Martin Brodeur is of no use to the Montréal Canadiens.

QMI, the news 'agency' that brought you the scoop that Pope Francis was arrested in Ottawa while driving a rented Porsche, puts forth a news-adjacent item that free agent goaltender Martin Brodeur would listen to an offer if the Canadiens were so inclined.  Which leads me to ask, who would be most superfluous on the Canadiens, Martin Brodeur, Francis Bouillon, or Paul Bissonnette?

As much respect as I have for Martin Brodeur, he overplayed his hand here. He could probably have eked out a couple more seasons at a generous wage from the Devils if he’d accepted the backup role, but his insistence that he wanted to start made it easy on Lou Lamoriello to part ways with him.

Now he’s without a team, it’s questionable that any organization would take him on with his wilting stats over the last few seasons. Unless he consulted with Roger Clemens and experienced a similar late-career surge in performance, I think he’s done, and the league seems to think the same way.

The Canadiens have a capable backup in Peter Budaj, who posted better numbers than Mr. Brodeur last season.  Dustin Tokarski is waiting in the wings, ready to battle for a job in camp.

Even if the Canadiens felt they needed help in nets beyond Carey Price, there are lots of options out there in free agency and on the trade market, more effective or likely ones than Martin Brodeur.

There has been a lot of talk related to Michael Sam about a player being a distraction, and that is exactly what Martin Brodeur would be, at best a curio, at worst a distraction and source of controversy in Montréal. That we’re even discussing this is another indication that we are indeed in the dog days of August, and there is nothing going on that’s newsworthy. So we need to generate discussion.

Or with Pierre-Karl Péladeau’s putrid Québecor and Sun Media and QMI, to actually invent news.