

Peter Budaj was one of the best goalies in the OHL in his final two seasons with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors, but his dominance didn’t exactly carry over to the NHL level.

For most of his career, the 34-year-old has been known throughout the league as a backup goalie, but he’s also earned the reputation as a massive fan of The Simpsons and Ned Flanders over that span.

Budaj signed a new two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning in June, so he went forward and got a brand new mask made for the upcoming season. Just like Henrik Lundqvist did for this year’s mask and like he’s done many times in years past, Budaj turned to his friend David Gunnarsson for his new mask and he made the right choice.



Sneak peak #newmask @daveart @tblightning #cantwaitforhockeytostart A post shared by Peter Budaj (@budaj31) on Jul 21, 2017 at 7:47am PDT

The Lightning’s backup goalie is trying his best to keep the entire mask a secret until a later date, but both Budaj and Gunnarsson have shared some teasers of the new mask and you can bet that Ned Flanders will once again be featured on this year’s mask.



Sneakpeek of Peter Budaj's latest Tampa bucket for the coming NHL season... with his goalie alter ego created of lightnings...👊🏻⚡️🤓 @peterbudaj31 @tblightning #nhl #DaveArt @nhl #DaveArtTheMaskNerd A post shared by David Gunnarsson (@davidofdaveart) on Jul 31, 2017 at 1:41pm PDT

It looks like Budaj put most of the focus on this year’s mask on the Lightning and not on Ned Flanders, but but we’re glad he decided to save a spot for The Simpsons’ friendly neighbour. As for his previous masks, Ned Flanders pretty much stole the show on every mask.



Both Andrei Vasilevskiy and Peter Budaj have some pretty sweet masks lined up for the upcoming season.

(H/T Instatgram/davidofdaveart, Instagram/budaj31)