The Seattle Kraken have their first permanent emergency backup goalie (EBUG). Dolan Gilbert, a 25-year-old recent graduate of Michigan State University, will become the first player in franchise history to serve in the role after a change to the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement required every team to begin carrying a netminder they can plug into the lineup in a pinch.

“It’s pretty cool,” Gilbert said. “It’s fun getting to set the foundation and know that as long as this is the way it’s going, that you helped build it. I’ve chatted with a couple of the other guys I know that are doing it, and they feel very similarly.”

With the league’s rule change, gone are the days when a local Zamboni driver or accountant can suddenly wind up in an NHL game, perhaps even facing his hometown team. Instead, the NHL has shifted to having teams bring an extra goalie to every game, even on the road.

As the first to hold the position for the Kraken, Gilbert is still just feeling out what it will be like to be part of a professional hockey team, but he does have a general sense of what the job will entail.

“I’ll be traveling with the team per the new rules, so [participating in] scratch skates, injury skates, rehab skates or whatever they are, being available there. Giving some time off to the goalies on the Kraken, and let them be ready for game nights is the big thing.”

An unexpected call

A native of South Bend, Ind., Gilbert grew up a fan of Notre Dame, where his dad, Dave—who won an NCAA championship as a member of the Lake Superior State Lakers in 1992—served as equipment manager for the Irish. Dolan moved away from home at a relatively young age, playing AAA hockey for the 18U Ohio Blue Jackets, then spending two seasons with the Texas Jr. Brahmas in the NA3HL before going to Division III school Concordia University Wisconsin.

“I went [to Concordia] my freshman year. I didn’t love it, just as an environment, I felt like I wanted a change for myself personally and wanted more of an academic challenge. So I decided to transfer to Michigan State and semi-retire from hockey.”

After briefly thinking he was “hanging up” his skates for good, Gilbert ended up having a conversation with the coaching staff and skating a couple times when he arrived at MSU as a sophomore. As luck would have it, rising star Trey Augustine—a second-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings—made Team USA for the World Junior Championship. That meant the Spartans would be down a goalie throughout the holiday season.

“I realized that they were going to be a goalie short for a couple weeks while he was out and offered to be on campus and fill in for him. It was kind of my first big foot in the door, and then they offered me a full-time spot for the following year. I was there for two years and then graduated as a part of the team.”

With Augustine ahead of him, Gilbert unsurprisingly never got much playing time for the Spartans, appearing in just two games his senior year. So he was as surprised as anyone to get a recent call from Kraken goalie coach Colin Zulianello, gauging his interest in becoming Seattle’s first permanent EBUG.

“I still haven’t gotten the full story of how my name came up and whatnot,” Gilbert said. “They just wanted to get an idea if I was interested. We ended up chatting a little bit more, and then had an interview process and… got offered it.”

Gilbert assumes that, considering his minimal playing time in college, mutual connections between the MSU coaching staff and the Kraken are what led to his offer to join Seattle.

Now, just a couple years removed from thinking his playing career was over, and he would focus all his time on being a full-time student at Michigan State, Gilbert is a member of an NHL team and has a very real chance at one day playing in an NHL game.

Putting future plans on hold for now

It’s different talking to a guy like Gilbert—who knows an illustrious NHL career is likely not in the cards for him—compared with a full-time Kraken player, or even a youngster who has just been called up from Coachella Valley. Gilbert doesn’t have designs on backstopping a franchise to a Stanley Cup and becoming a household name. Instead, his plan is to one day work in sports psychology, a journey he’s temporarily paused while he sees through this remarkable and unexpected opportunity.

He got interested in that field playing for former pro hockey player Ben Eaves during his AAA days in Ohio. Being away from home for the first time was hard on Gilbert, and he said Eaves had a big impact on helping him work through some difficult times.

“[Eaves] is pretty dialed in. He got me interested in it. We talked about [psychology] a little bit at some lunches with each other, and then the more I dove into it and learned about it, I just fell in love with it and thought it was something that I was good at but also was interested in. It kept me in sports, and so I decided to pursue that through college.”

Already in Seattle and participating in informal captains practices with Kraken players, Gibson did not think he’d still be in this position, strapping on the pads every day with NHLers.

“[Being an EBUG] was not on my radar. I had heard about it and kind of thought about it a little bit, obviously, with the rule change. And being a goalie, you’re kind of interested in it and whatnot… I was planning on just going to grad school [after earning a degree in psychology at MSU].”

In the meantime, he’s also going to work for the Kraken in a dual role in their research and development department, though the specifics of that position are still being worked out by the team. So while his sports psychology dreams are paused, he’s getting a crash course in both being a professional athlete and learning what happens behind the scenes.

“I think it’s an amazing experience, and getting to see more of the front office side of hockey is really cool. I’ve always seen the player side, so getting that side and getting my feet wet in that world is cool.”