness."
NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said the union declined to respond to Legace's comments.
Commissioner Gary Bettman cancelled the season Feb. 16 because of the lockout, which started Sept. 16. The NHL became the first major pro sports league in North America to lose an entire season to a labour dispute.
