In NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with …" we talk to figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. In this edition, we feature Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Martin Brodeur, executive vice president of hockey operations for the New Jersey Devils.
Martin Brodeur believes Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen could form one of the better goalie tandems in the NHL by season's end.
And that's great reassurance for the New Jersey Devils from one of the League’s living legends at the position.
"When [Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald] got in the conversation for Markstrom (who was traded to New Jersey by the Calgary Flames on June 19), I was really excited," Brodeur said. "Jacob was one of the guys I kind of put in his ear, because we needed someone who had that experience, had success, and he was a big boy (6-foot-6) in the net. If everybody stays healthy, that's as good a duo you could have in the NHL because these guys won't give up games. They're going to make the other team earn their wins.
"As a goalie, you don't want to be the reason why you're losing games; you want to be status quo. You want nobody to know you're even there. Look, you don't have to be spectacular, but just do what you need to do to give the team a chance to win and with the experience they both bring, I think we were able to get that."
Brodeur was spectacular and status quo, so he certainly knows the ins and outs of quality goaltending.
He led the NHL in wins nine times and finished in the top five on five other occasions during his 22 seasons in the league (1991-92, 1993-2015) with the Devils and St. Louis Blues. The four-time winner of the Vezina Trophy, awarded annually to the best goalie in the NHL, Brodeur holds League goaltending records for wins (691), shutouts (125), games played (1,266) and minutes played (74,439). He also won 40 or more games eight times in his NHL career. A three-time Stanley Cup champion with New Jersey, he ranks first in shutouts (24) and second in wins (113; behind Patrick Roy, 151) in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
NHL.com talked to Brodeur about the Devils and the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best, round-robin tournament being held Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston.
What do you appreciate most about Markstom's game?
"Just that he's an athlete and while he does have his structure, he doesn't care about getting out of his structure to make a save or do something to just stop the puck. I was telling [Fitzgerald] during whistles, he goes to the bench when they're cleaning the ice and talks to all his defensemen. He's just proactive. He reminds me a lot of me. ... If you're out there in a game, you might as well try to communicate and talk and not just stay in your bubble. I think that's what he brings, that energy. I don't know if you saw our first practice in Prague (this month prior to the 2024 NHL Global Series Czechia presented by Fastenal) when he stacks the pads during our shootout drill ... things that usually goalies don't do. I think he brings that element. I think he's a goalie who's able to get out of a structure when you're in trouble. I mean, you’ve got to find a way to stop the puck and Jacob has that in him, that second effort, third effort, to try to recover from a bad read or whatever it might be."
Does the makeup of this Devils team, with size, grit, speed and goaltending, remind you at all of those successful teams you played for?
"Look, we have guys that are under contract for a long time, so this is going to be our group for a while. There are new players in their first year, so they're going to grow together, even some of the older players are still going to grow. We need to learn how to win and some of them have done it in the past. But we really feel that we hit a lot of things we wanted to hit during the offseason. So, at the end of the day, is it going to work? We'll see. But it's the players who are going to tell us. We put these guys in the best situation possible in our opinion."
What have you noticed about how new coach Sheldon Keefe runs practice and the way in which it carries over to games?
"It's definitely a little more serious than what we did in the past. I think guys are businesslike, they work hard, there's a lot of battle drills, a lot of sprinting to areas. Sheldon is really attentive to details. But again, he's got a new group. He's got to kind of see who he can push, who's going to let go. You’ve got to make sure, as a coach, that it's a learning curve, too. But so far, in training camp and [the] start to the season [it] has been good."
Is it frustrating for you as a former player who won the Stanley Cup three times to watch the team not qualify for the playoffs 10 of the past 12 seasons?
"It's tough. You play hockey to get in the playoffs, give yourself a chance to win this thing. Yes, you make money and all that, but it's hockey and we all love playing the game. So, when you're not part of the playoffs, it's disappointing. You have to kind of look back at yourself and in management and say, 'OK, what can we do better to get that team in the playoffs?' The players have to look in their mirror, too, because they're the ones who are on the outside looking in. We knew we were going to take a step back last year; it wasn't going to be easy to replace (defensemen) Damon Severson and Ryan Graves with 20-year-olds out there. We just weren't sure of the goalies at the time, either. But now we hit the marks on everything we wanted to hit, so hopefully it's not going to be a question. We want to be in the playoffs every year and hopefully hit one."
What do you consider to be the key point for this team to have success this year?
"Just being consistent. There will be a game plan, and we have to execute it. We're not always going to win, but I think if you do it over and over, the next thing you know is you start believing how to win and get in the playoffs. Then you won't need to change much. I think you can't have big performances and bad ones. You just have to try to stay level as long as you can and kind of gain confidence from being resilient every single game ... then the game looks the same all the time."
Who are some of the goalies you watch today that you respect and appreciate?
"There's two guys I really like: Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin. To me, these two guys are the top goalies in the League with the way they play, their attitude; they want to play a lot of games. They don't worry about their workload, they're just hockey players. They want to play and that's what I love about them. Markstrom is the same way if you don't tell him he's going to play every game, but these are things that I like about goalies. And these two are pretty good."
What are your initial thoughts on the possible composition of Canada's roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February (the deadline is Dec. 2)?
"It'll be interesting to see what kind of team they're going to be able to put together. Obviously there's a lot of talent up front for Canada, but it's a little different on the goalie side. They're going to search. I've spoken to Doug Armstrong (Canada men's hockey general manager for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics) and they have goalies they're talking about. Sam Montembeault, Jordan Binnington, Stuart Skinner. The goalies out there today are so different compared to when I was there for these Olympic-type events when the choices were between Curtis Joseph, Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour ... you name it. It's a lot different now."
In choosing the goalies, do you think it will solely be based on seasonal performance?
"I think so because I don't think there's one that's above anybody else right now. You don't have a Roberto Luongo or Carey Price to choose from anymore, so the start of the season for all these goalies will be crucial and will provide a lot for the management part of picking the goalies. But, in the end, I'm confident we'll have a good team."
