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Jean-Sébastien Giguère

Jean-Sébastien "Jiggy" Giguère (born May 16, 1977, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a French Canadian professional hockey goaltender currently playing for the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League. He was drafted 13th overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. He has played for the Verdun Collège-Français, Halifax Mooseheads, Hartford Whalers, Saint John Flames, Calgary Flames, Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Playing career

NHL beginnings

After brief and overall-mediocre stints in the Hartford and Calgary organizations, Giguère was traded by the Flames to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for a 2nd round selection in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. He began the 2000-01 season with the Ducks' farm team in Cincinnati, until he was recalled to their parent club for 34 games. After working with famous goalie coach François Allaire, Giguère regained the confidence he showed in juniors and quickly became Anaheim's newest starter. In the 2002-03 season, "Jiggy" enjoyed the best season of his NHL career-to-date, with 34 wins, a .920 save percentage and an impressive 8 shutouts. Jiggy lead the Ducks to their first Stanley Cup in team history in 2007 with strong performance in the playoffs by going 13-4 with GAA of 1.97 and SV% of 0.922.

2003 playoffs

During the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Giguère led the Mighty Ducks to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost in seven games to the New Jersey Devils. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs for his efforts in series wins against the Detroit Red Wings, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild and pushing the Finals to the seven game limit. He was a perfect 7-0 in overtime, setting a record for longest amount of playoff overtime played without allowing a goal at 168 minutes, 27 seconds, including multiple overtime victories in Game 1 of each of the first three series. He also held the Wild to an all-time best-of-7 series low of one goal in the entire Western Conference Finals, posting a shutout streak of 217 minutes, 54 seconds during that series. He finished with a 15-6 record, a 1.62 Goals Against Average and .945 Save Percentage (the best of all playoff goaltenders that year), and fewer losses than his Finals counterpart Martin Brodeur. He was the fifth player to receive the Conn Smythe Trophy playing for the losing team, the first since Philadelphia's Ron Hextall in 1987.

Recent years

After being rewarded with a large contract in the off-season, Giguère was inconsistent throughout much of the 2003-04 season as the Ducks missed the playoffs. Some hockey pundits speculated that he may have been rattled by coming so close to winning the Stanley Cup the previous season, yet ultimately failing.

After the lockout canceled the 2004-05 season, Giguère returned for the '05-'06 season and appeared to have regained a level of play approaching his 2003 glory. In April 2006, he and the Ducks again entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but were eliminated in the Western Finals by the Edmonton Oilers. Giguère appeared in just 4 games before being replaced in net by Russian rookie Ilya Bryzgalov. With the first round series on the line, management seemed to have lost faith in Jiggy. In fact, Giguère's club record of consecutive playoff shutout minutes was broken by his backup's surprising string of three consecutive shutouts. His overtime playoff shutout record however was extended to 8-0 but was ended on April 27, 2007, in the second overtime against the Canucks.

Facing the prospect of being an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2006-2007 season, Giguère started out hot and won his starting role back. In the first month of the season, October 2006, he did not lose a single game in regulation. He proceeded to put up the best numbers of his career, finishing with a record of 36-10-7.

Giguère won the Stanley Cup in a 6-2 game five win against the Ottawa Senators on June 6, 2007.

Before winning the Stanley Cup in 2007, Giguère had a son named Maxime. Due to this, he was unable to play in the first three games of the 2007 Western Conference Quarterfinals. In game four Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled and it was Giguère's turn to shine.

The size of Giguère's goalie pads caused minor controversy: Brett Hull said "Giguère's equipment in the Finals (...) looked a little suspect" and an unidentified member of the Ottawa Senators said "he looked huge out there".

On June 21, 2007, the club announced that the team had agreed to a multi-year contract with Giguère, keeping their Cup-winning starting goalie. Giguère posted a 35-17-6 record with a 2.12 goals against average in the 2007-2008 season. Despite his numbers, the defending champion Ducks were defeated in the first round of the 2008 playoffs by the Dallas Stars in six games.

Transactions

July 8, 1995 - Drafted by the Hartford Whalers in the 1st round, 13th overall.
June 25, 1997 - Rights transferred to the Carolina Hurricanes when the Hartford Whalers relocated.
August 27, 1997 - Traded to the Calgary Flames with Andrew Cassels for Gary Roberts and Trevor Kidd.
June 10, 2001 - Traded to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for a 2nd round pick in 2000 (Matt Pettinger).
June 21, 2007 - Signed a 4 year $24 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks.

Awards and achievements

1997 QMJHL Second All-Star Team
1998 Hap Holmes Memorial Award (AHL) - shared with Tyler Moss as the goalies with 25+ GP for the team with the lowest GAA
2003 Conn Smythe Trophy (played on a losing team in the finals)
2003 Best NHL Player ESPY Award
2007 Stanley Cup Champion

Trivia

Giguère suffers from a rare gastric condition that causes his body to take in too much air when he drinks fluids. As a result, his body has difficulty absorbing water, with all the sweating he does during a game, thus leading to severe dehydration. This became the case when he was in the AHL during the 1997-98 season. During one game, he lost 19 pounds, became sick, and was rushed to the hospital. Team doctors in Calgary then discovered the condition that caused him to lose weight. Since then, he began drinking water from his bottle with a straw to reduce air intake. He and Steve Valiquette of the New York Rangers are the only NHL goalies to drink from a straw.

Career statistics

Regular season


Season	Team	League	GP	W	L	T	MIN	GA	SO	GAA	SV%
1992-93	Laval	QAAA	25	12	11	2	1498	76	0	3.04	--
1993-94	Verdun Collège Français	QMJHL	25	13	5	2	1234	66	0	3.21	--
1994-95	Halifax Mooseheads	QMJHL	47	14	27	5	2755	181	2	3.94	--
1995-96	Halifax Mooseheads	QMJHL	55	26	23	2	3230	185	1	3.44	--
1996-97	Halifax Mooseheads	QMJHL	50	28	19	3	3009	169	2	3.37	.902
1996-97	Hartford Whalers	NHL	8	1	4	0	394	24	0	3.65	.881
1997-98	Saint John Flames	AHL	31	16	10	3	1758	72	2	2.46	.926
1998-99	Calgary Flames	NHL	15	6	7	1	860	46	0	3.21	.897
1998-99	Saint John Flames	AHL	39	18	16	3	2145	123	3	3.44	.905
1999-00	Saint John Flames	AHL	41	17	17	3	2243	114	0	3.05	.897
1999-00	Calgary Flames	NHL	7	1	3	1	330	15	0	2.73	.914
2000-01	Cincinnati Mighty Ducks	AHL	23	12	7	2	1306	53	0	2.43	.917
2000-01	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	NHL	34	11	17	5	2031	87	4	2.57	.911
2001-02	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	NHL	53	20	25	6	3127	111	4	2.13	.920
2002-03	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	NHL	65	34	22	6	3775	145	8	2.30	.920
2003-04	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	NHL	55	17	31	6	3210	140	3	2.62	.914
2004-05	Hamburg Freezers	DEL	6	--	--	--	302	12	0	2.38	.925
2005-06	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	NHL	60	30	15	0	3381	150	2	2.66	.911
2006-07	Anaheim Ducks	NHL	56	36	10	0	3244	122	4	2.26	.918
2007-08	Anaheim Ducks	NHL	58	35	17	0	3310	117	4	2.12	.922
NHL totals			411	191	151	25	23,664	957	29	2.43	.915
AHL totals			134	63	50	11	7452	362	5	2.70	--
QMJHL totals			177	81	74	12	10228	601	5	3.39	--