Martin-Brodeur-Hindash.JPG

Devils goalie Martin Brodeur hasn't been told if he'll play another game this season.

(Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger)

OTTAWA— Goalie Martin Brodeur came as close as he's come yet to saying he won't be back with the Devils next season when he spoke about how difficult it was to be relegated to backup for games that really mattered.

Although he admitted Pete DeBoer had a difficult job splitting up the goaltending between the 41-year-old future Hall of Famer and Cory Schneider, Brodeur suggested that he's slowly been demoted to backup during the head coach's three seasons behind the Devils bench.

"It's hard. There is no one to blame," Brodeur said about the goalie situation. "(But) there are people that are made for that (primarily being a backup) and there are other people that are not.

"It's one thing when you get into a situation and they tell you exactly what is going to happen. I'm not saying I was promised anything but I definitely was not promised that, to sit back whenever games counted throughout the year."

Brodeur has started 37 games and Schneider 42. But Brodeur pointed out that he never got more than three consecutive starts and that happened only twice.

"I had my chance. I had some games. It's easy for him (DeBoer) to make switches but it's hard for a goalie to get on a roll when you don't play," Brodeur said. "You look at Cory and he's playing unbelievable right now. There's a reason. He's playing a lot.

"When I played a lot-- I never really had more than three starts in a row-- but when I had that, I felt good about my game. The last four years, if I played more than 50 in one year that's good. I don't think I've done it. It makes it hard when you want to be in the net all the time."

In DeBoer's three seasons, Brodeur has played 59, 29 and 37 games. However, he was the goalie that carried the Devils to the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals and 2012-13 was a lockout-shortened season, so 29 games is actually equates to 49.5 games in an 82-game season.

DeBoer admitted it hasn't been easy.

"It's not the easiest situation in the world," DeBoer said. "You've got the best goalie of all-time and when we brought in Cory we knew it was going to be a sensitive thing to deal with all year. Having said that, we tried to handle it as fairly as possible with both guys. And I'm comfortable that we did that as a staff.

"On their end, I appreciated their professionalism. I thought both guys handled a tough situation very well, too."

But can Brodeur come back to the same situation next season, if the Devils wanted him?

He wouldn't answer directly.

"The situation I'm going to get myself in is something I'm going to be okay with. So if you see me here next year, it's because I'm okay to be sharing the net or doing whatever I'm told," Brodeur said. "But I'm not going to go through what I've done, thinking you're still No. 1 and the next thing you know (you're sitting).

"I'll have the power next year. This year I didn't have it."

Brodeur said he fully understood if the Devils don't want him back next season.