St. Louis Blues’ Martin Brodeur Granted a One-Week Leave of Absence
The St. Louis Blues granted a one-week leave of absence to 42-year-old goaltender Martin Brodeur on Wednesday, which could mark an end for the career of perhaps the best goalie in NHL history. Brodeur, who signed with the Blues in early December after spending 21 seasons with the New Jersey Devils, has been a healthy scratch for the Blues’ past five games and six of the past seven.
Brodeur, who was signed to provide relief when starting goalie Brian Elliott went down with a knee injury, has stuck around longer than expected, and the Blues have operated without a third extra skater in order to accommodate his presence as the third goaltender. However, there’s the unavoidable issue of the team only being able to use two nets for practice, which results in either Elliott or backup Jake Allen‘s reps being limited.
The Blues had been able to work around the awkwardness for a while by giving Allen a week to hit the reset button after getting roughed up in his last few starts before Elliott’s return. However, with Allen having rebounded to get a win in relief while stopping 19 of 20 shots on Saturday night, then got the win in his first start of the year while saving 13 of 15. With his recent success, it’s less fair to expect Allen to take only half of his regular practice reps on a daily basis, and it would be stupid to have Elliott do so considering that he’s the team’s regular starter.
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With that in mind, the Blues will now have a week for their goalies to catch up on their practice reps. At the same time, they’ll be extending a common courtesy to the legendary Brodeur by allowing him to choose his future. NHL.com’s Lou Korac tweeted on Wednesday that there hasn’t been much of a trade market for Brodeur, and Brodeur had previously stated that he wasn’t sure he would be up for yet another change of scenery this season after spending the first 21 years of his career in the same place.
With that in mind, Brodeur’s two realistic options are to retire or to continue to be the Blues’ third goalie for as long as the team can accommodate him on the roster. He likely wouldn’t be getting any playing time, or even an opportunity to dress in a game, for the foreseeable future, but it seems that the organization is willing to bypass the extra comfort of having a 14th forward or eighth defenseman on the roster in order to have Brodeur’s leadership and experience in the dressing room on a day-to-day basis.
Brodeur’s tenure with the Blues has been somewhat of a mixed bag, as he’s been fantastic at home but has looked more like a player his age on the road. He collected a win in his first home start on December 8, stopping 32 of 34 shots, and he shut out the Colorado Avalanche at Scottrade Center on December 29. However, he’s winless in three starts on the road and has given up at least four goals in all of those starts. It must be mentioned, though, that Brodeur did come on in relief of Allen on December 6 in an away game against the New York Islanders, picking up the win while giving up one goal on 15 shots.