Mike Brodeur Not Returning as an Amerk

The Florida Panthers were willing to spend the money and offer Mike Brodeur a contract to return as the goalie of the Rochester Americans but Brodeur rejected the offer.  Apparently the Panthers were willing to offer Brodeur a contract worth $105,000 which is right at the re-entry waiver cap so at least we know money was not an issue.

Every player dreams of making it to the NHL, that opportunity just did not exist with the Florida Panthers in the eyes of Brodeur.  That dream appears as if it exists within the Ottawa Senators organization where it’s believed he will end up.  If that’s the case then Amerks fans will see a lot of Brodeur assuming he’s playing with the Binghamton Senators to work his way up.

Mike Brodeur arrived in Rochester in December 2008 and is credited with helping to turn the season around from a complete failure to a respectable team at the end of the season.  He made a lot of spectacular saves and single handedly kept the Amerks in a lot of games that should have been complete blow out losses.

With the departure of Brodeur it looks like Alexander Salak will definitely be in Rochester as the starting goaltender, it will be his job to lose.  I had the chance to watch Salak this week and he looks great.  A number of people have even gone as far as calling Salak the next Dominik Hasek.

The only bad thing about Brodeur leaving is that a lot of fans who may not be reading about everything going on probably see this as more bad news about the team in the coming season.  First it was Jody Gage (who is still with the Amerks organization, just not with the title of GM), now Mike Brodeur.  Hopefully once free agency starts a number of good things will happen that will create a lot of positive buzz about the team.