- Connor Leslie is the first full-time emergency backup goalie in Capitals history
- The 24-year-old Leesburg native was headed for a federal law enforcement career
- Read below for what GM Chris Patrick says the new EBUG job actually involves
Connor Leslie thought he was done with hockey.
He graduated from Amherst College in May 2025 with a psychology and political science double major and started mapping out a career in federal law enforcement. Those plans are on hold. The 24-year-old will spend this season as the first full-time, dedicated emergency backup goaltender in Washington Capitals history.
Washington announced the hire on Monday:
Growing up in Leesburg, Virginia, he spent eight years in the Washington Little Caps program at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. That is the same building he reports to this fall. He told NHL.com’s Mike Vogel the whole thing still feels unreal.
“In general, this was like a full circle moment. It’s pretty surreal, because obviously growing up playing eight years of Little Caps, it was one of those periods of my life that really established how much I loved hockey.”
Every club has to fill this role now. The new CBA requires all 32 teams to carry a full-time EBUG, and the eligibility rules gut the candidate pool: no NHL games, 80 or fewer professional games, and no pro hockey in the last three seasons. Each of them also wears No. 00.
Capitals general manager Chris Patrick walked Vogel through why the search took as long as it did.
“It was a hard set of criteria to find the right person because it takes recently retired players out of the mix based on the games played issue and some of the other rules involved. And also because it’s a full-time position in the manner of: You’re at every home game, you’re traveling with the team, and you’re at every road game. It’s a harder job to do than where you know you can do this almost on a moonlighting basis.”
Leslie takes over from Parker Milner, who held the unofficial version of the gig for three years and actually dressed as Washington’s backup in Anaheim last December after Charlie Lindgren got hurt at morning skate. Milner has well over 80 pro games on his resume, so the new rules rule him out. He has also moved back to South Carolina.
Goalie coach Scott Murray knew Leslie from summer skates and brought him in for an audition early this year. Leslie said the offer came before he left the ice.
“[Murray] invited me out just to see how I do, and to see if I still had it in the tank. And it was a great skate. And pretty much right after that skate was over, he asked if this role would be something that I’d be interested in, and I couldn’t have thought of anything better to keep that hockey passion alive. Especially when I thought it was pretty much over.”
Practice reps are the bulk of the job. Patrick said Washington may also lean on Leslie for video work or analytics tracking once the staff figures out where he fits best.
Braden Holtby was his guy growing up, and he points to the 2018 Stanley Cup as his favorite Capitals memory. Now he gets a stall down the hall from the guys who won it, and the same emergency phone call that turned Milner into a one-night NHL backup is sitting in his pocket all season.
