Martin Brodeur stepped into the visitors’ locker room at the Coliseum on Friday afternoon and, if it’s too much to call his mood somber, he was certainly grimly realistic about the fact Saturday afternoon might his final game as a Devil.
With his name being thrown around in trade talks, the sure-to-be Hall of Fame goal-tender understands the only NHL franchise he has ever known over his 20-year-career is in a position to improve itself by moving him before Wednesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.
Before then, the Devils have Saturday’s game against the Islanders followed by hosting the Sharks on Sunday and the Red Wings on Tuesday. It’s likely Cory Schneider will get the nod against the Sharks and Red Wings, and with Brodeur named as the starter against the Isles, he was asked if the thought of it being his final game for the Devils has crossed his mind.
“Yeah, a little bit,” said the 41-year-old, drafted by general manager Lou Lamoriello in the first round (20th overall) in 1990 and backstop for the franchise’s three Stanley Cups. “It’s like anything, I’m going to enjoy [Saturday] as much as I can.”
The all-time NHL leader in career wins and shutouts is in the conversation for best goaltender of all time — if not atop that list — and yet the emergence of the 27-year-old Schneider as a clear No. 1 has made Brodeur expendable. He is not ignorant of that fact, even if he has never been in this position before.
“It’s part of the game [and] I’m fortunate to have escaped it for so long,” Brodeur said about hearing his name in trade rumors. “It’s just part of it, I guess.”
Brodeur will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, in which he is carrying a $4.5 million salary-cap hit. He hasn’t declared if he intends to retire or play next season, and he hasn’t played a game since facing the Rangers on Jan. 26 at Yankee Stadium. He was pulled from that game after allowing six goals in two periods.
Brodeur has started 28 games this season in comparison to Schneider’s 32. Brodeur is carrying a 2.52 goals-against average with a .899 save percentage, while Schneider is at 1.85 with a .926, both near the top of the league.
Yet, the Devils sit at 25-22-13, three points behind the Flyers for an automatic playoff berth as one of the top three teams in the Metropolitan Division, and five points behind the Red Wings for the final wild-card position with 22 games remaining. They are desperately in need of scoring. If the Devils can obtain a goal-scoring forward in exchange for Brodeur, it would make things quite a bit easier on coach Pete DeBoer and his staff.
“I don’t think there’s any coach in the league … that if they had a Christmas list, wouldn’t have something on it,” DeBoer said. “Whether it’s a scorer, another defenseman, a goalie. But it’s not realistic either. This is a tough league to make deals in, and has been since the salary cap came in.”
DeBoer said he is not expecting any major roster moves, and is confident in the group he has, though he added the caveat, “You never know what this week brings.”
He does know Brodeur is going to start on Saturday, and from there, it’s just about anyone’s guess.
“We need to win as many games as possible,” DeBoer said. “I’d love for both [goaltenders] to get on a roll so that we could use both guys. That would be the perfect situation.”
A perfect situation, maybe, but an unrealistic one. And that’s something Brodeur is seemingly coming to terms with.