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Curtis Shayne "Cujo" Joseph (April 29, 1967) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former professional player. He last played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League during the 2008–09 NHL season.
Joseph is immediately recognizable on the ice for his masks featuring a snarling dog, drawing inspiration from the Stephen King novel Cujo, which also happens 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 the playoffs with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. He also played for the Detroit Red Wings, Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames. He was also a member of Canada's gold medal winning team at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Joseph retired with the most career wins (454) of any goaltender in NHL history who never played on a Stanley Cup-winning team (which has since been surpassed by Roberto Luongo), and was also the first goaltender to have 30 or more wins in a regular season for five different teams.
Joseph broke into the NHL in 1989, playing for the St. Louis Blues. In the off-season 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, but the case went to arbitration, and a judge ruled that Stevens was to be awarded to the Devils in September 1991.
Joseph broke into the NHL in 1989, playing for the St. Louis Blues. In the off-season 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, but the case went to arbitration, and a judge ruled that Stevens was to be awarded to the Devils in September 1991.
Joseph remained 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; the Blues swept them in four games in the first round of the playoffs. The Blues then faced the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round, and though the Leafs prevailed, the series went to seven games thanks to Joseph's play. Because of his efforts, he was nominated as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy that season, finishing third in voting behind winner Ed Belfour and Tom Barrasso. After a disappointing first-round exit in the 1995 playoffs, St. Louis Blues coach and general manager Mike Keenan declined to re-sign Joseph and traded his rights to the Edmonton Oilers.
The Oilers began their training camp with two starting goaltenders, signed incumbent Bill Ranford and the unsigned Joseph. Edmonton failed to work out a contract or trade Joseph's rights, leaving Joseph without a team to start the 1995-96 season. He signed a contract with the IHL's Las Vegas Thunder and dominated, reminding the NHL that he deserved to be there. The Oilers entertained trading Joseph to the Boston Bruins but would finally sign Joseph to a contract and trade Ranford to Boston. 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 1997–98 season, Joseph signed as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs. 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. In 2000, during Game One of the series against the New Jersey Devils, he was considered the deciding factor in the 2–1 win where the Leafs were outshot 33-21.
After Leafs General Manager Pat Quinn was unwilling to give Joseph a four-year contract (he offered three years), he left after the 2001–02 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, although Joseph himself denied the rumours, saying that he played a bad first game against Sweden (losing 5–2) and that Martin Brodeur played very well for the rest of the tournament, earning his spot as the starter. Joseph's move to Detroit was highly publicized and unpopular in Toronto.
The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2002 and entered the 2002-03 season mostly unchanged. Detroit brought in coach Dave Lewis to replace the retiring Scotty Bowman, and Joseph with a 3-year, $24 million dollar contract to replace the newly-retired Dominik Hašek. Joseph initially blew 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. With an anemic offense, Detroit was upset in the first round of the playoffs in 2003 by the eventual conference champions, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in a four-game sweep. Detroit fans and media focused their frustration on Joseph after he was outplayed by the eventual 2003 Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jean-Sébastien Giguère.
During the 2003 off-season, Dominik Hašek announced his intentions to come out of retirement. With fears of Hašek signing with a competitor, Detroit general manager Ken Holland signed him to a contract with the intention of trading Joseph, but Joseph's large contract and off-season surgery made him was unmovable. Detroit was forced to enter the 2003-04 season with two starting goaltenders earning $8 million USD per year. After a stint in the minors, Joseph returned to the Red Wings lineup while Hašek was nursing a groin injury. The Red Wings plan was to attract him to other teams until Hašek returned to the lineup. In February, Hašek decided to call it quits for the season, which once again solidified Joseph's position on the Red Wings roster.
Detroit finished first overall in the league, and entered the first round of the playoffs with Manny Legace as their starting goalie. After great play in the first two games, Legace struggled in games 3 and 4. Joseph took the reins in game 5 and delivered, winning two straight and helping Detroit defeat the Nashville Predators in six games. The Red Wings were defeated in the second round of the playoffs in six games by the eventual Western Conference champions, the Calgary Flames. Joseph was statistically the top goaltender in the 2004 playoffs.
In the summer of 2005, several teams were interested in signing Joseph, including the Pittsburgh Penguins and Phoenix Coyotes. After taking a call from the new Phoenix coach, Wayne Gretzky, Joseph signed a one-year deal with Phoenix. 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. In the summer of 2006, Joseph returned to Phoenix for another season on a one-year contract. While he was with the Coyotes, Curtis became the first goaltender to have 30 or more regular season wins for five different teams (St. Louis, Edmonton, Toronto, Detroit, and Phoenix); Joseph eventually recorded at least 50 regular season wins with each of those teams.
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.
On January 14, 2008, Joseph signed a one-year, US$1.5 million contract with the Calgary Flames. On March 1, 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 Miikka 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 a come-from-behind 4–3 win after initially falling behind 3–0. This win made him the first goaltender 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 by signing a 1-year, $700,000 contract. Joseph served primarily as a back-up for most of the season, only playing 21 games. On December 30, 2008, he recorded his 450th career win in a 4–3 overtime victory against the Atlanta Thrashers, and on April 8, 2009, he recorded his 352nd NHL loss, tying Gump Worsley for the NHL record for most losses by a goaltender. Martin Brodeur subsequently set a new record and subsequently finished with 397 losses, Joseph's 352 losses were also later surpassed by Roberto Luongo who subsequently finished with 392 losses.
Joseph announced his retirement on January 12, 2010 in Toronto. His career would end with 454 regular season wins, 5th most all time. His 63 playoff victories are the most by a goaltender without winning a Stanley Cup.
During the 2016-17 season, Joseph was a goaltending consultant in the organization of the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL.
Joseph was a member of the Canada men's national ice hockey team, having played for the team in several international tournaments, including the 1996 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the 2002 Winter Olympics, and the 2007 Spengler Cup. Joseph helped lead the team to the Spengler Cup championship on December 31, 2007.
