From 2011 to 2016, Joffrey Lupul played 280 career games with the Toronto Maple Leafs before injuries forced him into early retirement in 2017. His 40th birthday is coming up in about six weeks, and if he were Mark Giordano, he’d still be lacing up his skates.
In this post, I want to focus on Lupul’s time with the Maple Leafs. He was a really good hockey player whose career with the team was cut short by injuries.
Lupul’s Career Started at Home In Alberta
Lupul’s hockey journey began a long time before he came to the Maple Leafs in 2011. Born in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, on September 23, 1983, Lupul became a 6-foot-1, 206-pound player.
Like many young Alberta hockey players, Lupul showed his talent in junior. In 1999-2000, he played two games at home for the Fort Saskatchewan Traders in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and scored one goal.
Over the following two seasons, from 2000 to 2002, he played for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League (WHL), where he put up impressive numbers. In his second season with the Tigers, he scored 56 goals and 50 assists (for a remarkable 106 points).
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During the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks chose Lupul in the first round (seventh overall). Playing one more season in Medicine Hat, he dominated with 41 goals and 37 assists (for 78 points) in 50 regular-season games. He also added 15 points (four goals and 11 assists) in 11 playoff games.
Lupul Migrates to the NHL’s Ducks
The 2003-2004 season marked Lupul’s move to the NHL with the then-Mighty Ducks. He played 75 regular-season games, registering 34 points (13 goals and 21 assists). During the 2004-2005 NHL lockout, Lupul flew to Ohio to play for the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, where he scored 56 points (30 goals and 26 assists) in 65 games.
When the lockout ended, Lupul returned to Anaheim for the 2005-2006 season, scoring 53 points (28 goals and 25 assists) in 81 games. In the playoffs, he added 11 points (nine goals and two assists) in 16 games.
A much-ballyhooed trade sent him home to Alberta in July 2006, when the Ducks received star defenseman Chris Pronger from the Edmonton Oilers for Lupul and a ton of draft picks. In Edmonton, the trade was celebrated as a chance to bring a local player home.
Sadly, it didn’t work well for Lupul. During the 2006-2007 season, he played in 81 regular-season games with only 28 points (16 goals and 12 assists). He was then moved to the Philadelphia Flyers, where he rediscovered his offense. In 2007-08, he put up 46 points (20 goals and 26 assists) in 56 games and 25 goals and 25 assists (for 50 points) the following season.
Lupul Was Traded for Pronger a Second Time
In a curious turn of events, Lupul was again traded to the Ducks in another Pronger trade (he was moved to the Flyers). Coming full circle, he played parts of two seasons with the Ducks before being moved to the Maple Leafs.
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During those two seasons, he suffered his first significant injury and suffered complications from surgery to fix a herniated disk. During a second surgery, he developed a blood infection, which required months of antibiotics and bed rest before he could get back in NHL shape. He missed huge chunks of two seasons, playing 23 and 26 games, respectively. In 2010-11, he moved back to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch for three games.
Before he arrived in Toronto, Lupul had already taken a wandering tour and had suffered his first major back injury, so no one knew what kind of player he would be.
Lupul’s Time with the Maple Leafs
The Ducks traded Lupul to the Maple Leafs on February 9, 2011, along with defenseman Jake Gardiner. In exchange, the Ducks received defenseman Francois Beauchemin and a fourth-round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft.
(Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
The Maple Leafs were looking to add firepower to their offense while offering the Ducks a defenseman to solidify their blue line. Lupul’s move to the Maple Leafs was a new and, ultimately, the final chapter of his career, but he again became a player depended upon for his scoring and offensive contributions.
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During his six seasons in Toronto, Lupul contributed significantly to the team’s success. Between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 NHL seasons, he scored 88 goals and added 94 assists (for 182 points) in 280 games. His best season was in 2011-12, when he totaled 67 points with 25 goals and an impressive 42 assists in 66 games.
Lupul Accuses the Maple Leafs of Cheating
During his final days with the Maple Leafs, Lupul faced more injury adversity. He made headlines for accusing the team of “cheating” on players’ physicals after he failed his own. Later, he apologized for his comments and expressed the difficulty of competing without being in optimal health.
That incident was a turning point in Lupul’s relationship with the team and (perhaps) had something to do with his eventual departure through retirement. Those were the days when the Maple Leafs were trying to tank to jump-start their rebuild, which they eventually did when they drafted Auston Matthews first overall in 2016.
For the Maple Leafs, “Robidas Island” became a mythical place that fans created to refer to a “destination” where players placed on injured reserve (IR) effectively ended their season. The phrase began when former general manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello placed defenseman Stephane Robidas on IR, removing him from the team because of a “knee injury.”
Lupul was another player who “traveled” to Robidas Island. Did he know that was the deal when he “failed” his physical or did he just want to play? We only know that management was not trying to rush players back from injuries. The team wanted to ensure they had the highest draft pick odds and was rooting for losses instead of wins.
The Real Story of Lupul’s Injury Might Never Be Known
In a The Hockey Writers post published on September 18, 2017, Anthony Fusco outlined the Lupul situation. His take was that Lupul had showcased his talent and gained respect within the organization. However, his inability to stay healthy for a full season became a challenge. As his playing time dwindled, he found himself on long-term injured reserve, allowing the team to benefit from cap relief.
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As Fusco noted, the situation took a contentious turn at the start of training camp when Lupul underwent a physical, which was standard for all players. After the examination, Lamoriello released a statement that Lupul had failed. In response, Lupul accused the organization of cheating and of not being held accountable for their lies.
In the end, Lupul deleted that accusation, and the Maple Leafs didn’t respond, so no one knows the full story.
A Promising Maple Leafs’ Career Cut Short by Injury
What we do know is that Lupul never played another NHL game. He played his last game at the age of 32. Over his NHL career, he played 701 games, scoring an impressive 205 goals and 215 assists (for 420 points).
Who knows how good Lupul might have been? It’s the story of a talented hockey player who had a solid NHL career; however, he might have had a fantastic career had it not been for a back injury, which never fully allowed him to play at his best over the last half of his NHL career.
He’s now a sometimes forgotten memory in Maple Leafs history.
