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?
