NHL Backup Goaltenders, (nearly all) 1963 to present (and a call for help)

[Doctor No]

Similarly Ken Ellacott was Canucks backup early in 1980-1981 when Hanlon was out.

October 20. The Vancouver Sun
Ken Ellacott, summoned Sunday from Dallas for games in New York Tuesday against the Islanders and Wednesday against the Rangers.

With the brittle Glen Hanlon shelved for four to six weeks with suspected stretched ligaments in his left knee, Brodeur will be No. 1 indefinitely, at least until veteran Gary Bromley is able to return.

November 6. 1980
Meanwhile, goakeeper Gary Bromley was recalled by the Canucks from Dallas Black Hawks of the Central League. Ken Ellacott replaced Bromley in Dallas.


I did stumble to some of these when I was searching "backup only" and "that goalie dressed for that team" goalies. But sadly I never made any notes because it wasn´t what I was looking for.

Couple more sources on Ellacott (I agree on all seven games from October 21 through November 2 inclusive).

Province 10/21/1980

Province 11/4/1980

 

[Doctor No]

There is great amount of satisfaction going through these. But I feel slightl disapointment too because I have hunch or memories almost every gap that I have found to this point. Years ago I went through so many transaction columns and seeked for goalie injuries that almost every time there is a gap it rings a bell in my head. That means that there probably aren´t many "backup onlys" to discover.

Few Kings ones. (Now these don´t automatically mean that they were backups in every game but the odds are that they did. Needs bit of checking up)

Mario Lessard started the 76-77 as Kings backup

The Los Angeles Times 6. Oct 1976
Vachon and rookie Mario Lessard, who will remain with the club until Gary Edwards broken hand mends.

The Voncouver Sun 19. Oct 1976
The Kings also announced that defenceman Larry Brown and goalie Mario Lessard
were sent to Kings´ Fort Worth farm team.



Gary Simmons had his last NHL time as Kings backup in 78-79

The Los Angeles Times 12. Nov 1978
Mario Lessard, with a bruised right shoulder was given the night off and Gary Simmons suited Grahame´s backup.



Paul Pageau had one game stint as backup in 82-83

The Los Angeles Times 25. Mar 1983
Laskoski went all the way in goal since Markus Mattsson twisted his left knee in Tuesday's loss to Montreal Mattsson didn't suit up Thursday so the Kings brought up minor-leaguer Paul Pageau to back up Laskoski

Good call on all of these...Lessard was identified in the Penguins' box summary (the handwritten one) from 10/9.

Vancouver Province from 10/2/76 (which was preseason but shows Lessard in #31 I believe):

Fort Worth Star-Telegram 10/20/1976 (retrospective confirmation):

Agreed on Gary Simmons 11/11/1978. A few more data pieces:

NY Daily News December 13, 1978:

I see your Los Angeles Times 11/12/1978 citation.

I also see an Escondido Times-Advocate 11/26/1978 quote stating that "Rookie Mario Lessard and veteran Gary Simmons have done surprisingly well in goal." Indeed, surprising.

I confirm your Pageau quote from the Times 3/25/1983, adding that "Mattsson will probably be ready for Saturday's game [against Edmonton, and he was]."

 

[Sanf]

One that I also spotted yesterday is Tim Bernhardt stint with Flames in 80-81 (You actually have the first game there). I believe Bernhardt was also without club at that point because the affiliate Birmingham withdrawn league. This I´m fairly confident because I remember it being covered in Calgary Herald well. I suppose Lemelin backed up the Feb 8. game with broken thumb. That was not that unusual back then.


Calgary Herald Feb 10. 1981
Lemelin suffered the injury Sunday night at Edmonton´s Northlands Colisseum, in the pre-game warmup.
------
So, now, it´s Pat Riggin against the world and Bernhardt, up from the Central League, in the wings


Calgary Herald March 3. 1981
Although his thumb is still swollen, goaltender Rejean Lemelin has been declared fit to return to action. As a result, Tim Bernhardt did not make the trip. but went to Birmingham to gather up his belongings.

 

[Sanf]

This one I did not know before. Just used your site and archives to dig something out. It would seem that Irons was Blues backup for two games when Glenn Hall was out. This need bit of checking though.

And sorry about the small quotes. I don´t have newspapers subscribtion at the moment so just using memory and the search engine to find small snippets for leads and proofs.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 10. 1970
The Blues recalled goalie Robbie Irons from their Kansas City farm club in the Central Hockey League. He will be backup man for Ernie Wakely in a move in to give 39-year old goalie Glenn Hall a rest of several days, according to a club spokesman. Irons was in the St. Louis lineup in several training games this year and played briefly in the regular National Hockey League for the Blues in 1968-69

The Kansas City Star November 21. 1970
Robbie Irons who now is in St Louis ranks

St. Louis Post-Dispatch November 25. 1970
Veteran goalie Glenn Hall, who returned to his home in Edmonton, the weekend to be. with' his wife after she underwent surgery, is expected to be back in uniform for the contest

 

[Sanf]

And this one I have checked before and confident that the backup was Darrell May for Blues for while in 86-87. *Injury my adition

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Februaru 9. 1987
Goaltender Rick Wamsley was sent home Sunday with a... (*lower body injury)

That meant Darrell May got to be a Blue for the day he was shipped in from the Peoria Rivermen of the International Hockey League to serve as Millen's backup

St. Louis Post-Dispatch February 14. 1987
Goalie Rick Wamsley and defenseman Bruce Bell will miss both games this weekend because of ailments.

Both will be re-evaluated Monday. Goalie Darrell May, up on loan from Peoria, will be the backup to Greg Millen.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch February 21. 1987
Goaltender Darrell May was sent back to Peoria in the International Hockey League, with Rick Wamsley back in playing shape.

 

[Sanf]

I remember that I wasn´t 100% sure about this, but can´t really remember the reason and cant make further research on it now. That game has no backup so it would make sense. Whalers one game for 1985-1986 season.

Montreal Gazette February 18. 1986
To replace another injured player, the team recalled goalie Peter Sidorkiewicz. He will fill in for Mike Liut, out with muscle spasms in his neck.

 

[Sanf]

I´m fairly sure we have new backup only goalie. I remember years ago checking this one. Jim Bedard was one of my favourites in childhood when he was in Finland.

I sort of assumed that Bedard was the only backup for Ron Low in 76-77 when Wolfe was out. But it seems that there were two different stints there.

Wolfe got flue and Capitals recalled Bedard.

The Buffalo News October 30 1976
Bernie Wolfe has the flu and was replaced by Jim Bedard of the Internation al League's Dayton team during their three game road trip

But now I took a closer look when noticed that Wolfe was out for few weeks and Bedard was already back in Dayton for the game in 7. of November. And it does seem that at Dale Rideout took his place as Capitals backup.

The Journal Herald November 5. 1976
The Gems will be without goaltender Jim Bedard for at least tonight's game.

Dayton Daily News November 7. 1976
The Gems will be without goalie Dale Rideout who will be sent to Washington for a few days to act as a backup

The Province November 9. 1976
Meanwhile, the Capitals, fresh from a 4-1 win Sunday over Minnesota, have recalled goaltender Dale Rideout from Dayton of the Internationa League.

Rideout replaces backup Bernie Wolfe, who has suffered inflammation of nerve endings in his back.

 

[Sanf]

Another bit boring one. Remembered checking this one. Ron Scott in Rangers in 84-85. One game dressed.

Record December 13 1984
Ron Scott was recalled from New Haven to dress as backup for Hanlon. Vanbiesbrouck is expected back for the weekend.

 

[Sanf]

And then a nice one which belongs to the that goalie dressed for that team group. Peter Sidorkiewicz very likely dressed for one game for Capitals.

The Evening Sun January 28. 1984
After the contest Washington announced that Peter Sidorkeiwicz had been recalled from Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey Association to serve as a backup for Riggin tonight as Jensen continues to rest Dave Parro was sent back to Hershey.

 

[Sanf]

Another to the same category. Rick St. Croix with Capitals in 85-86. Riggin had been traded for Peeters, but it took Peeters some days to arrive Washington. Bob Mason was with Binghamton and Alain Raymond with national team. So it had to be St. Croix. Nice that there are still these to discover.

The Baltimore Sun November 16. 1985
Goalie Pete Peeters. acquired Thursday from the Boston Bruins in exchange for goalie Pat Rlggin is to join the Capitals for practice tomorrow.

To back up Jensen in the meantime, the Capitals recalled Rick St. Croix from from the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League.

 

[Sanf]

Yet again one for the same category. Jim Corsi seemed to be Gilles Meloches backup in Montreal series in 1980 playoffs. Gary Edwards suffered bruised knee.

Edmonton Journal 16. April 1980
Goalie Gary Edwards (bruised knee) may be replaced as back-up tonight by ex-Oiler Jim Corsi

Edmonton Journal April 25. 1980
Montreal scored early and the place instantly became a morgue, as advertised. "'It´s too bad some of the fans gave up on us," said Stars' backup netminder Jim Corsi, who is on Ioan' to Minnesota from the Edmonton Oilers

.

 

[Doctor No]

@Sanf you are a hero - I appreciate you! This is great stuff - I will dive in tonight piece by piece (famous last words - my 2yo was bouncing off the walls last night and instead of doing this I was helping him get to sleep for way too long).

 

[Sanf]

@Sanf you are a hero - I appreciate you! This is great stuff - I will dive in tonight piece by piece (famous last words - my 2yo was bouncing off the walls last night and instead of doing this I was helping him get to sleep for way too long).

No problem. You may have noticed that I kind of enjoy this stuff. Many of those that I have posted I spent hours years ago to research. So it is also kind of nice that it is being used to something now. And the current information on your site make this so much easier. And I have myself notes of goaltender depth of each team year-by-year so this all narrows it down so much. Though the Corsi one got me by surprise.

Also I travelled my money in summer so this is nice tight budgett hobby to spent few days .

 

[Sanf]

Noticed a two game weird gap in Nordiques 82-83 season. It would seem that it was Mario Gosselin who backed up Garrett Though bit more information is probably needed. Bouchard was still recovering and they replaced Malarchuk with Gosselin. Malarchuk wasn´t happy.

North Bay Nuggett December 10. 1982
"They brought in a junior to raplace me. They called Mario Gosselin up and there were four goalies at practice. It was embarrassing"

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette December 11. 1982
Bouchard injured a finger on Nov. 8. He was in uniform for the time since then when the Nordiques lost to the Flyers in Philadelphia Thursday night, but he did not play

 

[Doctor No]

No problem. You may have noticed that I kind of enjoy this stuff. Many of those that I have posted I spent hours years ago to research. So it is also kind of nice that it is being used to something now. And the current information on your site make this so much easier. And I have myself notes of goaltender depth of each team year-by-year so this all narrows it down so much. Though the Corsi one got me by surprise.

Also I travelled my money in summer so this is nice tight budgett hobby to spent few days .

This is definitely a fun little budget hobby - and it's fun having someone else looking at this stuff (I sent a broad note to SIHR and discovered that even among that eclectic and esteemed group, backup goaltender bingo is a tough sell. I've heard crickets so far. ).

I have a note on Corsi that I need to tie together with yours. Definitely odd though!

 

[Sanf]

Three game gap in 1986-1987 for Nordiques very likely was backed up by Mario Brunetta. Another junior callup.

Hartford Courant December 4. 1986
Because goalie Mario Gosselin had the flu, the Nordiques recalled Mario Brunetta from Laval, Quebec, juniors as a backup.

Montreal Gazette December 8 1986
Mario Brunetta, who had replaced Eric Vachon at the start of the period. It was Brunetta's first game since serving as backup for the National Hockey League's Quebec Nordiques for three games.

 

[Sanf]

This is definitely a fun little budget hobby - and it's fun having someone else looking at this stuff (I sent a broad note to SIHR and discovered that even among that eclectic and esteemed group, backup goaltender bingo is a tough sell. I've heard crickets so far. ).

I have a note on Corsi that I need to tie together with yours. Definitely odd though!

Well I guess this is bit of niche inside of niche.

It would be really satisfying to see totally complete statistical hisoty of this. But yeah the further you go the harder it is for many reasons.

But I guess one of the most cozy feeling things in this is to get those names who never actually got in ice. In my opinion without a doubt they were part of the game that they dressed. But official history do not remember them.

 

[Doctor No]

But I guess one of the most cozy feeling things in this is to get those names who never actually got in ice. In my opinion without a doubt they were part of the game that they dressed. But official history do not remember them.

100% - I think about guys like Duane Derksen (who may still be active on whatever we're calling Twitter these days) but was a solid Wisconsin Badger goaltender and really supportive of the history and willing to share his stories from his pro days. He deserves to say that he "made it".

Shawn Simpson similarly - I don't know how often Shawn gets to tell his callup story these days, but it's a great one.

Part of it's admittedly selfish on my part - I topped out as a poor starter in ACHA college hockey, but I felt like I contributed quite a bit as a backup. Even broke up a fight on the bench between two of my defensemen.

 

[Sanf]

There is few cases that have baffled me a bit. Both from Toronto, but more than ten years apart.

There is five game gap on 82-83 Toronto Maple Leafs season. Newspapers has reported it this way.

Detroit Free Press 2. March 1983
Croix has suffered a hairline fracture of a bone in his hand. He will serve as backup to Mike Palmateer until it heals

Sure they could have made a callup, but I haven´t found any indicatoin of that during that period.




Other is something I did not know. Bernie Parent was involved in car accident (driver was Denis Dupere).

The Leader Post October 16. 1971
Parent suffered facial cuts in an auto accident Wednesday night. Keon and Ley are out with knee injuries. The cuts would make it difficult for Parent to wear his goalie's face mask. He also lost several false teeth and, during a brief visit to Maple Leaf Gardens Thursday, he said: "This is the first time that look better with my facemask on than with it off. But I cannot put it on anyway." Despite, the injuries, Parent may be in uniform as an emergency backup to 42-year-old Jacques Plante who agreed to forego his usual practice of resting Sunday night after guarding the goal in the Saturday night game. A Leaf spokesman said Friday no one is being called up from the minor leagues to replace Parent

But in this case October 16. game has no backup. So did Parent dress? Again haven´t found anything about replacement.

So Plante played three games in row. Then Parent started next two games. And again there isn´t backup listed. It would make sense because Plante did not like to play back-to-back games. But again I have no clue who could be the backup.

Is it possible that if you were sort of EBUG goalie it was marked different and thus left from the game sheets?

 

[Doctor No]

The Parent car accident was news to me too - I stumbled over this when I was trying to fill that gap. My best guess is that someone filled in, but it's also possible that the NHL just missed it (as I'm 99.9% sure they did with Michel Larocque's injury described above).

The EBUG situation is possible - although it wouldn't be a category that I can see from the underlying datasheet. Possible that it was a gentlemen's agreement or something - even into the 1980s, the NHL seemed to do that a lot.

 

[Sanf]

This is one I remembered. Maple Leafs seemed to have few other small one game gaps around that era. But Maple Leafs is one of the hardest team to search surprisingly. You would need Toronto based newspaper.

Democrat And Chronice December 19. 1986
Jeff Reese has been recalled by Toronto to replace Allan Bester, who returned home because of a death in the family.

 

[Doctor No]

One that I also spotted yesterday is Tim Bernhardt stint with Flames in 80-81 (You actually have the first game there). I believe Bernhardt was also without club at that point because the affiliate Birmingham withdrawn league. This I´m fairly confident because I remember it being covered in Calgary Herald well. I suppose Lemelin backed up the Feb 8. game with broken thumb. That was not that unusual back then.


Calgary Herald Feb 10. 1981
Lemelin suffered the injury Sunday night at Edmonton´s Northlands Colisseum, in the pre-game warmup.
------
So, now, it´s Pat Riggin against the world and Bernhardt, up from the Central League, in the wings


Calgary Herald March 3. 1981
Although his thumb is still swollen, goaltender Rejean Lemelin has been declared fit to return to action. As a result, Tim Bernhardt did not make the trip. but went to Birmingham to gather up his belongings.

Here's the Herald article on Bernhardt (February 24, 1981). Very "1981" haircut on Tim:

Herald on February 14 also gives Bernhardt #29 (February 12 and February 27 lineups also state #29):

NY Daily News and others state that Bernhardt is "expected to be called up from Birmingham".

Tulsa World (party on, Garth!) of February 25 confirms Bernhardt staying in Calgary with dissolution of Birmingham franchise. Jim Pettie goes back to Rangers system.

February 27 Herald states that "Goaltender Rejean Lemelin's thumb is healing, but it is unlikely that he can return to the lineup before next Wednesday's game against Buffalo Sabres."

Which looks to be true, although they didn't want to take Tim on the roadtrip so Lemelin (according to the NHL site) backed up 3/3 in Washington before playing 3/4 against Buffalo.

I'm going to give all games 2/12 through 2/27 to Bernhardt.

 

[Doctor No]

Also storing some articles on Jacques Beauchamp, a Montreal sports editor who signed with the Canadiens as a spare goaltender since he was traveling with the team anyhow.

Since I no longer use "that which was formerly called Twitter", I'm trying to store useful articles here in case someone Googles a name looking for something.

Signing appears to have happened on November 9, 1959 with an "alternate goalie's contract".

Montreal Star (Red Fisher) column, November 10. Fun article!

Daily News, November 12.

Montreal Gazette, November 12.

And one of my favorite Dave Stubbs tweets of all time (and it's a long list) of Beauchamp in his gear with Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion.



Squint and you're looking at Gump Worsley with a full head of hair?

Ordinarily I'd just link the tweet, but I don't trust Twitter at all these days and Musk will probably sell all old content off at three cents on the dollar to finance some offshore account.

 

[njdevils1982]

Also storing some articles on Jacques Beauchamp, a Montreal sports editor who signed with the Canadiens as a spare goaltender since he was traveling with the team anyhow.

Since I no longer use "that which was formerly called Twitter", I'm trying to store useful articles here in case someone Googles a name looking for something.

Signing appears to have happened on November 9, 1959 with an "alternate goalie's contract".

Montreal Star (Red Fisher) column, November 10. Fun article!

View attachment 742960

Daily News, November 12.

View attachment 742961

Montreal Gazette, November 12.

View attachment 742962

And one of my favorite Dave Stubbs tweets of all time (and it's a long list) of Beauchamp in his gear with Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion.



Squint and you're looking at Gump Worsley with a full head of hair?

View attachment 742963

Ordinarily I'd just link the tweet, but I don't trust Twitter at all these days and Musk will probably sell all old content off at three cents on the dollar to finance some offshore account.

you're right. that red fisher article is hilarious old tyme shit

 

[Sanf]

There seem to be some that for somereason are just missing. For example 1988 Stanley Cup Final backups for most parts. Nothing extraordinary there. For example the first game had backups Lemelin and Ranford like expected.

Starting from team introduction where both are.