Meet Noah Altman, the Panthers' full-time No. 00

The Panthers' new No. 00 is a 6-foot-7 Quinnipiac grad named Noah Altman, and if you've never heard of him, that's the point. Under the new CBA, every NHL team has to carry a full-time emergency backup goalie this season, and Florida's pick has been quietly skating with the injured guys for a week.

Neither the team nor the league has made it official. Florida Hockey Now's George Richards reported Tuesday that Altman "appears to have been hired," and The Hockey News' Julian Gaudio followed with the same read. The tell is the sweater: Altman has been on the ice with Brad Marchand and Jonah Gadjovich wearing 00, the number every EBUG is now required to wear.

The new rule

The old EBUG setup was a local guy on call at the home rink. He'd sit in the stands, and if both goalies on either bench went down, somebody handed him a contract. That gave us David Ayres beating the Leafs for Carolina in 2020, and Zach Andrews, a Coral Springs accountant, dressing for Chicago in Sunrise in 2023.

The new CBA turns it into a real job. Per Daily Faceoff's Scott Maxwell, each team's EBUG can't have any NHL experience, can't have more than 80 pro games on his resume, and can't have played in a pro league in the last three seasons. He travels with the club, home and away, and he wears 00.

Only two NHL players have ever worn that number, Martin Biron with the Sabres in 1995-96 and John Davidson with the Rangers in 1977-78. Now there'll be 32 of them.

Who he is

Altman is a Los Angeles native who went the Shattuck-St. Mary's route, the same prep school that turned out Crosby, Toews, MacKinnon and Celebrini. He played four seasons at Quinnipiac and got into seven games, per THN, but he was an assistant captain and he has a 2023 national championship ring from the Bobcats' title run. After graduating, he worked as a production assistant at ESPN in Connecticut.

So the resume reads: tall, smart, hasn't played a meaningful minute in a while, and knows how to sit in a room without getting in the way. That's the job.

Ferda take

There's something fitting about this landing in Sunrise. The whole EBUG conversation traces back to a 2015 Panthers game when Roberto Luongo got hurt, Al Montoya pulled his groin in the third, and Derek MacKenzie strapped on the pads while Luongo turned his car around from the clinic to finish the game. Florida basically invented the problem the league just solved.

The practical upside is small but real. Altman gives Markstrom and Akira Schmid a third body for practice reps and a warm-up net on the road, which matters when Maurice runs the kind of shooting drills that eat goalies alive. The odds he ever sees a regular-season minute are tiny. The odds he becomes the most popular guy at the morning skate are not.

What's next

Expect the Panthers to make it official before the regular season opens next week. Until then, watch for the 00 in the crease at practice. That's him.