Toronto Gives Brendan Bonello the New Travelling 00 Job

The Toronto Maple Leafs named Brendan Bonello their emergency backup goaltender for 2026-27 on Sept. 17, putting him in 00 at the first practice. He took that session with Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz, the NHL pair he covers if the club cannot dress two healthy goalies.

The new collective bargaining agreement, in force since Sept. 16, requires every club to employ a spare prepared to enter all of its home and away games, and it still bars anyone who has already played an NHL game on a standard player contract. Toronto filled the job with a 27-year-old Mississauga practice goalie who has been in the building for years.

Every Club Must Carry a Travelling Spare

The old emergency goalie was a local amateur in the building, on call for either team if both rostered netminders went down. Starting in 2026-27, each club must keep its own dedicated emergency backup who travels and is available for every home and road date. The spare can skate in skills work and in practice, and the club may also employ that person in another role.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly has said teams have been seeing more goalie injuries, especially in pregame warmup, and that a travelling spare should ease that strain. Clubs have until 48 hours before the regular season to file a name and a detailed playing record. The Leafs did not wait. Bonello was already in 00 on Sept. 17, 12 days before Toronto opens on Sept. 29 in Montreal.

THE EBUG ELIGIBILITY TESTS

• NHL games: The spare must not have played in an NHL game under a standard player contract.
• Pro cap: He must not have played in more than 80 professional hockey games.
• Recent pro: He must not have played professional hockey in the prior three seasons.
• Other deals: He must not hold another contract that would stop him from serving.
• Lists: He must not be on any club’s reserve list or restricted free agent list.

Those tests keep the job inside a narrow amateur band. A recently retired NHL starter cannot take it, and neither can a current prospect on the reserve list. Bonello clears the bar because his only pro action is three ECHL games in 2021-22, he has never appeared in the NHL on a standard contract, and he has not played professionally in the past three seasons. All EBUGs wear 00, which is how the Leafs job was spotted on the ice before anyone posted a release.

Why the Leafs Picked a Practice Goalie

Most clubs that have already named an EBUG folded 00 onto someone who already had a staff title, from video coordinator to equipment manager. Toronto gave the number to a goalie whose day job is stopping pucks at practice, which is how Bonello has spent recent winters with the Leafs and the Toronto Marlies, including a night dressed for the San Jose Barracuda in 2024-25.

THE DAY JOBS BEHIND NUMBER 00

A public tracker of named emergency goalies around the league had 17 clubs listed after Toronto’s camp reveal, and the second-job column is the pattern. Carolina’s 00 is Alves, the head equipment manager who has already been on NHL ice. Boston’s is a video staffer. Minnesota’s is a hockey operations analyst. Toronto’s column reads as a crease job because that is the work Bonello has been doing in the room, including a Leafs-branded practice mask in earlier winters.

The 14-62 Junior File, Then Pickering

Bonello is 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, catches left, and came up through the Toronto Jr. Canadiens before parts of five Ontario Hockey League seasons with the Saginaw Spirit and Kingston Frontenacs. The public record of his OHL seasons is a long look at a third option on weak junior clubs, then a sharp winter once he left that circuit.

BONELLO’S STOP-BY-STOP LINE

The pile-up sits in Kingston in 2018-19, when he played 48 games with a 4.28 goals-against average and an.884 save percentage. After that, Pickering in the OJHL posted five shutouts in 25 games. York University used him in three games in 2021-22. He signed with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL during that same stretch and saw three games there. He has dressed for the Marlies without a recorded AHL appearance, which is exactly the résumé the new tests ask for: enough crease time to take NHL shots in practice, not enough pro work to be ruled out.

At the first camp skate, Auston Matthews flipped him a puck in a closing drill that sent one to each Leaf. That is the texture of the job. He is in the line, in 00, and he is not competing with Bobrovsky for starts.

David Ayres Won in This Building

On Feb. 22, 2020, at Scotiabank Arena, Carolina lost James Reimer and Petr Mrazek in the same game. David Ayres, then 42, a practice extra for the Leafs and an ice resurfacer at Mattamy Athletic Centre, entered at 11:19 of the second period. He allowed a goal on each of the first two shots, from John Tavares and Pierre Engvall, then finished with eight saves in a 6-3 win. He became the oldest goalie to win an NHL regular-season debut, passing Hugh Lehman’s mark of 41 years and 21 days, set with Chicago on Nov. 17, 1926.

I thought I’d be nervous if it ever happened. I was nervous for the whole second period. As you could tell, I couldn’t stop a puck if I had to in the second. I told the boys in the intermission, ‘I’ll be ready to go.’ All I thought was keep breathing nice and slowly and relax, the shots are going to come. I face these guys all the time, the Leafs, at practice, to be honest.

David Ayres, emergency backup goaltender, after Carolina’s win at Scotiabank Arena

Hurricanes goalie James Reimer called him a legend that night. Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said the Leafs had given Carolina so little that the visitors barely needed a goalie. The new rule does not ban a night like that because the spare is still, by design, an amateur. It does ban the version that starts with a stranger in the stands and a scramble in the tunnel.

THE LAST STAND-IN GOALIES

1. December 31, 2016: Carolina equipment manager Jorge Alves plays the final seconds of an NHL game and later becomes the Hurricanes’ full-time EBUG.
2. March 2018: Accountant Scott Foster stops all seven shots he faces in relief for Chicago and is named first star.
3. February 22, 2020: David Ayres enters at 11:19 of the second period in Toronto and Carolina beats the Maple Leafs 6-3.
4. September 16, 2026: The CBA takes effect, and each club must employ its own travelling 00.

Alves is the bridge. The same franchise that beat Toronto with Ayres now carries its head equipment manager as the official spare. Foster’s night, the accountant who left with a perfect save percentage, is the other famous accident. Those nights needed a local amateur in the building. The 2026-27 spare is on the charter.

The Old ATO Goalie Trick Is Closed

The CBA change is also a cap clean-up. In the last system, a club could sign a goalie to an amateur tryout, dress that goalie as the backup for one night, then use an emergency recall on a skater at no charge to the cap. The home-team EBUG in the stands made the paperwork look like a true emergency. League central registry had to sort who was eligible and how to deploy a spare on short notice.

The travelling 00 removes that path. Each club already has a named amateur on staff, so there is no need to invent a roster emergency to sneak a skater in. Daly’s warmup-injury worry sits on top of that. If a starter gets hurt in warmups on the road, the club is no longer hunting for a local rec-league goalie or burning a tryout to keep the game legal. The spare is already with the team, in 00, and already cleared.

That is why the eligibility tests are so tight. If clubs could stash a recent pro in the job, 00 would become a hidden third NHL goalie. The 80-game cap, the three-season bar, and the ban on anyone who has already played on a standard NHL contract keep the spare in the same talent band as Ayres and Foster, with none of the old scramble.

Bonello Travels if Bobrovsky and Stolarz Cannot

Bobrovsky signed a three-year contract in July after two Stanley Cups with Florida, and Stolarz was his backup on the first of those championship clubs. They are the pair Toronto will try to keep healthy. Bonello’s work, on paper, is to take extra shots at practice and to be dressed if that pair cannot both go.

THE NET THAT 00 BACKS UP

• The starter: Sergei Bobrovsky, two-time Cup winner, on a three-year deal signed July 1.
• The partner: Anthony Stolarz, his former Florida backup, back in the same tandem.
• The opener: Sept. 29, 2026, at the Montreal Canadiens, with Bonello on the trip.

If a warmup collision or a mid-game injury leaves Toronto with one healthy NHL goalie, the next pads are Bonello’s. He does not need a local rink manager to throw him a chest protector in the media room. He will already be on the bench, in the number the league assigned to every spare on purpose.

The Leafs open the season on Sept. 29 in Montreal, and the man in 00 on that trip will be a Mississauga practice goalie, not a stranger called down from the stands.