One Friday afternoon, David Nozzolillo was just a Chicago banker by day and recreational beer-league goaltender by night. A few hours later he was lacing his skates for an NHL franchise.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been grappling with an illness that swept through their locker room that has left their roster decimated. In fact, the team’s goaltending depth has been hit particular hard, leaving them bare to the bones.
The Blackhawks lost their top two goaltenders, Spencer Knight and Arvid Söderblom, to the rampant flu that was tearing through the team, leaving them desperate.
In stepped Nozzolillo.
Chicago was forced to make a rare move that led to Nozzolillo starting his day at the office and finishing it at the rink with a begrudging pitstop at Hooters in between.
The 45-year-old and his colleagues at Wintrust Bank in Orland Park swung by the infamous fast food chain for lunch. Despite Nozzolillo admitting to ESPN that he wasn’t a huge fan of the food at the restaurant, he joked that it turned out to be the meal of champions.
David Nozzolillo is a Chicago-based Senior Vice President at Wintrust Bank
One Friday night, the 45-year-old received the call up from the Chicago Blackhawks
Following the lunch, Nozzolillo returned home where he finished off his working day. It was there that he got the call up.
On the phone with a client until 5pm, Nozzolillo initially missed the call from Danny Tranchida, his hockey operations contact at the Chicago Blackhawks.
For the past four years, Nozzolillo has been one of Chicago’s four designated emergency backup goalies.
Ordinarily, that means that he is an independent contractor, who, when on call, gets paid $100 per to show up and the United Center, home of the Blackhawks, and watch the team play.
That, however, all changed with Tranchida’s phone call.
‘Hey, Spencer Knight has the flu too,’ Tranchida told him, per ESPN. ‘So Knight and [Arvid] Soderblom will not be in the building tonight. We need you to get there early. You’re going to dress.’
As soon as he put the phone down, Nozzolillo scrambled, throwing his damp, freshly washed kit in the tumble dryer before making the dash to the United Center.
‘I’ve got people swarming me,’ he told ESPN of his whirlwind arrival in the locker room.
Chicago lost their top two goaltenders, Spencer Knight (pictured) and Arvid Söderblom
Nozzolillo begrudgingly went for lunch at a Hooters with his colleagues before getting the call
‘The equipment manager saying, ‘Hey, do you need socks? Do you need this? Can I sharpen your skates? Do you need some water?’ ‘Then there’s camera guys going around filming and stuff. Some of the guys are coming up and introducing themselves to me. I’m like, ‘What is going on in here?”
He was swiftly handed an amateur tryout contract to sign – a staggering salary of $0 – correcting his birthdate as he went. Yet, his one regret? Not correcting his name from Dave to David.
‘I wish I had changed it,’ he said. ‘I didn’t even consider the possibility that it was going to be registered with the NHL and I would be referred to on TV and it would all blow up like this. I was just trying to stay in the moment.’
Nozzolillo is a former D-III goalie at Lake Forest College, who quit in his junior year. Now, he flits away around the Windy City’s beer leagues.
‘Everyone needs goalies,’ he said. ‘So I fill in when I can.’
The Blackhawks’ locker room had been ravished by the stomach bug, which had already ruled out for players, including superstar Connor Bedard and goaltender Söderblom, before Knight was also sent home with the illness.
Down to the bare bones, the team called up AHL goaltender Drew Commesso who played for Chicago’s affiliate Rockford IceHogs. It was decided that he would start with Nozzolillo was his backup.
Emergency backup goalies (EBUGs) were introduced in 2016 after the Florida Panthers lost both goaltenders in one game and flirted with disaster.
The team called up AHL goaltender Drew Commesso who played for their affiliate Rockford
The rule allows franchises to have amateur goaltenders on standby that they can just yank from the ordinary day-to-day lives in emergency situations.
The rule has previously been activated in the past when Zamboni driver David Ayers was granted his moment in the spotlight with the Hurricanes, playing 15 minutes against the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020.
Before that, Chicago-area accountant Scott Foster, stopped all seven shots he faced against the Winnipeg Jets in 2019 – in the middle of tax season – also for the Blackhawks.
Nozzolillo, who said he was calmer than he expected, spent the night watching from the bench as the Blackhawks slumped to a 5-1 defeat to the Washington Capitals.
While he ultimately wasn’t needed on the ice, he did admit there was a close call following the second period when he returned to the locker room from the bathroom and Commesso was nowhere in sight.
However, the goal tender eventually reappeared, meaning Nozzolillo’s only time on the ice came in warmups when he took shots from his temporary teammates.
‘I had a new tape job on my stick. I looked at it after warmups, and I didn’t have one puck mark on my stick,’ Nozzolillo said, during his interview with ESPN. ‘Just to give you an idea of how many guys are trying to go top corner on me. I still made some good saves, I think. It was just nuts.’
Nozzolillo’s Cinderella story came to an abrupt end when the final while blew and the Blackhawks prepared to hit the road for their away game in Nashville the following day.
He still has two dates remaining on the schedule to be on-call for the team but even if he doesn’t get the call up again, he will have a memory to cherish for a lifetime.
