{"id":56234,"date":"2026-05-30T15:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/56234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T15:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:35:08","slug":"devils-legend-martin-brodeur-shares-personal-claude-lemieux-tribute-he-took-me-under-his-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/56234\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils legend Martin Brodeur shares personal Claude Lemieux tribute: \u2018He took me under his wing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was the guy you loved to hate. <\/p>\n

According to Devils<\/a> legend Martin Brodeur<\/a>, Claude Lemieux<\/a> was hockey\u2019s ultimate villain. If you wore the opposing jersey, he was probably the player you dreaded most.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the question nobody\u2019s really asking right now: Who was Claude Lemieux when the skates came off?<\/p>\n

In an appearance on Sportsnet, the Hockey Hall of Famer opened up about his former Devils teammate just 36 hours after Lemieux\u2019s passing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brodeur, who won two Stanley Cups alongside Lemieux in New Jersey, didn\u2019t just talk about the goals or the Conn Smythe. He went more personal, describing a man of genuine warmth who quietly looked out for those around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows him as a hockey player and as a villain almost on the ice,\u201d Brodeur said in a clip shared on X\/Twitter<\/a>. \u201cBut, you know, he had a big heart, you know, like, for me, as a young French Canadian guy coming into New Jersey, not really speaking, well, English, he took me under his wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brodeur was 19 when he made his Devils debut. The Montreal native was navigating a new country, a new language and the overwhelming pressure of making it in the NHL. <\/p>\n

He was far from home, unsure of himself, and facing his first holiday season away from everything familiar. And Lemieux stepped up in the most human way imaginable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared to go to Christmas, you know, back in Montreal, so I didn\u2019t miss practice on the 26th,\u201d Brodeur recalled. \u201cSo, you know, he opened his arms, opened his home to me and my wife and that, you know, that meant, you know, the world to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brodeur also revealed that Lemieux went out of his way to bring him into the NHLPA\u2019s Team Quebec event in the mid-90s, personally calling the players\u2019 association to ensure Brodeur had a spot. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe called the NHLPA, he said, \u2018Hey, Marty\u2019s coming with me. We\u2019re going to play for Team Quebec,\u2019\u201d Brodeur said.<\/p>\n

The NHL lost one of its all-time competitors this week. But listening to Brodeur speak, it\u2019s clear the Devils family lost something even harder to replace \u2014 a teammate who knew exactly when to fight and exactly when to simply open the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He was the guy you loved to hate. According to Devils legend Martin Brodeur, Claude Lemieux was hockey\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[53,3154,32765,32766,32767,32768,182,5020,32769,32770,32771,23576],"class_list":["post-56234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anthropic","tag-anthropic","tag-anthropic-claude","tag-brucebennett_archives","tag-celebrate","tag-celebrates","tag-celebrating","tag-claude","tag-nhl","tag-raise","tag-raises","tag-stanley-cup-trophy","tag-trophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}