The Capitals won’t have backup Charlie Lindgren available for their road game tonight against the Ducks due to an upper-body injury, the team announced. Due to the late nature of the development and the inability to get a netminder from AHL Hershey to the West Coast in time for the game, they’ve signed retired netminder Parker Milner to a professional tryout to dress as the backup to Logan Thompson.
Milner isn’t nearly as inexperienced as recent EBUG folk heroes like David Ayres or Scott Foster. The new CBA introduced legislation that mandated teams must now employ an emergency backup as a team employee, rather than the previous system of the league having one name sit at the arena every night to enter action for either team if necessary. These can’t be names with NHL experience, nor can they have played pro hockey in the last three years, but they can be relatively fresh names who routinely serve as extra practice goalies for the club to stay fresh.
Milner, 35, last played in the 2019-20 season but is a familiar face to the Capitals organization. He spent the last four years of his career as a minor-league farmhand, splitting time between Hershey and ECHL South Carolina, and was even signed to an NHL contract in the latter half of the 2018-19 campaign so that he could serve as the Caps’ emergency third goalie for that year’s playoffs.
The Pittsburgh native was an accomplished collegiate netminder, logging a .919 SV%, 2.23 GAA, six shutouts, and a 64-20-5 record in 93 appearances across four seasons for Boston College from 2009 to 2013. He was the backup when they won the national championship in 2010 and helped them to three consecutive Hockey East titles. In his junior season in 2012, his first as the starter, he took them back to the national championship and was named tournament MVP.
While he never reached the NHL, he did have a successful pro career. He was a two-time ECHL All-Star and won the league’s Goalie of the Year honors while with South Carolina in 2018. He wrapped up his pro career with a .916 SV%, 2.44 GAA, 19 shutouts, and a 143-79-17 record in 245 ECHL appearances. He also got in 30 reps in the AHL, logging a .902 SV% and 3.02 GAA with a 13-12-2 record.