Vesa Toskala

Vesa Toskala was born on May 20th 1977 in Tampere Finland. His early professional Hockey career began in 1995 when he was selected by the San Jose sharks in the 4th round of the NHL entry draft. The offer to play for San Jose’s junior team cam just in time as Toskala was going to quite hockey all together and return to school as a full time student.

 Vesa Toskala quickly adapted to the North American style of play. In the 2000-2001 seasons he began playing for the Kentucky thorough blades. He played a total of 44 games with a record of 22 wins- 13 losses and 5 ties. He maintained a 2.77 GAA and a .911 save percentage. He also helped Kentucky in 3 games of the NHL play offs.

 The following year, Toskala took over the starting position for goaltender. After the Kentucky team was moved to Cleveland, then starting goaltender and fellow Finn Kiprusoff was recalled to San Jose. During this season, Vesa Toskala was credited with being the only positive thing about a terrible team. His record stood in 62 games at 19 wins, 33 losses and 7 ties. His personal statistic however remained intact. He achieved a 2.99 GAA and .912 save percentage.

 In the 2002-2003 season, though a series of events and negotiation failures, Toskala ended up with the starting goaltending position for the San Jose sharks. Then starting goaltender, Evegeni Nabakov and the team could not reach a contract agreement. Toskala then served as Kiprusoff’s back up. However, Kiprusoff failed to bring the desired results leaving the position wide open for Toskala. He played quite well for his short time in the role. His record was 4 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie. He also achieved his first shut outs against the mighty Detroit Red Wings.

 Nabakov was eventually resigned and Toskala was sent back to Cleveland. Here he began to struggled with a record of only 15-30-2. However, this was only going to be a temporary set back. The San Jose Sharks remembered his play and during the next season resigned Toskala as a goaltender. This meant that San Jose then had three goaltenders. Nabakov was still in the starting position leaving Toskala and Kiprusoff to fight for the back up role. However, later in the season, Kiprusoff was traded to the Calgary flames leaving the position wide open for Toskala. He played in 28 games displaying an impressive record of 12 wins, 8 losses and 4 ties.

 The 2005-2006 season started off slowly for Toskala. Playing mostly in the back up position he failed to impress. However, things were soon to change. He gradually built momentum and by the end of the season had earned the San Jose sharks a place in the Stanley Cup finals.