Capitals goaltending coach Scott Murray keeps a scrupulously maintained directory of local goalies. This part of his job comes up more than you might think: When players need someone in net for their informal summer group skates, or when a guy wants to practice one-timers while team goalies are meant to be resting, Murray is the one to coordinate a substitute. There are some NHL markets flush with options for this kind of arrangement. D.C. is not quite among them.
And so Murray knows every former college goalie in the DMV, anyone who logged a few years in the minor leagues, every local option with enough quality experience to be a serviceable practice goalie for the NHL.
He called on that directory to solve a new problem this summer.
Every NHL team needed to hire an official emergency back-up goalie. Gone are the days of accountants or Zamboni drivers hanging around, ready to pull on gear and occupy the net in case of disaster, like something out of a Disney movie. The NHL’s new collective bargaining agreement requires that every team now have a full-time emergency backup who travels with the team and can functionally serve as an extra practice goalie.
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But the new provision comes with some restrictions. Teams cannot use it as a loophole to hire a legitimate third goalie: The new EBUG cannot be someone who has played a single NHL game under a standard player contract. They cannot have appeared in 80 or more professional games at any level, including the minor leagues, and they cannot have played affiliated professional hockey at all in the past three years. In other words, the person must be talented enough to be in net, but not so talented as to have meaningfully pursued a hockey career.
“The parameters weren’t necessarily easy,” Murray said. “Finding a local guy was our goal … But some markets definitely have more goalies hanging around.”
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He was able to stay local after all. The Capitals’ first-ever full-time EBUG is 24-year-old Connor Leslie, who grew up in Leesburg, Virginia, where he spent eight years training with the Washington Little Capitals before playing Division III hockey at Amherst College. As a kid with the Little Caps, Leslie practiced at the same facility as the pros.
He now gets to share a rink with them — in a role that is not what he dreamed of as a child, exactly, but a dream all the same.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Leslie said. “I’m over the moon about it.”
When Leslie played his final game at Amherst in 2025, he thought “the only thing I would be doing after that was beer league.” He had no designs on a pro hockey career: Leslie double-majored in political science and psychology and wrote a thesis on terrorists’ digital-recruitment strategies. He eventually hopes to work in federal law enforcement. While looking for a job in the field in the months following graduation, though, he got a call from Murray.
The goaltending coach had long had an entry for Leslie in his local goalie mental Rolodex. But this was not an informal skate over the summer. This was February: It was right after the Olympics, where Capitals starting goalie Logan Thompson had just competed with Team Canada, and Murray wanted to give him the day off. The team needed an extra goalie for a full practice.
Leslie had not skated in the eight months since he graduated from Amherst, but he felt like he couldn’t possibly say no: “I was just like, You know what? This would be just a really fun opportunity, just to have the story to talk about.” It was. The former D-III goalie pulled himself out of his short retirement and went to the same facility where he logged so many hours as a kid, getting in net for an NHL practice with Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and the other Capitals.
“You’re out there with a bunch of players that you always looked up to,” Leslie said. “I’m looking at Ovechkin out there … It was just one of those moments, where I was like, This can’t be real.”
(That did include taking a one-timer from Ovechkin. “It was one of those where I was just hoping to get my body in front of it by any ways or means possible, even if it was my face,” Leslie said.)
Even after months away from the ice, Leslie felt comfortable. “Honestly, it felt like riding a bike,” he said. “I remembered how much I loved playing … It ended up being a really good skate, surprisingly.”
Murray took note. He had not told Leslie that his invite was for anything other than one day of practice. But the goaltending coach was also scouting for the new EBUG he would have to hire come September. (The new rule was circulating around NHL teams and coaches but had not been made public. Leslie said he had no idea about the changes when he came out for that practice.) Murray liked what he saw from Leslie, who struck him as humble enough to know that he was only there in service to the players, but capable enough for that service to be legitimate.
“They’ve got to be able to stop pucks and challenge guys in whatever situation they’re put in, and then also be able to execute other things that we might need them to be able to do,” Murray said. “I think we’re lucky that we found a guy like Connor.”
Leslie jumped at the opportunity. He will now be the first to define the role with the Caps.
“It’s the first year for every team,” Murray said. “I think it’ll kind of evolve.”
Under the old model, EBUGs generally showed up to the arena for games and waited to see if they would be called on in case of emergency. (They usually were not: A 2025 SportsNet story noted that just six EBUGs had seen the ice in 13,068 regular-season games over the last decade.) It still means being available for that 6-in-13,068 chance, but it will also mean helping with goaltending needs however the organization sees fit, including making it easier for goalies to take a rest day. That’s especially key as the NHL season expands this year to 84 games.
“It just helps us manage the workload,” Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren said. “I think it’s very beneficial.”
It’s a bigger change for some other NHL teams than it is for the Capitals. The team’s previous emergency goalie, Parker Milner, was more involved with the team than many other franchise EBUGs, and he often helped out at home practices when he could. He’s been chatting with Leslie and is happy to give his blessing to the new kid.
“It instantly struck me that he had the type of personality that could really fit in well,” Milner said. “He had the right mentality … He recognizes that he’s there to help his teammates; he’s not there for himself, and that’s such a big part of it.”
Milner was ineligible to be hired as a full-time EBUG under the new rules. He’d played 245 minor-league games in the ECHL before he became the emergency goalie for the Capitals, which means he had far too much pro experience to qualify. And he was ready to move on to a new life either way. The majority of those ECHL games were played with the Capitals’ affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina, the Stingrays. While playing there, he started building a reputation as a local food writer. He has since moved back to Charleston and become the food and drink editor for The Post and Courier.
The organization saw another benefit in adding Leslie as a regular practice goalie.
Both of the Capitals’ goalies catch with their right hand. (That’s a relatively unusual setup: Of 98 goalies who started an NHL game last season, only five caught right, including Thompson and Lindgren. They became the first pair of right-catching goalies to form an NHL tandem in more than a decade.) Leslie catches with his left hand. That means he can provide an important look in practice for the Capitals.
“Having a guy that catches ‘normal’ can help,” said Lindgren, grinning as he made some heavy air quotes around “normal.” “It’s just the fact of the matter. A right-hand catching goalie is just a different look than a left-hand catching goalie. Not to say that come game time, it’s going to mess our players up, but maybe there’s something in a shootout or a breakaway where it’s more beneficial for them to go and shoot on Les.”
In the meantime, there are other needs he can help fill. Before the start of the season, Capitals medical staff needed to practice their emergency response if a player was severely injured on the ice. Leslie was more than happy to volunteer for the simulation. After all, he figured, he’s here in case of emergency.
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