Minor League Hockey Team Signs 61-Year-Old As EBUG

‘Round these parts, we like ourselves a good EBUG story, and we’ve got a good one coming to us from an ECHL game over the weekend.

For the uninitiated, EBUG stands for “Emergency Backup Goalie” and it’s a rule in a lot of pro hockey leagues, including the NHL, which allows for teams to dress a goalie on an emergency basis in the event that the two goalies they started the game with are unable to play.

This player is usually provided by the home team and they usually spend the night crushing chicken tenders in the press box, but sometimes duty calls and that was the case for 61-year-old Doug Melvin.

Melvin, it turns out, is something of a legend in the Boise beer league scene (which sounds like it’s probably a great time), according to reports, and has long been the go-to guy if the Idaho Steelheads — the ECHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars — or their opponent needs a goalie in a pinch. 

He was called into action over the weekend when the visiting Toldeo Walleye found themselves in a goalie pickle.

The Walleye are the ECHL affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings, and their starting netminder Carter Gylander had to leave Idaho and fly across the country to Allentown, Pennsylvania to join Detroit’s AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins for a game against the Grand Rapids Griffins.

According to FloHockey, the Walleye had only hit the road with two goalies, so they got Melvin to suit up just in case something happened to defacto starter Jan Bednar.

It turns out that over the years, Melvin has served as an EBUG many times, mostly for the Steelheads.

According to HockeyDB, Melvin played in an AHL game back in the early ’80s and hockey analyst Jeff Marek reported that Melvin was at Philadelphia Flyers training camp in 1978 alongside Jerry Price, the father of future Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price.

Awesome stuff, and another reminder (as if you needed one) of why the EBUG rule is one of the coolest in all of sports.