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Chip Griffin, Martin Brodeur ready vs Capitals 2008, CC BY 2.0
Rick Dikeman, Patrick Roy 1999, CC BY-SA 3.0
When it comes to the most important positions in sports, the shortlist contains the usual suspects: quarterback, goalie, starting pitcher, basketball superstar (not technically a position, but one player can thoroughly carry a team, e.g. LeBron James when he was on the Cleveland Cavaliers). Perhaps because of hockey’s status as the fourth of the “Big 4” American sports, great goalies may not get the same amount of attention as a Tom Brady, Clayton Kershaw, or the aforementioned James, but the men in masks and pads can single-handedly steal a game, a series, or even an entire playoffs for their teams with their stellar play in net. Over the last quarter-century or so, two French-Canadians, Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy, have stood tall in net as titans of goaltending in the NHL, Hall of Famers with the most and second-most wins in history, respectively. With Brodeur recently being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, that brings up the question:
Who was better – Martin Brodeur or Patrick Roy?
The Beginning
The intertwined stories of Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy both begin in Quebec, Canada, where like many Canadians, they began ice skating and playing hockey from a young age; their early successes in the NHL would be a harbinger for the long and storied record-setting careers each would ultimately have.
After a year of playing professionally with the Sherbrooke Canadiens of the American Hockey League (AHL), Roy’s NHL journey began when he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens with the 51st overall pick in the third round of the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. He made his NHL debut on February 23, 1985, though spent much of the 1984-1985 season with Sherbrooke and led these Canadiens to the Calder Cup that year (the AHL equivalent of the Stanley Cup); this would be a sign of things to come. In 1985-1986, Roy started 47 games as a rookie for the Montreal Canadiens and while he post up relatively pedestrian numbers in the regular season (23-18-3 record with a 3.36 GAA and .875 SV%, good for fifth in the Calder Trophy voting for top rookie), he seized the starting goaltender job in the playoffs for Montreal, which had finished second in the Adams Division and fifth overall in points in the Prince of Wales Conference (the modern-day Eastern Conference). There, he led the upstart Canadiens all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1, compiling a 15-5 record in the playoffs with a miniscule 1.93 GAA and sterling .923 SV% and capturing the first of his record three Conn Smythe trophies as playoff MVP.
Brodeur grew up in the city of Montreal and idolized Roy as a child – his father played hockey in the 1956 Olympics for Team Canada and was a longtime photographer for the Montreal Canadiens afterwards. He was drafted 20th overall in the first round by the New Jersey Devils in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, though spent most of the next couple of seasons bouncing between the NHL, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), and the AHL. By the 1993-1994 season, Brodeur had taken over as the Devils’ top goalie and appeared in 47 games, putting together a 27-11-8 record with a 2.40 GAA and .915 SV% and winning the Calder Trophy as top rookie. The following season, which was shortened due to a lock-out (the regular season started in late January 1995 and was 48 games long), Brodeur led the Devils to a second place finish in the Atlantic Division and fifth overall in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs, New Jersey made it to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time and swept the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings to capture its first Stanley Cup; while he did not win the Conn Smythe that year, Brodeur was nevertheless spectacular in the playoffs, finishing with a 16-4 record, 1.67 GAA, .927 SV%, and 3 shutouts.
Career Comparison
In the era of free agency, it is becoming increasingly rare for players to spend their entire careers with only one or two teams and become the faces of their respective franchises, but Brodeur and Roy did exactly that: Brodeur played all but seven career games in his 22-year career with the New Jersey Devils, while Roy’s 20-year career was split relatively evenly between the Montreal Canadiens (12 years) and Colorado Avalanche (eight years).
Following his inaugural success with the Canadiens, Roy quickly established himself as one of the premier goalies in the NHL in the 1980s and early 1990s. From the 1986-1987 through 1993-1994 seasons, he won the Jennings Trophy 4x (awarded annually to the “goalkeeper(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it”), and the Vezina Trophy for best goalie 3x; for a four-year stretch from 1988-1989 to 1991-1992, Roy was either the winner of the Vezina Trophy (3x) or runner-up (1x) each year.
Despite all of the success he achieved in Montreal, Roy’s tenure came to an ignominious end in 1995. With tensions simmering between Roy and new head coach Mario Tremblay (a former teammate in Montreal), the final straw came when Roy was kept in for nine goals allowed in an 11-1 home loss, the worst in Canadiens history, and was mocked by the fans upon being pulled in the second period by Tremblay. On his way off the ice, Roy proclaimed to the GM that “It’s my last game in Montreal”; Roy was subsequently suspended by the team and traded four days later alongside captain Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche (the former Quebec Nordiques) for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky, and Andrei Kovalenko in what is now regarded as a highly lopsided deal, thus ending his career with Montreal with a 289-175-66 won-loss-tie record, 2.78 GAA (85 GA%-, which is a relative measure vs. league-wide scoring and reflects the high-scoring nature of 1980s/early 1990s NHL games), .904 SV%, and 29 shutouts over 12 seasons.
The Canadiens’ loss was the Avalanche’s gain, as Roy continued to be an elite goaltender well into his late 30s. Though he only won one additional Jennings Trophy and did not take home any further Vezinas in Colorado (highest finish was second in 2001-2002, his penultimate year), Roy consistently backstopped the Avalanche as one of the top teams in the Western Conference before retiring in 2003. Over the course of eight seasons in Colorado, his total numbers with the Avalanche are in-line with his Montreal days: 262-140-65 won-loss-tie record, 2.27 GAA (87 GA%- that reflects the more defensive nature of the late 1990s/early 200s), .918 SV%, and 37 shutouts.
Meanwhile, Brodeur was the face of the New Jersey Devils franchise across three different decades: the 1990s, 2000s, and early 2010s. Like Roy, he quickly flourished after his initial success and aided by coach Jacques Lemaire’s defensive trap system and future Hall of Fame blueliners Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer, turned New Jersey into one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Individually, Brodeur did not win his first Vezina Trophy until age 30 in 2002-2003 (some guy named Dominik Hasek kept winning them in the 1990s), though he won the Jennings Trophy in consecutive years in 1996-1997 and 1997-1998 and finished second to Hasek for the Vezina both years despite sub-2 GAAs (1.88 and 1.89, respectively) and 10 shutouts each year.
Brodeur’s career peak was the five-year period between 2002-2003 and 2007-2008 (no 2004-2005 season due to lockout), as he won four Vezina Trophies (back-to-back and back-to-back, with a second place finish sandwiched in-between) with four 40-win seasons, including an NHL-record 48 wins and a career-high 12 shutouts in 2006-2007. He continued his play as New Jersey’s #1 option in net into his early 40s and after seven games with the St. Louis Blues in 2014, finally hung up his skates and put away his pads after 22 seasons, the owner of many of the NHL’s goaltending records.
Overall, Brodeur played 22 seasons to Roy’s 20 and is the NHL’s all-time leader in regular season goalie starts, wins (a record previously held by Roy, though Roy did not have the benefit of the overtime shootout introduced in 2005) and shutouts, as well as losses. While his career 2.24 GAA and .912 SV% look superior to Roy’s 2.54 GAA and .910 SV% on the surface, part of that can be attributed to the respective eras each played in, the high-powered 1980s/early 1990s vs. the more stifled, defensive late 1990s/early 2000s; using GA%- which normalizes to league-wide scoring (100 is average and lower is better), Roy’s career 86 GA%- is far superior to Brodeur’s 96. Brodeur’s regular season accolades include a Calder Trophy, nine All-Star Game appearances, four Vezinas, and five Jennings Trophies (tied for most ever with Roy) compared to Roy’s 11 All-Star Games, three Vezinas, and also five Jennings Trophies. Unsurprisingly, both men were quickly inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame upon retirement (Roy in 2006, Brodeur in 2018).
Regular Season Statistics
| Martin Brodeur | Player | Patrick Roy |
| 22 (1991-1992, 1994-2015) | Seasons | 20 (1984-2003) |
| 1,266 | Games Played | 1,029 |
| 691-397-154 | W-L-T Record | 551-315-131 |
| 125 | Shutouts | 66 |
| 2.24 | GAA | 2.54 |
| .912 | SV% | .910 |
| 96 | GA%- | 86 |
| 9x | All-Star Games | 11x |
| 4x | Vezina Trophies | 3x |
| 5x | Jennings Trophies | 5x |
| 3x | Stanley Cups | 4x |
| – | Conn Smythes | 3x |
| ROY | Other Awards | – |
| 2018 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2006 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
When it comes to the playoffs, both Brodeur and Roy played over 200 games (the equivalent of two-and-a-half to three full NHL seasons). With games getting tighter and scoring coming at more of a premium in the playoffs, both Brodeur and Roy have stellar career playoff numbers and accomplishments.
In addition to his first Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe in 1985-1986, Roy would win one more Stanley Cup in 1992-1993 and also take home the Conn Smythe that year; in his Colorado days, he would backstop the Avalanche to two additional titles and win a record third Conn Smythe in 2000-2001. All in all, Roy holds a number of other playoff records, including goalie appearances, wins, saves, and also losses.
Brodeur also led the Devils to numerous Stanley Cups, following up his 1994-1995 success with further championships in 1999-2000 and 2002-2003. However, despite a record seven playoff shutouts in 2002-2003, Brodeur never won a Conn Smythe for his individual play in the playoffs; instead, during the Devils’ championship seasons, the honors went to Claude Lemieux, the aforementioned Scott Stevens, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere (ironically, the opposing goalie for the losing Anaheim Mighty Ducks), respectively.
In the 2000-2001 Stanley Cup Finals, the young Brodeur led the Devils against veteran Roy and his Avalanche in a hard-fought seven game series and the most notable head-to-head matchup of their long and illustrious careers. Despite the Devils being up three games to two, Roy lived up to his big-game playoff reputation and played brilliantly in Games 6 and 7, including a shutout in elimination Game 6, to lead the comeback victory and garner Conn Smythe honors; the series is also notable for the fact that Hall of Famer Ray Bourque was finally able to win a Stanley Cup after 22 years. Over the seven games, Roy outplayed Brodeur with 11 goals allowed, 167 saves (.938 SV%), and 2 shutouts vs. Brodeur’s 19 goals allowed, 127 saves (.870 SV%), and no shutouts.
Playoff Statistics
| Martin Brodeur | Player | Patrick Roy |
| 205 | Games Played | 247 |
| 113-91 | W-L-T Record | 151-94 |
| 24 | Shutouts | 23 |
| 2.02 | GAA | 2.30 |
| .919 | SV% | .918 |
| 100 | GA%- | 90 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; while Brodeur and Roy were able to sustain high levels of performance well into their late 30s, they nevertheless experienced periods of ineffective or simply average performance, as Father Time is undefeated. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete, though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Martin Brodeur | Player | Patrick Roy |
| 1996-1998, 1999-2001, 2002-2004, 2005-2008, 2009-2010 | Decade of Dominance | 1988-1992, 1996-1999, 2000-2003 |
| 734 | Games Played | 593 |
| 424-215-86 | W-L-T Record | 333-162-81 |
| 85 | Shutouts | 47 |
| 2.16 | GAA | 2.32 |
| .916 | SV% | .916 |
| 90 | GA%- | 83 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Comparing their decades of dominance, the thing that stands out most is Brodeur’s workhorse tendencies, as he played nearly 150 more games than Roy over the 10-year span, which resulted in 90 additional victories. While Brodeur’s GAA is superior in absolute terms and he has 38 more shutouts, Roy has the same SV% and a much better GA%-.
My Thoughts
When comparing Martin Brodeur vs. Patrick Roy, I think it ultimately comes down to floor vs. ceiling, i.e. consistent excellence vs. greater impact/dominance. When he retired, Brodeur owned most major goalie counting stat records, including appearances, wins, wins in a season, shutouts, 20-win seasons, 30-win seasons, 40-win seasons, etc. (and also interestingly, goals scored by a goalie), and in an given season, you could count on him being one of the top five or so goalies in the NHL. On the other hand, Roy was arguably the much better big-game performer, as evidenced by his record three Conn Smythes, which were won in three different decades and for two different teams. Moreover, when you look at advanced stats to reflect the style and tempo of the NHL during their playing days, in particular GA%-, one can easily argue that Roy’s stats were actually better than Brodeur’s, even if they do not appear so at first glance. Finally, Roy is known for popularizing the butterfly style of goaltending prevalent in hockey today, and for inspiring countless Canadian youth to become goalies, including Martin Brodeur himself (even though he did not use the butterfly style), the aforementioned Giguere, Jose Theodore, Marc-Andre Fleury, Roberto Luongo, etc.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Patrick Roy
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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