Until today, there probably weren’t too many folks in the area that knew who Kyle Konin was despite the fact that he was often on the ice with many of the Tampa Bay Lightning superstars. The St. Petersburg resident is the Lightning’s emergency back-up goalie, aka eBUG. And tonight, he’s getting the call. A lower-body injury to back-up goaltender Jonas Johansson has moved Konin to the active roster as Andrei Vasilevskiy’s back-up. Could he be the next Scott Foster or David Ayers? We’ll have to wait and see.
The 26-year-old from Rhode Island has been the Lightning’s eBUG since the 2020 season, but hasn’t been called on by the team until tonight. However, he has been on the ice when the Lightning needed an extra netminder for practice or helping players who are rehabbing like Mikhail Sergachev.
Konin’s last competitive action came with Grand Valley State University in 2019-20. During the COVID Pause he moved back to Florida to live with his parents and ended up playing with Lightning alumni like John Tucker, Filip Kuba, and Dwayne Roloson. That turned into a gig with the Lightning.
While it’s the first time he’s suiting up for the Lightning, it’s not the first time he’s been a back-up. In December of 2021, St. Louis Blues netminder Jordan Binnington entered COVID protocols and Konin got the call to be the back-up. The Blues had him take a rookie lap before the game,
He didn’t get into the game, and chances are he won’t tonight, but he’s soaking it all in and, in his words, enjoying a nice lunch before going back to his day job of painting hockey masks. Konin does usually attend most of the Lightning’s home games and is always prepared to be called into action, but ends up watching most of the action like we do.
If he does somehow end up in the game tonight, it will bring his story full circle. Konin grew up in Clearwater and attended the Lightning’s youth hockey camps as a child.
As for Johansson, Coach Cooper isn’t too concerned that what is keeping him out of back-up duties is going to be a long-term problem. With the Lightning playing back-to-back games later this week, they’re likely to wait another day or so to see how JJ is feeling before they call up either Matt Tomkins or Hugo Alnefelt from the Syracuse Crunch.
