Jeremy Brodeur gets on ice for Devils’ AHL affiliate as Hall of Fame father watches from stands | Sports

NEWARK — The reminders are everywhere for Jeremy Brodeur.

Just outside of the main entrance of the RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House — which is ordinarily the New Jersey Devils’ practice rink, but has served as the impromptu home for the American Hockey League’s Binghamton Devils this season — on the corner of Lafayette and Mulberry sits a statue of his father, Martin Brodeur, commemorating a career in which he was arguably the greatest goaltender in the history of the National Hockey League, and helped lead the Devils to three Stanley Cups on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Even as he made his debut at the AHL level — a dazzling performance against the Hershey Bears in which he picked up the loss despite stopping 47 of the 50 shots he faced back on April 7 — all he had to do was look up and to his right for a larger than life banner that hangs at the rink, honoring his dad’s retired No. 30 jersey number.

His father — now the team’s executive vice president and an advisor to the club — looked on in person that night as well, beaming with joy as he scampered through the stands during intermissions to chat with family and friends in attendance, innocently blurring the lines between proud hockey dad and front office member.

The reminders are everywhere.

But, for many, they’d also be reasons to never sign with the Devils in the first place, to avoid the pressures that come with even attempting to follow in those footsteps and perhaps go to another organization where the shine of the spotlight would be far dimmer.

That’s not Jeremy Brodeur.

After sometimes struggling to find his footing at the ECHL and SPHL levels over the past few seasons, the 24-year-old Essex Fells native embraced the challenges that came with signing with the Devils organization this January, even if he knew that assumptions from the outside looking in might be made from those unfamiliar with how much work he’d put in to earn the opportunity on his own.

“I’ve kind of grown up with seeing those comments and hearing people say things, so it’s something I’m used to and it’s not something that bothers me. There was no real pressure from that sense in coming here,” Brodeur told The Trentonian in a conversation over Zoom.

“As soon as I heard about all of this, I was very excited, and obviously the level of hockey was a lot higher than what I was playing before. Even if my role was just to practice and be there to help my teammates get better and get myself better as well, I was ready to do that.”

It had been a slow journey to get to the point of making his AHL debut this season for Brodeur, who had mostly served as the team’s third goalie behind Gilles Senn and Evan Cormier. But, Brodeur says he kept himself ready regardless of the situation, and felt prepared for his big moment.

“I’d say I got a one and a half or two day notice before I knew I was playing, so I had time to think and prepare for it,” he said. “I didn’t really feel nervous when I heard I was playing, I was honestly very excited, and felt like it was a long time coming. As it got closer to game time, the nerves started coming, but that settled down pretty quick because there were a bunch of shots early, and I got into the game and didn’t have time to think about too much. From that standpoint, it was very nice.”

The majority of Brodeur’s prior pro experience comes in the ECHL, where a strong first year in 2017-18 for the Allen Americans was followed up by a more challenging sophomore year split between Allen and the Norfolk Admirals. Last year, however, he played well in a stint with the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Peoria Rivermen — as well as brief stay in Europe — and followed that up with a shutout win in his only outing this year with the SPHL’s Knoxville Ice Bears.

Brodeur says coming to the AHL was a “very big pace jump,” and was actually grateful for having as much practice time — working heavily with goalie coach Brian Eklund — as he did to get acclimated to that before getting in actual game action.

“I kind of treated this year like I felt like I needed to take another step in my game in order to prepare for what’s coming in the future,” he said. “I didn’t want to potentially stay at that same level or potentially even downgrade a little bit, where you could just say it’s a weird year. I’m just wanting to get better every single day, and being here with ‘Ekky,’ our goalie coach, it’s been great to work on things and develop my games in different areas, just small steps at a time. It feels like it’s coming along pretty well.”

Brodeur is hopeful to get into some more games, although even with 13 scheduled contests remaining on the B-Devils slate, the net is even more crowded now with Mareks Mitens having joined the club. Regardless of how it all plays out this year, he’ll always have that debut to look back on, and says he received from words of encouragement from his famous father that he won’t soon forget.

“He said, ‘You looked like you belonged there,’” Jeremy Brodeur said. “We talked about a bunch of little small things, some technical little teaching points. But, from a parent’s perspective, I think he was pretty happy and pretty proud.”