Speak of the Devil
Brodeur gets his due with Hall of Fame nomination
Martin Brodeur won four Vezina trophies, but how about some Norris consideration?
“As great as he was in goal, he could be the third defenceman on the ice,” recalled Toronto’s 30- and 40- goal scorer Wendel Clark. “Marty changed things in the way he handled the puck. He was so mobile and that really helped his defence.
“Basically, we’d dump and chase and his defence would hold it up because he could make a pass as good as they could. He revolutionized things a bit in terms of getting it out of your end.”
You can talk about Brodeur’s 691 wins as the NHL standard, but he’ll gladly chat about ranking third in assists by goalies with 45 and scoring two empty net goals to be neck-and-neck in points with Grant Fuhr, who played with Wayne Gretzky, and one behind all-time leader Tom Barrasso, who played with Mario Lemieux.
Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and the rest of the Devils had three Stanley Cups before the NHL introduced the trapezoid after the 2004-05 lockout to stop games from becoming “tennis matches,” in former league exec Brian Burke’s opinion. Brodeur, a lock to make the Hall of Fame from the moment he hung up his pads in 2014-15, passed Terry Sawchuk in shutouts and Patrick Roy in wins, but secretly wanted to emulate Devils wingers and centres such as Patrick Elias and Bobby Holik.
“I just wanted to be a forward all the time,” Brodeur said with his omnipresent smile, ahead of Monday’s induction. “To this day, when I play street hockey or shinny, I’ll play as a forward. Especially early on in my career, every time we had optional practice I’d play out. In 2001, before Game 7 in the Stanley Cup, I went out and took slap shots and played with a couple of (healthy scratches). You don’t see that too often.
“Until I became a little too important, then Lou (Lamoriello) wouldn’t let me out. I took a lot of pride in (stickhandling). I played with these guy a long time and I just knew where they were at all times. Our communication was probably the best of a tandem of goalies and defencemen you could have. I wasn’t afraid to make a mistake (with the puck), but I made a lot, trust me.”
General manager Lamoriello called Brodeur his “prototypical Devil”.
“Marty understood the difference between the front of the sweater (where the logo is) and the back. His ego never entered into it. I’d never seen anyone who loved the game more or had more fun. He had respect for his defencemen and all his teammates. I’m sure the reporters would say he was one of the most (accountable) after a game, stay to answer all the questions.”
When both execs worked for the Leafs a few years, before Lamoriello moved on to the Islanders, he and Cliff Fletcher no doubt rehashed how Brodeur wound up a Devil in the 1990 draft. Jersey was picking 11th, but traded down with Fletcher’s Calgary Flames to switch places at 20th. “Not only did we take Trevor Kidd, though he was a very respectable NHL prospect at the time, we traded up to do it,” sighed Fletcher. “Our scouts loved Kidd so much. But I didn’t know Brodeur in his draft year, never saw him play. Obviously that was a big error on our part at the time.”
The Flames, who also gave up on Martin St. Louis, another of this year’s Hall class, merely missed out on the greatest in league history, nearly 1,500 starts in regular season and playoffs.
“The thing I’ve always liked about Brodeur is the more pressure in the game, the tougher the game, he seemed to react more positively,” Fletcher said. “The results of his career certainly confirm that. They were a good defensive team when you have Niedermayer and Stevens. But the better the team is, the better the goaltender has to be to make the big save to keep them in. Inevitably, it’s a onegoal game and you have to make the stop on the 2-on-1. Brodeur was outstanding at that.”
Lamoriello would have been savaged had Brodeur gone anywhere else between
those 11th and 20th picks, but he’d gambled the big kid from St. Hyacinthe in the Quebec League would still be on the board. The Canadiens, who employed Brodeur’s father Denis as photographer, chose right after Calgary and took WHL winger Turner Stevenson, though they already had Patrick Roy set in net.
“All our scouts had seen Marty, but in those days it was harder to steal a player than today when they’re scouted so much as 16, 17 and 18-year-olds,” Lamoriello said. “But I’ll never forget that first meeting with Marty and his representatives. I explained precisely how things were going to work
from our side. Now, they all want to be (in the NHL) right away, but Marty understood he was in it for the long haul and was willing to do whatever he had to.”
He did his time on the farm in Utica and when he was ready in 1993-94, he stayed for more than 20 years and won his first Cup in 1995.
“The goalies handed down the torches in my time, from Fuhr to Roy to Marty,” said Clark. “I’d have Curtis Joseph in there, too, though he didn’t get to play on those great teams.