Andrew Raycroft Reflects On Entire Season Lockout, Trade To Maple Leafs

When Andrew Raycroft won the Calder Trophy at the conclusion of the 2003-04 season, he never expected what happened next.

But then again, not one player in the National Hockey League was expecting what would have been the 88th season in league history to be canceled due to a labor lockout.

In his rookie season, Raycroft earned 29 wins, 18 losses and nine ties in 57 games as the Bruins' No. 1 goalie. Not being able to play in 2004-05 due to the lockout didn't help Raycroft develop his craft in the net. As a result, the reigning Calder winner posted a record of 8-19-2 with a .879 save percentage and a 3.72 goals-against average. The lockout changed the trajectory of his career in Boston.

"It absolutely did," Raycroft told NESN.com. "I think at the time, I should have taken a little more ownership of that in hindsight.

"You could look at it two ways, right? I could look at it like I kind of got screwed. To be able to finally make it; have everything going my way and then basically resetting everything. Rules changed. Equipment changed. The league changed. Players changed. The salary cap came so no one could make money again. Or, and I probably should have looked at it more this way, but it's hard to do that when you're 25, is that I was lucky that I got into the league before then. If I hadn't made it that year, who knows with another year gone by would I have ever gotten to the NHL."

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Looking back now on what transpired after the lockout, Raycroft said he wished he had dealt with the adversity a little bit better.

Things changed again for Raycroft when the Bruins dealt him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Tuukka Rask. Rask hadn't made it to the NHL yet, so his first appearance in the league would be in a Bruins sweater, but for Raycroft he welcomed the change of scenery.

"You'e going to a team that wants you," Raycroft explained. "If they're trading for you, they want you. If they're trading for you, they're going to give you every opportunity to succeed. ... I had that going to Toronto and I had that when I started here in Boston. So, absolutely the cliche of change of scenery is a real thing."

In his first year with the Leafs, Raycroft got back most of the mojo he was missing in his final season with the Bruins. He went 37-25-9 in 72 games with a .894 save percentage and a 2.99 goals against average.

"I was excited," Raycroft said of the opportunity in Toronto. "It was a big turnover in Boston. (First it was) the lockout. Then Joe Thornton got traded. Everyone was getting fired and leaving. As a younger goalie, I had a great opportunity to go to Toronto and kind of get a reset to be a starting goalie for another Original Six franchise. At the time it was all positive and it was going to be a longer rebuild in Boston."

Despite having stops in Boston, Toronto, Colorado, Vancouver and Dallas over his 11-year career, New England will always be home for Raycroft and his family.

"My wife is from Foxborough, so girls from Boston typically don't leave, especially my wife," Raycroft joked. "That's the short answer. The long answer, the real honest answer is I love it here. There's no better place to raise kids and have a family. We bounced around and thought of living in different places, but this always felt just like our kind of culture. Our kind of people and we love it here."