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Curtis Sanford
Curtis Sanford
Position Goaltender
Catches Left
Nickname(s) Sandman
Height
Weight
5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
190 lb (86 kg)
AHL Team
F. Teams
Hamilton Bulldogs
St. Louis Blues
Vancouver Canucks
Nationality Flag of Canada Canadian
Born (1979-10-05)October 5, 1979,
Owen Sound, ON, CAN
Pro Career 2000 – present

Curtis Sanford (born October 10, 1979) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender currently with the Montreal Canadiens organization of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Playing career[]

Sanford played junior hockey for the Wiarton Wolves of the Western Junior C Hockey League, the Collingwood Blues of the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League (OPJHL), the Owen Sound Greys of the Midwestern Junior B Hockey League, and the Owen Sound Platers of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) before turning pro.

Undrafted out of junior, he was picked up as a free agent by the St. Louis Blues after his final year with the Platers in 2000 and spent his first five seasons in the club's farm system between the Peoria Rivermen of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) and Worcester IceCats of the American Hockey League (AHL). Sanford earned a call-up with the Blues during the 2002–03 season after injuries to goaltenders Fred Brathwaite and Brent Johnson in October. He played in his first game when fellow rookie call-up Reinhard Divis also went down with an injury after the first period on October 17, 2002 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He made 12 saves in relief in a 7-1 victory for the Blues. Sanford briefly earned the starting position in the absence of the Blues' usual goaltenders before going down with an injury himself, a high-ankle sprain, on October 24 against the Edmonton Oilers. He returned to start in several more games and posted a 5–1 record and a 1.96 GAA in his first stint with the Blues before being returned to Worcester.

In 2005–06, Sanford appeared poised to play backup to the recently acquired Patrick Lalime. However, as Lalime struggled, Sanford seized the starting position and was having a career year until going down with a sprained ACL in his left knee in March. Before missing the remainder of the season, Sanford had a 13-13-5 record with a 2.66 GAA and .908 save percentage. The Blues finished in last place that year. Recorvered from his knee injury, Sanford returned the next season and competed with Manny Legace for the starting position. In November, he was sidelined for several games with a groin strain, then re-injured his groin in December, missing an extended period of time. Sanford returned to complete the season but saw his numbers decrease to an 8-12-5 record with a 3.18 GAA and .888 save percentage.

Curtis Sanforda

Sanford became an unrestricted free agent in the off-season and on July 3, 2007, the Vancouver Canucks signed Sanford to a one-year, $600,000 contract to back up starting goaltender Roberto Luongo. He appeared in 16 games in the 2007–08 season, filling in for Luongo mostly in light of his rib injury in December. Posting a 2.83 GAA, he was re-signed to another one-year deal worth $650,000 by the Canucks on July 3, 2008.

Before the start of the 2008–09 season, Sanford and the Canucks held a contest challenging fans to submit artword for a new mask design. This was to go along with his new nickname of, "The Big C.S." Sanford's nickname, "the Sandman", inspired his previous mask designs. As Luongo went down with a groin injury in late-November, Sanford assumed the starting position. However, Sanford himself became prone to injury and suffered back spasms in a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 1, 2008, before being place on injured reserve with a groin injury on December 30. With the subsequent acquisition of Jason LaBarbera and the imminent return of Luongo, he was placed on waivers by the Canucks on January 14, 2009. Clearing waivers, Sanford was assigned to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL, where he completed the season.

In the off-season, Sanford signed a one-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens on July 20, 2009.

Awards[]

  • Named to the ECHL Second All-Star Team in 2001.

Career statistics[]

   
Season Team League GP W L T OT MIN GA SO GAA SV%
1994–95 Wiarton Wolves WJCHL 18 949 98 0 6.20
1995–96 Collingwood Blues OPJHL 21 2128 74 0 3.54
1996–97 Owen Sound Greys MWJHL 6 360 28 0 4.68
1996–97 Owen Sound Platers OHL 19 4 8 1 847 77 0 5.45
1997–98 Owen Sound Platers OHL 30 13 10 2 1542 114 1 4.44
1998–99 Owen Sound Platers OHL 56 30 16 5 2998 191 2 3.82
1999–00 Owen Sound Platers OHL 53 18 26 6 3124 198 1 3.80
1999–00 Missouri River Otters UHL 6 3 1 0 237 6 0 1.52
2000–01 Peoria Rivermen ECHL 24 15 7 4 1511 48 3 1.91
2000–01 Worcester IceCats AHL 5 3 0 1 237 16 0 4.06
2001–02 Peoria Rivermen ECHL 24 13 8 2 1418 158 2.45
2001–02 Worcester IceCats AHL 9 5 4 2 537 22 0 2.46
2002–03 St. Louis Blues NHL 8 5 1 0 397 13 1 1.96 .912
2002–03 Worcester IceCats AHL 41 18 14 8 2317 93 3 2.41 .919
2003–04 Worcester IceCats AHL 43 20 16 3 2367 84 5 2.13 .921
2004–05 Worcester IceCats AHL 50 19 25 2 2743 123 2 2.69 .901
2005–06 St. Louis Blues NHL 34 13 13 5 1830 81 3 2.66 .908
2005–06 Worcester IceCats AHL 6 4 2 0 358 11 2 1.84 .929
2006–07 St. Louis Blues NHL 31 8 12 5 1491 79 0 3.18 .888
2006–07 Peoria Rivermen AHL 2 1 1 0 119 49 0 2.52 .898
2007–08 Vancouver Canucks NHL 16 4 3 1 679 32 0 2.83 .898
2008–09 Vancouver Canucks NHL 19 7 8 0 972 42 1 2.59 .906
2008–09 Manitoba Moose AHL 16 7 3 3 865 25 2 1.73 .936
NHL totals 108 37 37 0 11 5369 247 5 2.76 .901


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Curtis Sanford. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).



External links[]

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