EBUG Alert: The Best Available Goalies This Year May Be Women

With an abundance of professional women's hockey goalies looking to stay sharp this year, the best available goalies to serve as NHL EBUG's this season may be women.

The lore of emergency backup goaltenders, or EBUG as they've come to be known, has grown in recent seasons. It's a rare occasion when both goalies on an NHL team are hurt or otherwise ousted from the same game, but it happens, and when it does, some of the most unlikely individuals step in the NHL net as an EBUG.

In history, only six - David Ayres, Scott Foster, Jorge Alves, Thomas Hodges, Matt Berlin, and Jett Alexander - have ever appeared in an NHL game; some by necessity, others by choice. Ayres famously led the Carolina Hurricanes to a win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Many NHL EBUGs are drastically under-qualified for the role for the sole reason that most high calibre goalies are occupied with their own seasons.

This year, as an excess of elite women's hockey players find themselves without jobs, the best available goaltender for an NHL team to utilize as a regular EBUG may be a woman.

While the new league will likely employ 18 goaltenders, three per team, there were 31 goalies who played North American pro hockey last year in the PHF and PWHPA, and a dozen more who would have found themselves in the PHF or PWHPA had the new PWHL not launched.

The new league will certainly include national team netminders like Ann-Renee Desbiens, Aerin Frankel, Emma Soderberg, and future Hall of Famer Noora Raty. But as you scroll down the depth chart, many women will be looking to stay in game shape, and could be an asset to NHL teams when the need arises. 

Many women have excelled in net in men's hockey, whether it be Manon Rheaume, Erin Whitten, Shannon Szabados, Florence Schelling, or Raty herself at the pro level, or players like Charline Labonte, Eve Gascon, Sami Jo Small, or Kim Martin at other levels. Recently, 17-year-old Rhyah Stewart stopped all 24 shots she faced in her QMJHL preseason debut. Earlier in 2023, Morgan Stickney became the first goaltender ever selected in the WHL draft.

PHF fans would certainly love to see some of their fan favorites from recent seasons on the bench of an NHL team, whether it's players like Carly Jackson or Elaine Chuli in Toronto, Amanda Leveille in Minnesota, Kassidy Sauve or Samantha Ridgewell in Buffalo, Kaitlin Burt in Boston, or Abbie Ives in New York. The same could be said for new PHF signee Lauren Bench or veteran Tricia Deguire in Montreal, or PWHPA netminder Erica Howe in Ottawa. The options are endless, including European netminders like Lyndsey Post who have returned to North America, and when the dust settles on PWHL netminding situation, there will be a large number of talented goalies looking to stay sharp.

While some teams turn to beer league insurance agents, construction workers, or equipment managers, the option of past professional women's hockey netminders who have stayed sharper, and in better shape in recent years will become increasingly enticing to clubs this year.

And who knows, if opportunity knocks, history could be made with the first woman to ever play a regular season NHL game.