ESPN's Pierre LeBrun both reported on his blog and announced on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada veteran goaltender Curtis Joseph will officially announce his retirement on January 12th at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
LeBrun believes Joseph should be a Hall of Fame goaltender, citing his 454 career victories (fourth all-time amongst NHL goalies) and while acknowledging he never won a Stanley Cup his playoff performances for underdog teams in St. Louis and Edmonton were outstanding, and called him the backbone of the Toronto Maple Leafs around the turn of this century.
Good points, but his inability to take a team to a Stanley Cup championship will likely slow "CuJo's" induction although I feel it'll be eventual.
His regular season numbers are impressive, for including his career victories numbers he also had 52 career regular season shutouts and an overall record of 454-352-90, but his 2.79 GAA and .906 save percentage don't measure up particularly well against other recent goaltending inductee to the Hall.
And his playoff record 63-66 isn't particularly stellar, although interestingly his post-season GAA (2.45) and SP (.917) are better than his regular season stats.
CuJo left the Leafs via free agency in the summer of 2002 and played for Detroit, Phoenix and Calgary before returning to Toronto last season as a backup. He went unsigned as an unrestricted free agent this season which undoubtedly led to his decision to retire
Joseph had a very good NHL career,was beloved by fans in St. Louis and Edmonton and was worshiped in Toronto, but he'll be remembered as a goalie who was outstanding in early playoff rounds but couldn't lift his teams into a championship.