Emergency goalie Shapiro backs up for Devils against Islanders
28-year-old last played in Division III in 2018, is assistant coach in NAHL
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NHL.com @NHLdotcom
The 28-year-old, who is in his first season as the Devils' regular emergency backup goalie, was signed to an amateur tryout contract and backed up Jon Gillies in the 3-2 loss.
"It's wild," Shapiro said before the game. "It's kind of the been the perfect storm of an ATO goalie. If they were in L.A. tonight, I'm sure I wouldn't have been on the team plane."
Shapiro last played competitively in 2017-18 at New England College, an NCAA Division III school, where he had a 2.83 goals-against average and .914 save percentage in 23 games.
"All the guys have been great. Some of the best parts have been the reactions from family, friends," Shapiro said. "I actually coach a hockey team in the North American League, the New Jersey Titans, so the reaction from all of my players and everything has been pretty surreal, to be honest. I'm just trying to enjoy every minute until this little ride ends here."
Devils goalies Mackenzie Blackwood and Akira Schmid are in NHL COVID-19 protocol, and Jonathan Bernier (hip) and Nico Daws (undisclosed) are injured.
Gillies, who was acquired in a trade with the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 15, made 22 saves playing for the first time since Dec. 19, a 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Shapiro said he had to shake off some rust when he practiced with the Devils on Wednesday, which included going up against Jack Hughes and their top power-play unit.
"They do a great job down in Middletown (New Jersey). There's a pretty good summer league down there with a bunch of [NCAA] Division I guys, pro guys that come back, so I still stay involved in that," Shapiro said. "It definitely took me a little while to catch back up to it. It's been a few months since that league was going on. But it was fun. It was definitely a lot quicker. … Just the pace and crispness of these guys at this level, it's very impressive to watch. It's pretty crazy to realize that there's 32 teams that do that all over the country. It was pretty surreal to watch."
Devils coach Lindy Ruff said he was impressed with how Shapiro held his own.
"I'm just going to say, and I'm not joking around here, he had a real good practice for us," Ruff said. "It wasn't a practice where he was just out there, he was out there to stop every puck. He was determined that if you're going to score on me, you're going to have to make a real good play or a real good shot. That's what impressed me most about Kyle. … If you looked at him just from a practice standpoint, you could say he held his own in practice against NHL shooters."
Shapiro was the fourth emergency goalie to join an NHL team this season.
Kyle Konin was the backup to Ville Husso for the Blues for their game at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Dec. 2 after Jordan Binnington entered NHL COVID-19 protocol and the Blues were unable to recall another goalie.
Jett Alexander, a goalie for the University of Toronto, was the backup for the Colorado Avalanche in the first period of an 8-3 loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 1. Justus Annunen was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League and arrived to become the backup to Jonas Johansson at the start of the second period.
The Maple Leafs used University of Toronto goalie Alexander Bishop as the backup to Jack Campbell when they defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-1 on Oct. 16.
The last time an emergency backup goalie was used in an NHL game was Feb. 22, 2020, when David Ayres played 28:41 for the Carolina Hurricanes against the Toronto Maple Leafs after Petr Mrazek and James Reimer were injured during the game. Ayres made eight saves and got the win in the 6-3 victory.
"I don't think that's the situation anybody wants to be in here," Shapiro said of Ayres. "I'm just here to kind of stay out of the way and make sure whatever they need from me, I'm here to help ..."
NHL.com deputy managing editor Brian Compton contributed to this report
