Caps Equipment Sale Treasures: Brett Leonhardt’s Game-Used Goalie Pads

Earlier Sunday, I documented one fan’s Caps Equipment Sale treasure: Mikhail Grabovski’s misspelled locker room name plate.

Here’s one more. Judy N. went to Fanfest and grabbed some goalie pads. But they were no ordinary goalie pads. She explains below.

My Dad and I got to Fanfest when the second period of the scrimmage was halfway over, because we live in Gettysburg, PA. So while I watched the scrimmage in the crowd, my dad went and jumped in line for with the non-season-ticket holder folks to attend the Caps Equipment Sale. Near the beginning of period three, my dad texted me telling me I should probably come up. At first I was skeptical since when we went two years ago there wasn’t much of interest there.

In his text he said he had a game-used “Mikey Grab-ass” (his weird nickname for Mikhail Grabovski) stick. Though we ended up putting Grabo’s stick back later (and getting an Orlov and Johansson instead), that convinced me to walk over and see what was available. When I was halfway up the stairs, I got a text that said “Leonhardt goalie pads…$20.”

They weren’t actually $20 of course–he was confused them between the $20 thigh pads and the $500 leg pads. Still, I was excited. Sure enough, there he was, toting around a pair of puck-marked goalie pads. I was super excited about this, especially since we were under the impression they were $20. I’m a field hockey goalie so anything to do with goalies is like my thing, and nobody seemed to know who Leonhardt was.

Honestly, I felt incredibly smug knowing who he was and how he fills in when he has to. Plus, my birthday is in 8 days. There was no way we were walking out of there without Stretch’s pads, even once we realized they were $500. So now I have them sitting on either side of our TV in the hockey shrine room. I’m just surprised he isn’t keeping them, they’re beautiful pads: simple, but with a subtle hint to my favorite team.