An EBUG With Experience

If hockey has become a young man's game, Doug Melvin is the exception to the rule. There aren't many players suiting up whose birth year is 1963, but Melvin was in uniform tonight for the Toledo Walleye for their ECHL game against the Idaho Steelheads. What makes Melvin unique is that he's suited up for ten different ECHL teams since 2009-10 without ever stepping onto the ice for a second of action. That's because Melvin is an EBUG who lives in the Boise, Idaho area where teams often find themselves needing a goalie if someone gets recalled to the AHL or NHL. As such, Melvin was on the Toledo bench tonight as they found themselves in that very predicament!

The Grand Rapids Griffins needed a goalie for the AHL game, so they recalled Carter Gylander from the Walleye, leaving Toledo with just Jan Bednar as their lone netminder on the road trip to Idaho. ECHL rules state that every team must dress two goalies, so the Walleye reached out to the Steelheads who got in touch with Melvin. Hours later, Melvin was in a #33 jersey on the bench for the game!

He told Stephen Meserve of 100 Degree Hockey in 2017, "If something happens, I have to be ready to go. I come with the mindset that I'm playing. Sometimes I get the call at 9 in the morning. Sometimes at 3 in the afternoon. You have to be ready to go. I try to stay in shape and prepare, waiting for that kind of call."

It's not like Toledo is just signing a guy who hangs around the arena, though. Melvin has some experience defending nets as he attended training camp with the Philadelphia Flyers in 1979 and skated with the Bruins in training camp from 1981-83, but his game experience would be completely in the minor leagues where he played all of 11 games as per his HockeyDB.com page. His most recent game activity saw him suit up with the ECHL's Huntington Blizzard in 1993-94 for four games where he was 0-3-1 with a 4.96 GAA and an .852 save percentage.

"When you get the call," he told Meserve, "the mindset is, 'I'm not going to be the reason we lose. I'm going to be the reason we win.' I don't want to see anyone get hurt, but if I have to play, I owe it to the other 18 guys on the team to go out there and play my heart out."

The 61 year-old likely isn't looking to set any records or put himself into the history books, but it seems like he simply loves the game.

"I love it," he said to Meserve. "I would do this all day. For practices, I would stay out there all day. Work your butt off and leave everything out there."

He didn't play tonight, but he did get to skate in the post-game celebration as the Walleye downed the Steelheads by a 5-2 score. One has to hope the Walleye let him keep his jersey as a thank-you for helping them out. I'm not sure if he's married, but, if he has kids, Doug Melvin's grandchildren will surely get to hear all sorts of stories about their grandfather's hockey career!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!