When the National Hockey League’s collective bargaining agreement was extended for four years in July 2025 – a year before its expiry – one of the interesting wrinkles was the introduction of full-time emergency backup goaltenders (or EBUG) for every team starting with the 2026-27 season.

In the olden days, the home team was required to have an extra goalie in the building, available to either team in the event they suddenly had fewer than two goaltenders available due to injury or illness. That’s the sort of thing that led to many weird stories collected in Professional Hockey Writers Association president Stephen Whyno’s book Odd Man In, including accountant Scott Foster playing part of a game for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2017-18 and zamboni driver David Ayres beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019-20. (Your ears are probably still ringing due to Steve Dangle screaming about that last one…)

Well, the rules that allowed for such shenanigans have been changed, and all 32 teams will have a full-time emergency goalie who meet the following requirements, via PuckPedia:

Via a report from Sportsnet’s Eric Francis, the Calgary Flames’ full-time EBUG is… their current primary EBUG, Dusty Nickel.

If Nickel sounds familiar, it’s because he’s been around the Flames and Calgary Wranglers for a few years. He actually dressed as backup for each club in 2023-24. He backed up Dan Vladar on Nov. 27, 2023 after Jacob Markstrom fell ill before the game, too late for the Flames to call up Dustin Wolf from the Wranglers. He also backed up Oscar Dansk on Feb. 9, 2024 when Dustin Wolf was called up a short notice, without enough time for Connor Murphy to arrive from the ECHL.

When he’s not helping out the Flames and Wranglers as a practice goalie and EBUG, the 35-year-old Nickel runs his own construction business and works as a senior coach for Apex Goaltending. Prior to joining the Flames in his current capacity, he played with the AJHL’s Calgary Canucks, SJHL’s Kindersley Klippers, and the Mount Royal University Cougars in USports.

While he wore #40 with the Flames and #31 with the Wranglers in 2023-24, Nickel will be issued #00 as the Flames’ full-time EBUG per the league’s new regulations.

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