Is it Brodeur's fault the Devil's took less penalties?
I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter of assigning fault, but it is something to consider alongside both his save percentage and shutout numbers.
If you’re consistently facing a greater number of powerplays from game-to-game, the act of recording a shutout becomes a more difficult accomplishment. It’s adding a strong breeze when you’re already walking a tightrope.
Having said that, there’s definitely a case for Brodeur to go high. He’s among the strongest in terms of longevity for available players, and I think his top-level gets overlooked. Between the regular season and the playoffs, he might have been the best player in all of 1996-97.
I do think his award support is at least partially overstated because of the idea that he was
due, and I think he caught a lot of breaks in voting from 2001-2004 to make up for getting shut out of the Hart/Vezina/All-Star races in his early years (when the media is asking the GAA and save percentage leader why some other goaltender has never won the Vezina before, it’s not great). On the flip side, he caught bad breaks in other areas - maybe the 2nd or 3rd best individual playoff run from a Finalist between 2002-2008 but all three happened in the same year, so no Conn Smythe.
An interesting comparison in the bottom-half of the ballot would be Brodeur vs. Fetisov (two stars on two great
teams), where there might be a split on which was better at his best, which was better long-term, and how much sympathy to apply to the cultural adjustment.