Curtis Shayne Joseph (born April 29, 1967 in Keswick, Ontario, Canada,[1] as Curtis Munro), is a professional ice hockey goaltender, currently signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL).[2]
Joseph is immediately recognizable on the ice for his masks featuring a snarling dog, drawing inspiration from the Stephen King novel Cujo, which also happened to be his nickname, derived from the first two letters of his first and last names. Throughout his NHL career; Joseph played for a number of franchises, rising to prominence during some epic playoff series with the Edmonton Oilers, and later with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was also a member of Canada’s gold medal winning team at the 2002 Winter Olympics. He also played for the Detroit Red Wings.
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Joseph was born to unmarried teenage parents.[3] Five days after his birth, his mother, Wendy Munro, gave him up for adoption to Jeanne Joseph, a nurse who had befriended her during her hospital stay, and her husband Harold Joseph. Jeanne and her husband decided to name the baby Curtis after his birth father Curtis Nickle. Curtis grew up with an older brother Grant and a stepbrother Victor. The family was of mixed race with Jeanne and Victor being black and Curtis and Grant, white.[4] It was not until he signed with the St. Louis Blues that Joseph legally changed his name from Curtis Shayne Munro to Curtis Shayne Joseph.[4]
Joseph initially attended Whitchurch Highlands Public School until the family relocated to the Keswick area. Although Joseph led his high school team, Notre Dame College (Wilcox, Saskatchewan)[5] to the Centennial Cup and then played for the University of Wisconsin-Madison of the NCAA, he went undrafted.[6] He signed as a free agent with the Blues in 1989. In 1989-90 season he played 23 games with the Peoria Rivermen in the IHL.
Joseph is nicknamed “Cujo” and has worn the number 31 for the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes, and the Calgary Flames.[7] Joseph is a three time NHL All-Star (1994, 1999, 2000), and he was awarded the 1999-00 King Clancy Memorial Trophy for exemplifying leadership qualities on and off the ice and making noteworthy humanitarian contributions to his community. Perhaps his greatest achievement came in Salt Lake City 2002, where he was a member of the Olympic Gold Medal winning Canadian men’s hockey team.
Joseph broke into the NHL in 1989, he played for the St. Louis Blues. In the offseason following the 1990-91 NHL season, the Blues signed Brendan Shanahan from the New Jersey Devils. Shanahan was a restricted free agent, and thus the Devils were entitled to compensation. The teams could not agree on what the compensation was; the Blues offered Curtis Joseph, Rod Brind’Amour, and two draft picks, while the Devils wanted Scott Stevens. Joseph seemed to be the answer the Devils were looking for in goal, however the case went to arbitration, and a judge ruled that Stevens was to be awarded to the Devils in September of 1991. Joseph would remain with the Blues until 1995. The 1992-93 NHL season was his most successful season as he played a key role in the upset of the Chicago Blackhawks, the reigning Clarence Campbell Conference regular season champions, sweeping them in four games in the first round of the playoffs. The Blues then faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in a second-round series that went seven games, thanks in large part to Joseph. The Leafs eventually prevailed. Because of his efforts, he was nominated as a finalsit for the Vezina Trophy that season. He finished third in voting behind winner Ed Belfour and Tom Barrasso.
In 1995, he was traded (with Mike Grier) to the Edmonton Oilers for a first-round pick in the 1996 entry draft (eventually Marty Reasoner) and a first-round pick in the 1997 entry draft. With Edmonton, Joseph won two Zane Feldman Trophies (team MVP) and one Most Popular Player award. He backstopped the Oilers to first round playoff upsets of the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche in 1997 and 1998, respectively, their first playoff series wins since 1992.
Following the 97′-98′ season, Joseph signed as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a move which made him unpopular in Edmonton. However, it was with the Leafs that Joseph became a superstar and he was consistently one of the most popular players of both his team (since Doug Gilmour) and in the league. While with the Leafs, he had three consecutive seasons of 30+ wins, he was twice runner-up for the Vezina Trophy in 1999 and 2000, a finalist for the Lester B. Pearson Award in 1999, and won the King Clancy Memorial Trophy in 2000. Joseph played a key role in the Leafs’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1999 and 2002. After Leafs General Manager Pat Quinn was unwilling to give Joseph a four year contract (he offered three years), he left after the 2001-2002 season to sign with the Detroit Red Wings. Some also speculated that the relationship between Quinn and Joseph was frosty because Quinn had benched Joseph in the Salt Lake City Olympics after the first game. Joseph had also hinted at wanting to play for a team that could win it all, implying the Leafs were not such a team. Joseph’s move to Detroit was highly publicized and unpopular in Toronto. Joseph signed again with the Maple Leafs on July 1, 2008 on a one-year $700,000 contract.
Joseph moved to the Detroit Red Wings, who had just won the Stanley Cup. Joseph initially was not popular with Red Wings fans but eventually found his form in the latter half of the 2002-03 season to backstop his team to the division title. Detroit was upset in the first round of the playoffs in 2003. In the 2003-2004 season he was originally Detroit’s backup goalie when Dominik Hašek came out of retirement, and Detroit management tried to trade Joseph, since the team also had a capable backup in Manny Legacé. However, Joseph’s $8 million USD per year contract made him hard to move. After a stint in the minors, he returned to the Red Wings lineup while Hasek was nursing a groin injury. The Red Wings plan was to attract him to other teams until Hasek returned to the lineup. But in February, Hasek decided to call it quits for the season, which once again solidified Joseph’s position as the Red Wings starting goaltender. The Wings finished first overall in the league. The Wings were defeated in the second round of the playoffs in six games by the eventual Stanley Cup finalists from the Western Conference, the Calgary Flames.
Joseph moved to the Phoenix Coyotes via free agency in 2005 and signed a one year deal. On October 28, 2005, he won his 400th NHL game. On March 28, 2006, he posted his 424th career win, thereby moving into sixth place on the NHL’s all-time list, passing Tony Esposito. Joseph had shown interest in re-joining the Toronto Maple Leafs, indicating that he would be fine with a back-up role and a reduced salary. In September 2007 the Ottawa Senators quietly expressed interest in acquiring Joseph if they could unload Martin Gerber and his large contract. Joseph was a member of Team Canada in the 2007 Spengler Cup, leading them to the championship on December 31, 2007.[8]
On January 14, 2008, Joseph signed a one-year, US$1.5 Million contract with the Calgary Flames [1]. On March 1st of 2008, Joseph moved past Terry Sawchuk for fourth place in all-time NHL wins with 448 in a 3-1 win over his former team, the Phoenix Coyotes. On April 13, 2008 Joseph replaced Mikka Kiprusoff less than four minutes into the first period of Game #3 of the Flames’ first round series of the 2008 playoffs with the San Jose Sharks. Joseph backstopped the Flames to an exciting come from behind 4-3 win after initially falling behind 3-0. This win made him the first goaltender ever to win a post-season game as a member of five different teams: St.Louis, Edmonton, Toronto, Detroit, and Calgary
On July 1, 2008, Joseph rejoined the Toronto Maple Leafs on a one year contract to be Vesa Toskala’s backup.
Scouting Report
Assets
Has a wealth of experience. Is extremely agile. Usually controls his rebounds with aplomb. Just when you think he’s down and out, he makes a miraculous stop.
Flaws
Gets into odd funks whenever he plays too deep in his net. Has never been very good at handling the puck. Can he adjust to a backup role to end his career?
Curtis Joseph Career Statistics
Goalie
Born Apr 29 1967 — Keswick, ONT
Height 5.11 — Weight 188 — Shoots L
Season Team Lge GP Min GA EN SO GAA W L T Svs Pct
———————————————————————————————–
1988-89 U. of Wisconsin NCAA 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0 0 0.000
1989-90 St. Louis Blues NHL 15 852 48 0 0 3.38 9 5 1 387 0.890
1989-90 Peoria Rivermen IHL 23 1241 80 0 0 3.87 10 8 2 0 0.000
1990-91 St. Louis Blues NHL 30 1710 89 0 0 3.12 16 10 2 785 0.898
1991-92 St. Louis Blues NHL 60 3494 175 5 2 3.01 27 20 10 1778 0.910
1992-93 St. Louis Blues NHL 68 3890 196 7 1 3.02 29 28 9 2006 0.911
1993-94 St. Louis Blues NHL 71 4127 213 0 1 3.10 36 23 11 2169 0.911
1994-95 St. Louis Blues NHL 36 1914 89 0 1 2.79 20 10 1 815 0.902
1995-96 Las Vegas Thunder IHL 15 874 29 0 1 1.99 12 2 1 377 0.929
1995-96 Edmonton Oilers NHL 34 1936 111 4 0 3.44 15 16 2 860 0.886
1996-97 Edmonton Oilers NHL 72 4100 200 3 6 2.93 32 29 9 1944 0.907
1997-98 Edmonton Oilers NHL 71 4132 181 6 8 2.63 29 31 9 1901 0.905
1998-99 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 67 4001 171 4 3 2.56 35 24 7 1732 0.910
1999-00 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 63 3801 158 4 4 2.49 36 20 7 1854 0.915
2000-01 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 68 4100 163 5 6 2.39 33 27 8 1907 0.915
2001-02 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 51 3065 114 4 4 2.23 29 17 5 1210 0.906
2002-03 Detroit Red Wings NHL 61 3566 148 3 5 2.49 34 19 6 1528 0.912
2003-04 Detroit Red Wings NHL 31 1707 68 2 2 2.39 16 10 3 676 0.909
2003-04 Grand Rapids Griffins AHL 1 60 1 0 0 1.00 1 0 0 20 0.952
2005-06 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 60 3424 166 3 4 2.91 32 21 3 1524 0.902
2006-07 Phoenix Roadrunners ECHL 55 2993 159 2 4 3.19 18 31 2 1322 0.893
2006-07 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 55 2993 159 2 4 3.19 18 31 2 1322 0.893
2007-08 Calgary Flames NHL 9 400 17 1 0 2.55 3 2 0 164 0.906
— Regular Season — —- Playoffs —-
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
————————————————————————————–
1985-86 Richmond Hill Dynes OJHL 33 0 0 0 27
1986-87 Richmond Hill Dynes OJHL 0 0 0 0 0
1988-89 U. of Wisconsin NCAA 38 0 1 1 15
1989-90 Peoria Rivermen IHL 23 0 0 0 0 — — — — –
1989-90 St. Louis Blues NHL 15 0 1 1 0 6 0 0 0 2
1990-91 St. Louis Blues NHL 30 0 1 1 0 — — — — –
1991-92 St. Louis Blues NHL 60 0 9 9 12 6 0 1 1 0
1992-93 St. Louis Blues NHL 68 0 2 2 8 11 0 0 0 2
1993-94 St. Louis Blues NHL 71 0 3 3 4 4 0 0 0 0
1994-95 St. Louis Blues NHL 36 0 1 1 0 7 0 1 1 0
1995-96 Las Vegas Thunder IHL 15 0 0 0 0 — — — — –
1995-96 Edmonton Oilers NHL 34 0 1 1 4 — — — — –
1996-97 Edmonton Oilers NHL 72 0 2 2 20 12 0 0 0 2
1997-98 Edmonton Oilers NHL 71 0 2 2 4 12 0 0 0 2
1998-99 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 67 0 5 5 6 17 0 0 0 2
1999-00 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 63 0 1 1 14 12 0 0 0 10
2000-01 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 68 0 1 1 8 11 0 0 0 4
2001-02 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 51 0 1 1 10 20 0 0 0 4
2002-03 Detroit Red Wings NHL 61 0 0 0 4 — — — — –
2003-04 Detroit Red Wings NHL 31 0 0 0 2 — — — — –
2003-04 Grand Rapids Griffins AHL 1 0 0 0 0 — — — — –
2005-06 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 60 0 1 1 18 — — — — –
2006-07 Phoenix Coyotes NHL 55 0 0 0 10 — — — — –
2007-08 Calgary Flames NHL 9 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0
————————————————————————————–
NHL Totals 922 0 31 31 126 120 0 2 2 28