NEWARK — Devils forward Patrik Elias is used to watching teammates come and go.

Yet when he reported to this year’s training camp for his 19th N.H.L. season, Elias recognized a glaring absence: Martin Brodeur.

“He’s the one guy who was always here when I show up for training camp,” Elias, 38, said of Brodeur, the N.H.L.’s career leader in goaltending victories. “It just shows you that time is flying by, and it’s out there for all of us. We just got to move on.

“It’s been part of the N.H.L. more and more with the cap. But he was a special teammate.”

Brodeur, 42, is in free-agent purgatory, and this season will be Elias’s first without him as a teammate, making Elias the longest-tenured player for the Devils, who beat the Rangers, 5-4, in an exhibition match Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

“My approach to the team on and off the ice is the same,” Elias said last week. “We’ve got a couple of new guys again. You just want to make them feel welcome and that they’re part of a team right away.”