Blues Grant Martin Brodeur One Week Leave Of Absence

The Martin Brodeur era may be close to its end for the St. Louis Blues. The team released the following press release today:

St. Louis Blues President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the club has given goaltender Martin Brodeur a one-week leave of absence from the team.

Brodeur will rejoin the club in one week and his future will be addressed at that time.

The 42-year-old Montreal, Quebec native has appeared in seven games for the Blues this season, posting a 3-3-0 record to go along with a 2.87 goals-against average, a .899 save-percentage and one shutout.

The Blues and Brodeur will have no further comment at this time.

It's no surprise that Brodeur has been a healthy scratch recently. Brian Elliott is healthy and playing well (the first period against the Hurricanes both notwithstanding and not totally his fault), and Jake Allen's mental time-out is done. Brodeur is the third wheel.

Marty's made no secret of the fact that he wants to play and feels that he still can. He was a serviceable stopgap for the team during an emergency situation. Chances are more than good that he will be taking this week off to assess his future and will more than likely request a situation where he can play for another team. Jimmy Howard may be out for up to a month with a torn groin; isn't Detroit where elderly players go to play out their final days?

Martin Brodeur jerseys are going to become an one-off oddity like Gretzky jerseys. Hold on to yours if you have one; maybe in 20 years you can put it on eBay at an insane markup.