He revolutionized the goaltender position and won more games than any other goalie in NHL history.
For those reasons and many others, legendary former Devils' goalie Martin Brodeur is being inducted into the 2018 Hockey Hall of Fame class, as announced by the 18-member selection committee Tuesday.
Brodeur headlines a class of six that includes Martin St. Louis, Jayna Hefford, Alexander Yakushev as well as Willie O'Ree, who broke the NHL's color barrier, and commissioner Gary Bettman, who will be inducted into the builder category. The 2018 induction ceremony will be take place Nov. 12 at the Hall of Fame in Toronto and the Devils will play the Maple Leafs in the Hall of Fame Game on Nov. 9, at the Air Canada Centre.
"As a player, you get to meet Hall of Fame members and now to have my name in the same sentence makes me speechless," Brodeur said in a statement. "I was fortunate to play on great teams that allowed me to play with my own personality, which is so important to a goaltender."
Brodeur was considered a lock for this round of Hall of Fame inductions. The list of accolades is about a mile long. The 46-year-old Montreal native backstopped the Devils to three Stanley Cups, won four Vezina Trophies, five Jennings Trophies (fewest goals allowed in the regular season) and his 691 career wins and 125 shutouts both top the NHL's all-time charts. Plus, he earned a pair of Olympic gold medals with Team Canada.
His 2.242 career goals against average mark still stands as ninth all-time and he's the only NHL goalie to have scored three goals. The No. 30 already hangs in the rafters of Prudential Center and his statue is a can't-miss for fans before and after games.
Perhaps what he's most remembered for is the trapezoid behind the goal, otherwise known as the "Brodeur Rule." Essentially, Brodeur was such a good puck-handler that he was playing it up the ice like a defenseman. After the 2004-05 lockout season new goalie rules were instituted, one of which was the trapezoid, which limited the area a goalie could play the puck.
Brodeur was not happy with the rule but it's no doubt part of his legacy. When his number was retired in 2016, the Devils put that number inside the trapezoid that was created for him in a nod to that legacy.
The Devils drafted Brodeur in 1990 at No. 20 overall. He was back-and-forth between the NHL, the QMJHL and the AHL until the 1993-94 season when he won the Calder Trophy as the best rookie in the league. At the peak of his illustrious career, he was one of the most dominant goalies hockey had ever seen and one of the best, if not the best, goalie in the world.
His career didn't quite end after the 2012 Stanley Cup Final but the veteran was forced to split time with current Devils' netminder Cory Schneider. After his two-year contract expired in 2014 he signed with the St. Louis Blues to replace the injured Brian Elliott. But just a few months later he retired and took a front office position with the Blues. He's now an assistant general manager in St. Louis.
Hockey had never seen a goalie like Brodeur before and it may never see one like him again, so it's only natural that his legacy would be preserved in Toronto.
