Pucks and Pitchforks
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New Jersey Devils: Comparing Martin Brodeur To Other Best Goalies Of All Time

By Nick Villano

NEWARK, NJ - APRIL 11: Martin Brodeur #30 of the New Jersey Devils takes a break during the third period against the New York Islanders at the Prudential Center on April 11, 2014 in Newark, New Jersey. The Islanders defeated the Devils 3-2 in the shootout. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - APRIL 11: Martin Brodeur #30 of the New Jersey Devils takes a break during the third period against the New York Islanders at the Prudential Center on April 11, 2014 in Newark, New Jersey. The Islanders defeated the Devils 3-2 in the shootout. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Henrik Lundqvist

The New York Rangers best goaltender spent his first nine seasons going head to head with Brodeur to be the biggest star in net in the Atlantic/Metropolitan Division. Full disclosure, this whole article started when Sean Hartnett with WFAN wrote that Lundqvist was straight up better than Brodeur. He used that tired argument about defense, which is easily dispelled, but beyond that there are the points about the advanced stats.

Lundqvist has a better save percentage overall, even when ignoring the last five years of Brodeur’s career. He even has an overall playoff save percentage. The easy argument is “he has no cups”, which is fun but doesn’t prove much. Looking at the actual stats makes Brodeur the clear better choice, especially the playoff stats.

The last time Lundqvist was in the playoffs was his age 34 season, so we’ll take that as a parameter to cut off when we’ll judge Brodeur, since Lundqvist is technically still a goalie who could play in the playoffs. Brodeur has eight seasons where he had a save percentage over .920 in the playoffs. Obviously, every so often he was less than stellar (he was prone to the extremely blow up), but he more often than not was the reason the Devils were winning.

Lundqvist, meanwhile, has six such playoff performances. In the regular season, Lundqvist led the league in shutouts two times, while Brodeur led the league in shutouts five times. Brodeur did everything Lundqvist did, just more often. Lundqvist was still great, we should admit that. However, he’s not in the conversation for best of all time and Brodeur absolutely is.

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