“Candidates for election as Honoured Members in the player category shall be chosen on the basis of their playing ability, sportsmanship, character and their contribution to their team or teams and to the game of hockey in general”
This next candidate that will be discussed for election to the Hockey Hall of Fame reflects the essence of the line between very good and Hall of Fame worthy. Curtis Joseph had been a star goalie for most of his career in the NHL despite not having been drafted. In St. Louis, Edmonton, and Toronto he was seen as part of the answer to their Stanley Cup problems and for the most part he did not disappoint in his time in each city. After leaving Toronto, however, he developed a stigma that he could not lead a team to a championship. Despite that, he is still currently fourth all time in goaltender wins in the regular season (454), and twelfth all time in playoff goaltender wins (63). So the question is, is “good” good enough?
Curtis Shayne “Cujo” Joseph started his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues as an undrafted free agent signed in from the University of Wisconsin in 1989. In St. Louis he would be the starting goalie for their years of playoff contention in the mid-90s with his biggest triumph coming in the 1993 NHL playoffs when he played a key role in sweeping the Chicago Blackhawks, the number one seed in the Campbell Conference. In the next round, however, while his Blues fought tooth and nail against the Toronto Maple Leafs, where the Blues lost in seven games. Joseph also finished that season as a finalist for the 1993 Vezina Trophy as best goalie and would continue to play in St. Louis up until 1995 when team salary restraints forced the Blues to trade Cujo along with Mike Grier to the Edmonton Oilers for two first round draft choices (1996, 1997).
In Edmonton, Joseph continued to cement his role as a top NHL goalie by leading the Oilers, a perennial playoff bubble team at the time, to series upsets against the Dallas Stars in 1997 and the Colorado Avalanche in 1998, that organization’s first playoff wins since 1992. Despite being a fan favourite in Edmonton, however, the Oilers could not afford to re-sign Cujo prior to the 1999 season. During this time period all Canadian teams other than Montreal and Toronto experienced financial difficulty owing to the strength of the Canadian dollar, so re-signing in Edmonton was not an option.
Cujo makes the save with the St. Louis Blues
It was expected that Joseph would end up in Philadelphia to solve that club’s long-standing goaltending woes. However the Flyers chose to go with a cheaper option of former New York Ranger and Florida Panther veteran John Vanbiesbrouck instead. This left Cujo without a team late in the off-season when he serendipitously ran into Maple Leafs’ President and retired Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ken Dryden at a supermarket in Toronto. Once the two began to chat, they realized there was a fit for him in Toronto despite Felix Potvin’s status as the team’s then number 1 goalie. Thus by a chance meeting Joseph became a Maple Leaf.
Cujo’s impact on the Maple Leafs’ fortune was immediate. He, along with new head coach, Pat Quinn (and soon to be GM as well), took a Maple Leaf team which had had trouble making the playoffs, to their best season in franchise history at the time and winning their division. In his first year in the playoffs with the Leafs, Joseph helped them beat the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first two rounds before falling to the Buffalo Sabres in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals. After the season, Cujo was voted as runner up in the Vezina Trophy voting losing to Dominik Hašek of the Sabres.
The next two years, the Maple Leafs’ arch rivals would become the New Jersey Devils, as they lost to them in the second round each year. In the 2002 Playoffs, however, the Maple Leafs did not have to deal with the Devils as that club had been eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes. The Leafs made it back to the Conference Finals that year, beating the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators to get there before running into that very same Carolina Hurricanes who would again not be denied. Joseph put in a heroic effort in that series, losing 3 of the 6 games in overtime, 2-1, and beating the Hurricanes 2-1 and 2-0. However, the Hurricanes would end up winning the series in 6 games before falling to the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Final.
Throughout the second half of the 2002 season there was a perceived rift between Joseph and GM/coach Pat Quinn. Earlier that year, both were a part of the 2002 Gold Medal winning Canadian team in the Olympics with Quinn being head coach. Joseph was the original starting goalie for the team, however after a loss to Sweden in game one of the tournament he never got back into the net. Quinn instead turned to Martin Brodeur who held the net for the rest of the tournament leading them to the Gold Medal. With the trust severed between Cujo and his GM/coach, he decided to explore free agency in the summer of 2002. At the same time the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings had a hole to fill with the retirement of Dominik Hašek. Thus, in theory, the fit was perfect and Joseph would become a Red Wing.
Cujo focused in net as a member of the Edmonton Oilers
In Joseph’s first year as a Red Wing he helped the team to the second best record in the NHL, leading to a first round date with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. On paper, the defending champion Red Wings completely out matched the Ducks as their team did not change aside from having Cujo in net. However what Detroit didn’t account for was Ducks’ goalie J.S. Guigere’s unconscious play in that 2003 playoffs. Just like the year before, Curtis Joseph was out dulled by Guigere as the Wings were swept in four games despite the Red Wings dominating most of the play and Joseph only allowing 10 goals in the series.
The following year Hašek decided he wanted to make a comeback in the NHL and rather than risking his going to a direct competitor, the Wings elected to retain his rights. This situation led to a goalie controversy in Detroit in which Joseph became one of the highest paid backups in the league. This situation is quite similar to when Joseph joined the Leafs and supplanted Felix Potvin in the crease. In this case, however, Hašek ended up having to be removed from the lineup after February due to a groin injury. In the end, Joseph helped push the Wings to becoming President Trophy winners and in the playoffs helped lead the Wings past the Nashville Predators in the first round in six games. However the Wings would once again run into a “Cinderella team” in the Calgary Flames, losing to them in 6 games, ending their season.
The 2005 Lockout season would be a hindrance to many veteran players, Joseph being no exception. After losing one of his “prime” years due to the Lockout, he would move on to Phoenix for one year. Despite the fact that his skills had diminished, he managed to get his 400th win that season. That offseason, however, it became clear to Cujo that if he wanted to stay in the NHL, it would have to be in a backup role. Despite that realization, he had some trouble finding an NHL job which led to him playing for Team Canada in the Spengler Cup tournament, leading that team to a win. During the second half of that same season, the Calgary Flames signed Joseph for the remainder of the year to serve as Mikka Kiprusoff’s backup. It was during this time that Joseph would surpass Terry Sawchuck for fourth on the all-time regulation wins. With a single win against the San José Sharks in the 2008 Playoffs, Cujo also became the first goalie to win a playoff game with five different teams (St. Louis, Edmonton, Toronto, Detroit, Calgary).
To end his career, Cujo would return to where he had his most successful years in Toronto as a backup to Andrew Raycroft. During this time it should be noted that Joseph became first on the all-time list for losses in 2009 with 352. However, since then Martin Brodeur had surpassed that mark with 371.
Joseph stretches out to make the save as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs
When you talk about Curtis Joseph, you talk about someone who was known as a playoff performer, but could not win the big one. For many people, his time in Detroit was the telling turning point in his career. They would point to the fact that he could not win with a team as strong as Detroit and thus maybe should not belong in a class that is the Hockey Hall of Fame. Others, like Greg Eno of the Bleacher Report, would say that Joseph was not given a fair chance in Detroit. The Wings ran into a hot goaltender in 2003 and then Cujo essentially lost his job the next year. After that, Joseph just ran out of quality years in the NHL.
The best comparison for Joseph would be Gump Worsley, who played for the New York Rangers. The Rangers were a perennial basement team in the old Original Six NHL. It got to the point where Worsley was once asked what team he had the most trouble with to which he responded with “The Rangers”. It wasn’t until he went to the Montreal Canadiens at the end of his career that he had both personal and team success.
The reason I mention Worsley is because he was the all-time leader in losses that Joseph surpassed in 2009. Leading in losses does not necessarily mean that you were a bad goalie. In fact, it is the opposite. It means that a team felt that you gave them the best chance to win even though the team in front of you is not great. In other words, it means you’ve played a lot of games. Sadly Joseph never found the ultimate team success in the Stanley Cup. In this stand point you would have to ask how much does it really matter by the end of a career in regards to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Would the votes have changed if Ray Bourque did not win with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001? Would the perception have changed on Eric Lindros if the Dallas Stars won the Cup in 2007? This is a subjective question which would change no matter who you ask.
In the end, Curtis Joseph was one of the greatest goalies of his generation. When looking at the top goaltenders during the mid-90s and early 2000s, you would think of Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Dominik Hašek, Eddie Belfour, and Curtis Jospeh. What the Selection Committee has to decide is where the line is between a “great” and “Hall of Fame” career. This is the story of Cujo’s career.
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Here are my first round predictions for the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Eastern Conference
Tampa Bay over Montreal in 6 Games
Boston over Detroit in 7 Games
Pittsburgh over Columbus in 7 Games
New York over Philadelphia in 6 Games
Western Conference
Anaheim over Dallas in 5 Games
Los Angeles over San Jose in 7 Games
St. Louis over Chicago in 7 Games
Colorado over Minnesota in 6 Games
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Let me know what you think or if someone else should be in the Hockey Hall of Fame either in the comments section, emailing me at
[email protected], or by following me on Twitter @Kirshenblatt.
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