An NHL emergency call-up is a roster move made to address an immediate shortage of available players; it is not automatically exempt from the salary cap. The rules also distinguish an emergency recall from a narrower cap-related Roster Emergency Exception and from the emergency backup goalie dressed for a game. For the 2026-27 season, those are three different situations.
What an NHL emergency call-up means
A recall brings a player from a club’s minor-league affiliate onto its NHL roster. Teams use emergency treatment when injuries or illness leave them short of the players needed to field a lineup. The Carolina Hurricanes’ transaction explainer describes the practical thresholds as fewer than 12 available forwards, six defensemen, or two goalies. That is the team’s practical explanation, not a standalone quotation of the CBA; the governing NHL-NHLPA documents and the details of a particular transaction determine how the rules apply. Carolina’s transaction primer and the NHL-NHLPA governing documents provide the relevant starting points.
How roster limits fit in
The NHL’s Hockey Operations Guidelines say clubs may carry up to 23 players on the playing roster during the regular season through the trade deadline, and describe a minimum roster of 18 skaters and two goalies. Those roster limits are distinct from the practical shortage thresholds in a team’s emergency-recall explanation. NHL Hockey Operations Guidelines.
The 2025-26 NHL rulebook also addresses a specific goalkeeper case: when both goalies are suspended under Rule 11, an emergency recall of minor-league goalkeepers remains subject to the 23-player limit. That goalkeeper-specific provision should not be treated as a general rule for every kind of recall. 2025-26 NHL Rulebook.
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When the cap-related Roster Emergency Exception applies
An emergency recall does not, by itself, make a player’s salary exempt from the cap. The 2025 NHL-NHLPA memorandum of understanding sets out a separate Roster Emergency Exception, with cumulative conditions. A qualifying club must have little payroll room; a player must become unfit or unable to play, or be suspended; and the club must be unable to sign or recall a replacement under the specified Bona Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception. The player’s absence must leave the club with fewer than 18 skaters and two goalies, and the club must have played its previous game in that short-handed state. 2025 NHL-NHLPA MOU and CBA materials.
If those conditions are met, the club may add the emergency replacement player or players beginning with its second game in that short-handed state and for subsequent games. The replacement is subject to the MOU’s salary ceiling and can remain on the active roster only while the emergency lasts. The MOU gives $1,225,000 as the maximum salary example for an emergency replacement player in 2026-27; that figure is season-specific, not a permanent ceiling. 2025 NHL-NHLPA MOU.
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| Situation | What triggers it | Cap and duration |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary emergency recall | An immediate lineup shortage; a Carolina Hurricanes explainer cites fewer than 12 available forwards, six defensemen, or two goalies. | Not automatically cap-exempt; the applicable roster and transaction rules still matter. |
| Roster Emergency Exception | The MOU’s cumulative cap, player-availability, roster-shortage, LTIR-exception, and previous-game conditions are met. | Replacement salary is subject to the MOU ceiling; the player may remain on the active roster only during the emergency. The MOU’s 2026-27 salary example is $1,225,000. |
| Emergency backup goalie (EBUG) | An on-game contingency involving a team-rostered eligible goalie, rather than a recall of an affiliate player. | Eligibility and team arrangements are governed by the NHL’s 2026-27 procedure; this is not the cap exception. |
How the 2026-27 emergency backup goalie differs
For 2026-27, each NHL club carries an eligible emergency backup goalie who dresses with the team, wears No. 00, and practices and travels with it. The goalie must not have played an NHL game under a standard player contract, must not have played more than 80 professional games, and must not have played professional hockey in the previous three seasons. Because the limit excludes goalies with more than 80 games, exactly 80 does not fail that particular test. NHL report, October 2, 2026.
This is different from the earlier arrangement described in 2020, when a preapproved local goalie could be made available to either team. That report is historical context, not the current 2026-27 procedure. NHL report on the earlier arrangement.
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Which rule matters in a specific transaction?
First identify whether the move is an affiliate-player recall, a request to use the cap-related exception, or an EBUG dressing for a game. Then check the current-season governing documents and the club’s circumstances: roster count, player availability, cap position, prior-game lineup and any applicable long-term injury exception. The league and NHLPA announced ratification of a four-year agreement running through 2029-30; the NHL’s CBA index identifies the CBA and its memoranda of understanding together as the governing document set. NHL-NHLPA agreement announcement and NHL CBA index.
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