When he hit free agency in 1998, Curtis Joseph was one of the biggest goaltending names in the NHL. He was coming off a strong regular season with the Edmonton Oilers and was even better in the playoffs, posting a GAA of 1.93 with three shutouts. Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year and didn’t have much in the way of talent other than Mats Sundin. It was the perfect fit. On July 15, Joseph, who grew up just outside of Toronto, shocked the hockey world by signing with his hometown Leafs.

Twenty years later, John Tavares did the same thing. And Joseph, best known to hockey fans as ‘Cujo,’ couldn’t be happier.

“He made the right decision. He’s got a chance to win the Stanley Cup in Toronto and it would mean everything. It would be pretty special,” Joseph told TSN.ca while in Toronto to promote his new book CUJO: The Untold Story Of My Life On And Off The Ice.

“Such a good decision,” he said. “He’s in the prime of his career. If I was management I wouldn’t give too many long-term contracts but he’s one of the few guys I’d give it to. He’s young enough, he’s good enough, he’s got the mentality.”

Joseph said he met Tavares for the first time a few years back and marveled at how he carried himself.

“He’s such a pro, I was so impressed with him. And I’m like wow, when he becomes a free agent this is the guy [for the Leafs] to get for sure.”

Get him they did. Tavares’ arrival has propelled the Leafs to a tie with the Washington Capitals for the league-lead in scoring and to the top of the Atlantic Division at 6-3-0 entering play Tuesday.

It hasn’t been completely effortless. After winning six of their first seven, Toronto has hit a scoring drought of late, combining for just one goal over their previous two games. Both were losses, but that’s okay according to Joseph.

“It wasn’t sustainable,” he said of their scoring out of the gate. “You need those dips in the road to tell you, you know what, you’re not that good where the nights you don’t work you’re not going to win. So you need those bumps in the road if you want to be successful in the postseason.”

“I like bumps in the road, I don’t like losing streaks, but bumps in the road are okay.”

Joseph is no stranger to a high-scoring offence. In 1998-99, his first season with the Leafs, Toronto led the NHL in goals with 268 but gave up the seventh-most. Translation – fast-paced, high-scoring games, similar to the way today’s Leafs play in front of Frederik Andersen.

“I actually loved it,” Joseph said. “I loved it because they rely on you and you can be a big part of the win. And the team has the ability to score. So if you know that in the back of your mind and you know any given two-on-one or breakaway you’re thinking if I save this we can win the game. That’s exciting. And if you like to work a lot and you like a lot of action like I did, it’s a good place to be.”

He’s in a good place nowadays, too. Joseph, now 51, retired as a member of the Leafs in 2009 and admitted that adjusting to retired life wasn’t easy at first.

“It was tough when it stopped. When you didn’t have to train or when you’d get out of bed and make sure you’re legs are good and realize actually it doesn’t matter how I feel today. Every day you’d wake up and think ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ And then realize it doesn’t matter how I feel today, I only have to take the kids to school,” he said with a smile.

Another way he kept busy was through speaking engagements, something that eventually led to his decision to co-write CUJO with best-selling author Kirstie McLellan Day.

“[I would] tell my story in front of crowds of people and they’d always come up to me and say ‘You know that’s interesting, I never knew that about you. You should write a book.’ And I would hear that all the time. So I did,” Joseph said, adding that his wife Stephanie told him the same thing.

The book, which Joseph said took over a year to come together, dives into personal accounts from his career and a challenging childhood that Joseph says fuelled the success he enjoyed in his career. In 19 NHL seasons, he amassed 454 wins, 51 shutouts and a career GAA of 2.79 and a .906 save percentage.

“It was always something that I thought about. It’s a good story to share. And it’s something nobody knew about me, virtually,” he said.

“I’m glad I did it.”

For a deeper look at the new book, watch TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger’s sit-down with Joseph here.