Martin Brodeur compromises to stay with New Jersey Devils -NHL offseason Update
Martin Brodeur had to face a minor cut in his annual salary, but the veteran goalie stayed loyal to the New Jersey Devils team as both stakeholders signed a two-year deal for the 40-year-old on Monday, July 2, 2012.
The two-year contract is reported to be worth $9 million, with an annual salary cap hit of $4.5 million, which comes to be slightly less than what his previous six-year, $31.2 million deal was worth ($5.2 million annually).
According to Brodeur, Devils did not want to secure the goalie for anything longer than a year, not just due to his age but also because of their struggling situation in terms of debt. He also added that other teams were willing to give him the second year,
but eventually, the Devils pulled through.
"We did entertain some offers, but at the end the Devils were able to come through with the extra year and that for me was the most important thing in the deal," said Brodeur.
And if other teams were not ready to sign the veteran goalie to a two-year contract, he would have gone back to New Jersey to play for just another year.
"We had no interest in a one-year deal going somewhere else," Brodeur added. "If after the first hour I knew nobody would have signed me for two years I would have went back to Lou (Lamoriello) with the one-year offer, but every team we talked to had the
two-year deal. That's where we started and then we went back to Lou and made it happen.”
It is pretty surprising to many analysts to see how a two-time Stanley Cup winning goalie and someone who led his team to the finals this year was shown such a resistive attitude around the league, especially when there is a lack of good goalies in the market.
New Jersey Devils also managed to keep backup goalie, Johan Hedberg, on the squad with a reported two-year contract worth $2.8 million.
With both goalies intact for the upcoming season, New Jersey Devils can now focus on improving the club in other aspects of their club.
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