Martin Brodeur Will Retire, Expected to Join St. Louis Blues’ Front Office
Legendary NHL goaltender Martin Brodeur, who spent 21 years of his career with the New Jersey Devils but capped it off with a seven-game stint with the St. Louis Blues, will retire and is expected to join the Blues’ front office.
There has been no official statement from the Blues as of yet, but TVA’s Renaud Lavoie is reporting that he will be an assistant general manager:
Martin Brodeur is retiring fromm hockey. Should be name assistant GM of the St-Louis Blues. #tvasports
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) January 27, 2015
Brodeur had not seen action with the Blues in nearly a month. He had most recently taken a two-week leave of absence to determine his future, and before that he had been a healthy scratch for every game since January 2 as Brian Elliott and Jake Allen handled the Blues’ goaltending duties.
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Coach Ken Hitchcock was openly hopeful that Brodeur would stick with the club because he valued the 42-year-old’s leadership so highly. However, his retirement does give the team a bit of roster flexibility, as they’ll have an extra spot to accommodate a skater if necessary as the Blues enter one of the most strenuous portions of the schedule. Ultimately, though Brodeur’s impact on the team won’t be quite the same now that he’s not in uniform, it’s the best of both worlds for the club, as they get to retain Brodeur but don’t have to use a roster space on him when he was unlikely to play again anyway.
Brodeur was originally brought in when Elliott went down with a knee injury, though he did manage to sneak one final start in after Elliott had returned, giving up four goals on 33 shots in a January 2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. In hindsight, it probably would have been most poetic for Brodeur to call it a career after his second-to-last start and last home appearance, in which he shut out the Colorado Avalanche on December 29.
Over seven starts and five games for the Blues, Brodeur was 3-3 with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage.