What's Next For Martin Brodeur?

Many people who follow hockey will put this guy either at, or near the top of the lists of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the game of hockey. Over his 16 year NHL career, he is the winningest goalie in NHL history, sitting at 688, needing just 12 to hit 700. That goes along with the 394 regular season losses, the most by a goalie in the NHL. He has the most shutouts in league history with 124. Those are just some of the records held by Martin Brodeur during his brilliant pro career. Many people will argue that his numbers were a bit inflated playing behind those great defensive minded teams with the New Jersey Devils.

Now, with the 2014-15 season already underway, Martin Brodeur is without an NHL team for the first time in his career. This has to leave one to wonder, what's next for Brodeur?

Brodeur has gone on record of saying he wants to end up playing for a contending team in the NHL. That's all well and good, but nobody has taken a flyer out on him, leaving him sitting at home without a team for the first time in his career. The 42-year-old has previously said he's “80% sure” he’s coming back for a 21ST NHL season, according to reports. I can understand where he's coming from, he still wants a shot at one more cup ring and maybe get a chance to win 12 more games to hit 700 career wins. At the same time, as much as I love Brodeur, him being my all time favorite goalie, I don't really know how much of a market there's going to be for him this season.

Brodeur has said he would not mind signing with his hometown Montreal Canadiens, serving as a backup to Carey Price. That's all well and good but I'm not sure the Habs are even going to try and take a look at him. There are a couple of things that Brodeur has working against him that could stop him from getting signed this season. His age for one, as he's 42 years old. Most goalies don't really get better with age, there skills start to decline. That's another thing working against Brodeur. His numbers last year with the Devils weren't that good, at least not by his standards. In 39 starts in Jersey last year, Marty went  19-14-6 with a 2.51 goals against average, a .901 save percentage and 3 shutouts. The save percentage was the lowest of his career and the goals against average was the 2nd highest he's ever posted, the highest being 2,57 back in 2005-06.

As I said those numbers are below average for the sure fire hall of famer. I know he wants to come back and play in sort of a backup role, but what else is there to do? Marty has done it all in this game. There's nothing left for him to do in the sport of hockey, there's nothing left for him to show or prove to anybody. He won three Stanley Cups. He won four Jennings Trophies and two Vezinas behind a stacked blueline corps that included Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko. To top it off, he won two more Vezinas and reached another Stanley Cup final when all of those guys were gone. He stayed relevant and elite after the Dead Puck Era died off. The trapezoid behind NHL nets today are there because Martin Brodeur was too good.

It doesn't seem right to see him in another jersey other than the Black and Red of the Devils. The fact that he isn't under contract with a team already tells you that nobody has a need for a guy like him on a roster. That's no insult to one of the greatest goalies in the modern era, maybe ever, in the game of hockey. Marty should be very happy with the way his career went. Go out on top and step aside. If he were to call his retirement now, nobody would be upset with that. For everything he has done for the sport, and for the position of goalie, he is going to be praised. Nobody has done it better for longer than Marty.

Is there a chance that somebody could take a flyer on him if another goalie gets hurt? Yeah its possible, but highly unlikely. Marty has had a great run and should be proud of what he's done in his career. There's nothing wrong with going out the way you have.