A day after Martin Brodeur took part in his first full practice with the St. Louis Blues, the two sides agreed to a one-year contract on Tuesday which will mark the first time Brodeur will play for a different team after spending 19 seasons with the New Jersey Devils.
The terms of the agreement haven't fully been disclosed, but Brodeur is just 12 wins shy of 700 for his career, which played a big factor into him returning to the NHL.
Brodeur has said throughout the offseason and to this point in the regular season that he wanted to play for a contender, which makes the Blues a perfect match.
Brodeur's signing with #stlblues about to become official.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) December 2, 2014
Brodeur felt good after Monday's practice and was happy to be a full participant.
"It felt different, more hockey-like," Brodeur said. "It went really well for me anyway. ... I think I'm fine now. If they ask me, I think I would be OK to go out and play. For my first game, that's when I'll really know."
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock also liked what he saw out of Brodeur at Monday's practice.
"He looked just like a normal goalie to me. I don't know how much more we can go at him. I think it's now up to how he feels with what we do [Monday and Tuesday]. We'll put more heat on him tomorrow, but he looked fine today."
With Brian Elliott (knee) sidelined, Brodeur and Jake Allen are slated to shoulder the load for St. Louis. The Blues are 16-6-2 (34 points) thus far this season and sit in second place in the Central Division. The team will not play the Devils again this season.
Brodeur backstopped the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012, but the team 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 Cory Schneider, who the team traded for at the 2013 NHL Draft.
The Devils shut the door on Brodeur heading into this season to give Schneider the starting job.
Brodeur, 42, 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.
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