The NHL general managers meetings begin Monday in Boca Raton, Fla., and one topic that is expected to be discussed by the men around the table is the league’s emergency goalie rules.
The issue has been on the National Hockey League’s agenda in years past, but it has rocketed up the list of pressing issues after 42-year-old David Ayres was called upon to play for the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 22 at Scotiabank Arena.
Ayres, a building operations manager employed by the Leafs who drives the Zamboni at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto and frequently practices with the team, made eight saves in a little under 29 minutes of action after Carolina lost netminders James Reimer and Petr Mrazek to injury and became the first emergency goalie ever to win a game and the oldest goalie in NHL history to win his regular-season debut.
The Whitby, Ont., native has since enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame, and then some, appearing on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, Fox and Friends, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Morning Show on Global, just to name a few.
But aside from being one of the feel-good stories of the year, the situation has forced the NHL to take a longer look at its emergency goalie procedures with the aim of avoiding an embarrassing situation for the league.
Sure, by losing to Carolina — who, again, had a 42-year-old zamboni driver who works for the Maple Leafs in net for nearly half the game — Toronto became the laughingstock of the NHL for a few days.
However, if the Leafs would have pumped a few more pucks past Ayres and went on to beat the Hurricanes, the NHL would have looked like a Mickey Mouse league.
The question is, how does the NHL fix this?
The league’s official rule book states that the home team is responsible for providing an emergency goalie and “if both listed goalkeepers are incapacitated, that team shall be entitled to dress and play any available goalkeeper who is eligible.”
Perhaps every team should employ a third goalie that travels with the team, just in case. But that player would have to be a member of the NHL Players’ Association, right? And if so — even by earning the league’s minimum salary — they would impact the salary cap and the club’s travel and accommodation budget.
Maybe the league itself should hire a staff of emergency goalies and have them stationed in each of the NHL’s 31 cities. Would the NHLPA agree to that?
The best option may be to do nothing.
Think about it. For all the negative publicity the Ayres story could have possibly brought to the league — and did bring to the Leafs — it has been dwarfed by the overwhelmingly positive buzz that it created.