Denis Brodeur was the team photographer of the Montreal Canadiens for more than 20 years. The Forum de Montreal was practically his son Martin Brodeur’s home growing up. Martin attended Canadiens games and practices with his father and studied the playing styles of several goaltenders; one of them was none other than Patrick Roy. Little did Roy and Denis know that the eager youngster would one day pass Roy as the winningest goaltender in NHL history.
The New Jersey Devils were a struggling franchise when they drafted the 18-year-old Martin Brodeur 20th overall in 1990. As the phenom-to-be began to emerge, so did the Devils. Brodeur won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in his debut season and carried the Devils to the Eastern Conference Finals. Although they would lose in dramatic fashion to their cross Hudson rival, the New York Rangers, it was evident that the team was revitalized.
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The following season, after Brodeur solidified himself as the team’s starter, the Devils rebounded and went to the Stanley Cup Finals. This wild ride ended differently than the previous year, as the Devils stunned the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings with a sweep to win the 1994-95 Stanley Cup championship, the first for the franchise. But this was just the beginning.
In his career with New Jersey, Brodeur led the Devils to four more Stanley Cups (2000, 2001, 2003, 2012); he also won the Vezina Trophy four times (with 9 total nominations). Although he spent the last season of his career with the St. Louis Blues, Brodeur’s name will always be synonymous with hockey in The Garden State. He retired in 2015 as the winningest goaltender in NHL history with 691 wins; he is also the all-time leader in shutouts, with 125. Brodeur is the greatest goaltender of all time in the opinion of many, and arguing against it isn’t easy. New Jersey retired his number, 30, on February 9 of this past year. To this day, he is very simply the greatest New Jersey Devil of all time.
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