Martin Brodeur is Still Waiting by the Phone

Martin Brodeur should be in the stands of the small rink in Gatineau watching his son, Anthony, practice in goal for the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Instead, Brodeur is suited up, staring down his own son from across the ice.

The NHL's all-time leader in wins is practicing with his son's team in an effort to stay on his game. Brodeur is still without an NHL contract. During the day he skates with the team and shares his knowledge of the game he played with the New Jersey Devils for 21 years. After practice, he waits by the phone.

Brodeur can boast three Stanley Cup rings, more shutouts than any goalie in the game, and two Olympic gold medals, but he insists he's not done yet. As the NHL season enters its second week of play, no team has offered one of the greatest goalies of all-time a job. Still, the 42-year-old refuses to retire.

How long Brodeur waits will decide the last chapter of his legacy. He'll always be remembered as a dominant, groundbreaking goalie who inspired a generation, but the last image he leaves may be end up being that of a stubborn man who, well past his prime, refused to admit it was time to hang up his skates.

The end began with a fateful series in 2012. It was a surprise that the sixth-seeded Devils made the Stanley Cup Finals at all. They scored a paltry 59 goals in 24 playoff games and were shut out four times. And yet they defeated the Eastern Conference's top-seeded New York Rangers. Thanks in no small part to a suddenly resurgent 40-year-old Brodeur, they took the formidable Los Angeles Kings to six games before finally being overwhelmed.

It had been a down season for Brodeur statistically. In the lockout shortened season to follow, Brodeur fell further, posting a .901 save percentage—fifty-seventh in the league.

The Devils then traded the ninth overall pick in the 2013 draft to Vancouver for then 27-year-old Corey Schneider, who would face the unenviable task of replacing Brodeur while Brodeur still played for the Devils. Last season, they split time, but Schneider was the better goalie and clearly the future of the team in net.

The Devils did not offer Brodeur a new contract. Nobody did. So now he's in Gatineau, 431 miles from Newark, skating in a 4,000 person capacity arena with his son. Brodeur still believes the NHL will be calling soon.

"I understand that at the age I'm at I won't be playing the bulk of the games and I'll be in more of a backup role," Brodeur says in a phone interview.

Those who've watched Brodeur recently aren't so convinced that call will be coming anytime soon.

"Brodeur gave up a significant amount more soft goals than he had previously," says John Fischer, lead writer of the Devils SB Nation blog In Lou We Trust.

Brodeur sees last season differently.

"Even with the amount of games I played I was still able to win 19 games on a team that didn't make the playoffs," he says proudly. Still, Brodeur understands the ins and outs of hockey and is fully aware of how far he's fallen. So, why isn't Brodeur accepting his time in the NHL is done?

"It's the fun of the game," he says, sounding as excited about hockey as any kid who spends their days at the local rink. However, he's seven years older than the oldest active NHL starting goalie, the Florida Panthers' Roberto Luongo. Even after all those years of hockey, he still enjoys the game so much that he'll wait out a contract offer while slumming it with a junior hockey team.

"I took the whole team to dinner last night," he laughs, speaking about the Gatineau Olympiques. "It's funny, (Anthony) has been inviting me everywhere with his buddies," he adds. "We've been doing a lot of dinners, but I'm wondering if that's because I'm paying."

If any of them are curious as to why a man of Brodeur's stature is lacing up beside them in their humble dressing room, they mostly keep their whispers to themselves.

"The first few days they were a bit shy, but as the days have gone on they've been picking my brain a little more about stories, the game, the situations I've been in," says Brodeur. "They want to know about the NHL and how it compares to the game of hockey that they know."

But other whispers are growing louder.

"A lot of these guys want to go out on their terms," says Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy Editor Greg Wyshynski. "I think in terms of Brodeur it was a feeling of genuine lack of respect in some ways after that Schneider deal," he says. "He signed a two-year deal with the Devils and there was the expectation that he was going to be the starter for those two years."

Brodeur will admit that the topic of retirement isn't one he's shied away from recently. But with that admission, Brodeur can't deny that the two years following his last Stanley Cup run didn't go as planned.

"I've been a bit prepared for the last few years to retire," he says. "I had a good run in 2012, going all the way to the Cup finals. After that I was getting a lot of interest from teams, but I was excited to come back to New Jersey."

"And that's when it got tough," says Brodeur. "Because of the (shortened 2013 NHL season) and then we didn't make the playoffs for two years in a row."

As his role with the Devils was reduced, his competitive edge remained sharp.

"I don't think he comes back and signs with the Devils if he doesn't have the drive to compete," says Wyshynski. "And I think that's the issue now; he still has that competitive fire and believes he can help a team win the Cup. But last year it was obvious there was something weighing on his mind; maybe it was the direction of the team."

Brodeur's agent has said that his client wants to hit 700 wins, a goal he is 12 short of right now. If this is indeed true, it's a goal that may haunt Brodeur for the rest of his life. Curtis McElhinney, for the sake of comparison, played 28 games as backup to Columbus Blue Jackets star Sergei Bobrovsky last season on a Blue Jackets team that was better in nearly all facets than the Devils. McElhinney posted a better save percentage than Brodeur and still only managed to eke out 10 wins. With the NHL season already underway, Brodeur's chances of reaching 700 wins lessen with each day.

But Brodeur won't wait forever. He won't even wait all season.

"If I see there's something going on then I'll wait it out but I don't have (a specific date) in mind particularly," he says. "It's not going to be something I'm waiting on all year, that's for sure."

The best-case scenario for Brodeur would likely involve either an injury to a goalie whose backup does not inspire confidence. Maybe then he might get the front office attention he's waitin on.

However, the fact is that statistical analysis trumps any and all intangibles, including Brodeur's Stanley Cup experience. Brodeur's dismal save percentage of late makes for an obvious reason to keep his name out of any serious discussion.

Brodeur's plight brings to mind Brett Favre suffering through his final season with the Minnesota Vikings at 41 years old, refusing to let go. In this case, it seems there is more to Brodeur's search for NHL work than just a desire to stick around and rack up records, but the team that signs him is also getting more than a stopgap goalie.

"The problem with Marty is that you're not just hiring a goalie, you're hiring a legend," says Wyshynski. "If your number one guy begins to struggle, you've got a Hall of Famer on the bench. It then creates more problems than you probably want."

And still, while trapped in professional limbo, Brodeur is still trying to enjoy the last bits of his hockey career and keep a healthy perspective on all that he's already accomplished.

"If I had an opportunity to finish my career a different way, great. If not, I think I've accomplished a lot and enjoyed every moment of it," says Brodeur. "Two years ago I was almost ready to retire. I've been thinking about this moment. It might come this year, it might come next year."

The speculation on his professional future may weigh on Brodeur, but for now, he is on the ice and he is with his son. And the game still makes him happy.

"It's been the first time I've been on the ice with my son in three or four years," says Brodeur. "Seeing his game and being able to spend more quality time with him; it's been a long time since we've done that."