Free agent veteran goaltender Martin Brodeur has been hoping to land a job as a No. 1 goalie, but the three-time Stanley Cup champion said that he is willing to be the backup behind Carey Price for the Montreal Canadiens.
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Brodeur said if an offer is made, he would weigh his options about possibly joining the Canadiens, who are coming off of a very successful 2014 campaign and recently inked versatile defenseman P.K. Subban to a long-term extension to play in front of his netminders.
"If the Canadiens made me an offer, it goes without saying that I would listen to what they have to offer me," Brodeur said, according to the QMI Agency.
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Brodeur has been hoping for a No. 1 job, but he has said in the past he'd go to a contender and play in a backup role for the chance to be on a competitive team again.
Montreal is coming off of a season where it made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals before being knocked off by a familiar foe to Brodeur -- the New York Rangers.
The Canadiens skated to a 46-28-8 record with 100 points in 2013-14, good enough for third place in the realigned Atlantic Division. Montreal went on to sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and topped the Boston Bruins in seven games before falling to New York in six.
Brodeur is a Montreal native, but he knows joining the Canadiens would put him in a competition with Dustin Tokarski and Peter Budaj for the No. 2 job, not a starting role.
"This is Carey Price's team," Brodeur said. "I would definitely still want to be the No. 1 goalie, but it wouldn't bother me to play in only 20 to 25 games during the season if I know I'll have fun playing within a winning team."
Brodeur, 42, has spent his entire career with the New Jersey Devils, but it became increasingly apparent this offseason that he'd don another team's jersey this season, which is expected to be his last in the NHL.
The Devils seemingly closed the door on their 20-year relationship with Brodeur when they gave Cory Schneider a seven-year contract extension to be the No.1 goalie earlier this month and signed Scott Clemmensen to a one-year deal incase rookie Keith Kinkaid isn't ready to spell Schneider as his backup.
Brodeur backstopped the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, but the team has failed to make the playoffs in the following two seasons as a wave of change has gone through the franchise. Brodeur went 19-14-6 with a .901 save percentage and a 2.51 goals-against average last season in limited action thanks to the emergence of Schneider, who the team traded for at the 2013 NHL Draft.
Brodeur is the NHL's all-time leader in regular season wins (688), regular season shutouts (124) and playoff shutouts (24) and holds various other NHL records and Devils franchise marks.
In his career, Brodeur is 688-394-154 with a 2.24 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage -- all with the Devils -- but when he adds to those numbers this season he could be doing it as a member of the Canadiens.
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