Joel Castle Career Reflection

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Joel Castle: Legion For Life

 

Since coming into the league as a wide-eyed rookie thrust into the starting goaltender role for the Toronto Legion in S87, Joel Castle has experienced all the highs and lows the sport of hockey has to offer. From struggling on last place teams to grinding to the top of the mountain and raising the Continental Cup, the native of Victoria, BC, has worked as hard as any player in the league and now is reaching the end of the road.

 

With less than a quarter of S94 left to play on the schedule, the Toronto Legion find themselves in a familiar spot – near the top of the VHL standings. Their place at the top of the North American Conference is not secure with the Seattle Bears right behind them but with the VHL’s best offense, a playoff berth is all but certain. It will be Toronto’s fifth consecutive playoff appearance only the second time in franchise history that the Legion have made the postseason five or more straight seasons. The other was when Aidan Shaw led them to the postseason each of his seven seasons manning the crease. To be only the second goaltender to lead such a storied franchise to five straight playoff appearances shows how much Castle has meant to the organization.

 

Having the benefit of being a team’s starter for eight seasons will produce some impressive numbers and while Castle may not be considered one of the best in VHL history, he is one of the best in Toronto history. Already the franchise all-time leader in shots against and saves made, he will end his career in the top three in wins, losses, overtime and shootout losses and top ten in SV% and shutouts. In fact, he is on pace to become only the 25^th goalie in VHL history to play in 500 or more games. He is also near the top of Legion playoff leaders and may rise to the top depending on how the upcoming playoffs go. Individual awards haven’t been forthcoming – with only the S91 Daisuke Kanou Trophy to his name – but for Castle, it’s been much more about the team.

 

“To me, being a Legion has been everything,” says Castle during a post practice interview. “I love that I’ve been here my whole career and stayed with the same guys season after season. We’re a family and we win and lose as a family. Management have never once asked me if I wanted a trade which tells me they want me and they think we have the chance to be successful and we have been successful. But we want to win one more – I want to win one more Cup. That’s the goal. Short term, day-to-day, yes, it’s one game at a time and ensure we make the playoffs but after that, the goal is the Cup. Full stop.”

 

  

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Legion legend. It's going to be weird not having Castle in the crease next season.

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Let's get that last cup!