Jorge Alves (ice hockey)

Alves was born in Stoughton, Massachusetts, a twin brother in a Portuguese-American family. He began playing ice hockey at 14 or 15 years old, not having been able to afford it previously. He graduated from Stoughton High School where he played goaltender on the school's hockey team.[1]

He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1997 to 2001. While he was in boot camp, his parents withheld offer letters from junior and college hockey teams, fearing that he would regret his decision to enlist.[1] Alves then attended North Carolina State University, where he was the Wolfpack club's starting goaltender.[2]

Alves played professional hockey for the Greenville Grrrowl, South Carolina Stingrays, Charlotte Checkers and Pensacola Ice Pilots of the ECHL and Asheville Aces of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL). He played nine games across the two leagues between 2004 and 2007.[3]

During the 2003–04 season, Alves was hired as an assistant equipment manager of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He became a full-time equipment manager for the team during the 2012–13 season.[4]

Alves gained significant attention on December 31, 2016, when he signed a professional try-out contract to serve as a backup goaltender for the Hurricanes in their game later that day, due to the illness of Eddie Läck, who had suffered a concussion.[5][6] While serving as backup, Alves engaged in his regular duties as equipment manager, such as sharpening skates and taping sticks.[7][8] With the Hurricanes losing 3–1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Lightning having iced the puck at the end of the game, Hurricanes' coach Bill Peters put Alves in the net in place of starting goalie Cam Ward for the final seconds of the match. He faced no shots in his debut.[7] At age 37, Alves become one of the oldest players in NHL history to make their debut, and with 7.6 seconds of action, Alves achieved the second shortest debut in league history, behind Kellan Lain, who recorded a two-second debut in 2014. Additionally, Alves set records for both the shortest debut by a goaltender and shortest NHL career, surpassing both Robbie Irons and Christian Soucy, who each played for three minutes in their NHL careers.[9]

Alves speaks Portuguese.[1] He has two children with his wife, Amanda.[5] Alves met his wife at a nightclub in Raleigh, North Carolina which would later become the site of a Hurricanes practice facility.[1]

• David Ayres, who in 2020 became the first emergency goalie to record an NHL win
• Scott Foster, NHL emergency goalie who in 2018 played 14 minutes in relief for the Chicago Blackhawks
• Eric Semborski, Philadelphia Flyers emergency goalie, whose substitution was attempted in 2017, but was removed by the referee as the primary goalie was not injured.

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database