page_title: Martin Brodeur
section_title: The Brodeur Rule
hierarchical_section_title: Martin Brodeur / NHL career / New Jersey Devils / The Brodeur Rule
context_page_description: Martin Pierre Brodeur is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey goaltender and current team executive. He played 22 seasons in the National Hockey League, 21 of them for the New Jersey Devils, with whom he won three Stanley Cup championships and five Eastern Conference championships in 17 postseason campaigns. He also won two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympic Games, as well as several other medals with Team Canada in other international competitions. Brodeur is widely regarded as one of the greatest goaltenders of all time. In 2017, he was named by the league as one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players", and the following year, he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
  Brodeur holds numerous NHL and franchise records among goaltenders; he ranks as the league's all-time regular season leader in wins, losses, shutouts, and games played. He won at least 30 games in twelve straight seasons between 1995–96 and 2007–08 and is the only goalie in NHL history with eight 40-win seasons. He is a four-time Vezina Trophy winner, a five-time William M. Jennings Trophy winner, a ten-time NHL All-Star, and a Calder Memorial Trophy winner.
context_section_description: After the 2004–05 lockout and before the start of the 2005–06 season, the league instituted a new rule preventing goaltenders from playing the puck behind the goal line, except within a trapezoid-shaped zone located behind the net. The trapezoid began at the goal line with angled lines six feet from each goal post and widened to 28 feet at the end boards. Former Flyers general manager Bobby Clarke was one of the leaders in getting the trapezoid implemented. This was viewed by many as singling out Brodeur, who was one of the best at getting behind the net to handle the puck, and has come to be known as the "Brodeur Rule".
  At the 2009 NHL General Managers' Meeting, it was discussed whether the rule should be eliminated as a solution to the increasing number of injuries on defenseman who were being hit hard by forechecking forwards. The forecheckers were no longer impeded by defencemen holding them up because of the crackdown on interference, which created situations where defencemen were being hit at high speeds. Brodeur believed that revoking the trapezoid could result in more scoring and more exciting games. He explained, "If you give the liberty to the goalies to play the puck, they'll mess up more than they're successful." He also expressed his concern for defencemen, "It's a no-brainer if they want to start to eliminate these huge hits for the defencemen ... Whenever my defencemen or somebody was getting a big hit, I felt guilty that I let that guy get hit like that. Now, I've got to sit and watch all the time ... You've got to try to find something because so many guys are getting hurt." At the time of his statement, Devils defencemen Paul Martin, Johnny Oduya and Bryce Salvador were all out with injuries.
  Ultimately the suggestion was rejected and the rule stayed in place. Former Maple Leafs' general manager Brian Burke said, "We had originally approved a rule where the goaltenders couldn't handle the puck behind the net at all. The game was turning into a tennis match. You'd dump it in and the goalie would throw it out and now with the soft chip into the corner it turns into a puck battle and a forecheck opportunity, which is what we wanted."
caption: The goaltender trapezoids behind each goal, added by the NHL before the 2005–06 season, were widely viewed as singling out Brodeur for his puck-handling skills.