FORT LAUDERDALE - The Florida Panthers are entering a new NHL era at the emergency goalie spot, and the first man in line appears to be former college netminder Noah Altman.
This season, the league is requiring every team to carry a full-time Emergency Backup Goalie, or EBUG, with that goalie traveling alongside the club instead of waiting around at the arena as a backup option. In past seasons, the home team would keep an EBUG on site, ready to suit up if one of the starting goalies had to leave a game.
Altman has not been officially announced by the Panthers, but the signs are pointing his way. He has been around the team already, skating with injured players Brad Marchand and Jonas Gadjovich on Thursday and Friday, and he has been wearing the No. 00 that all EBUGs are required to wear this season.
If Altman ever had to play, it would be a first for the Panthers. He would become the first Florida player to wear double-zero in a game, and that would only happen if both Panthers goalies were unable to continue.
Altman is 25, though the source material also refers to him as 26. What is clear is that he has no professional playing experience, and that does not rule him out for the job. Under the rules, an EBUG cannot have played in an NHL game before, which eliminates someone like Roberto Luongo, but the goalie can have played as many as 80 pro games.
A Los Angeles native, Altman played prep hockey at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Minnesota, the same program that counts Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Nathan MacKinnon, and Macklin Celebrini among its NHL alumni. He then moved on to Quinnipiac, where he served as an assistant captain, appeared in seven games for the Bobcats, and was part of the 2023 national championship team.
After college, Altman stayed in Connecticut and took a job as a production assistant at ESPN.
That detail fits a Panthers EBUG story with South Florida roots. The NHL’s emergency-goalie tradition, at least in part, traces back to a 2015 Panthers game against the Maple Leafs that turned into chaos.
Luongo was hurt in the first period after taking a hard shot to the shoulder. Al Montoya entered for him, then later in the third period Montoya suffered a groin injury while trying to stop Nazem Kadri’s game-tying goal.
Suddenly, Florida was out of goalies. Luongo had already left the arena and was driving to Cleveland Clinic in Weston for evaluation.
Coach Gerard Galant and general manager Dale Tallon met during the delay to figure out the next move, while fourth-line center Derek MacKenzie was already putting on goalie gear and preparing to go in. Goalie coach Robb Tallas, who had not played an NHL game in 14 years, was also prepared to sign a one-game contract if needed.
Luongo heard the commotion on the radio in his car and rushed back to the arena. Montoya eventually limped back into the net after the long stoppage, and Luongo persuaded Tallon and Gallant to let him return to the game.
A few days later, the Panthers turned that strange night into a public spectacle, holding an open casting call for the “next goalie of the Panthers.” More than 1,500 people applied, and Florida selected 60 to take shots from team alumni including Radek Dvorak, Marco Sturm, and John Madden.
Among those who tried out was ESPN SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn.
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