exchange for a second-round pick in 2000 (later traded to the Washington Capitals; the Capitals selected Matt Pettinger). He began the 2000-01 season with the Mighty Ducks' farm team, the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, until he was recalled from the AHL. Giguère eventually took over Dominic Roussel's backup position to starter Guy Hebert. Due to only brief stints in the NHL during his tenures with Hartford and Calgary, the 2000–01 season qualified as Giguère's rookie NHL season. He played in 34 games, posting a 2.57 GAA and .911 save percentage. In the off-season, he was re-signed by the Mighty Ducks on August 17, 2001. Giguère continued to improve in 2001–02, his first full season with the Ducks, recording a 2.13 GAA and .920 save percentage in 53 games. In the 2002–03 season, he posted his first winning season with a 34–22–6 record, as well as a career-high eight shutouts. Giguère's first winning season in the NHL helped the Mighty Ducks enter the 2003 playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference. From that point, Giguere delivered one of the greatest playoff performances in NHL history as he helped lead the team on a Cinderella run to their first Stanley Cup Finals. Facing the defending Stanley Cup champions and second-seeded Detroit Red Wings in the opening round, Giguère set an NHL record for most saves by a goaltender in their playoff debut with 63 in the Mighty Ducks' 2–1 triple overtime win in Game 1, surpassing Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jiří Crha's mark by two saves. This record would later be broken by the Vancouver Canucks' Roberto Luongo, who stopped 72 shots in his playoff debut against the Dallas Stars in 2007. The Ducks would proceed to shock the hockey world by sweeping the Red Wings in four games, with Giguère labelled as the star of the series. The Mighty Ducks then faced Dallas. Giguère stopped 60 of 63 Dallas shots in the series opener, a five-overtime Anaheim win. He recorded his first shutout of the playoffs in Game 4, stopping 28 shots. The Mighty Ducks eventually eliminated the Stars in six games, and moved on to the Western Conference Finals to face the Minnesota Wild. Giguère held the Wild to an all-time, best-of-seven-series low of one goal in the entire series, which included a franchise-record shutout streak of 217 minutes and 54 seconds (later surpassed by Ilya Bryzgalov in 2006).