Lightning dress emergency backup Kyle Konin with Andrei Vasilevskiy out with illness

The Tampa Bay Lightning have called upon Kyle Konin to serve as the club’s emergency backup goaltender Tuesday versus the Chicago Blackhawks, reports Eduardo Encica of the Tampa Bay Times.

With star netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy out of the lineup due to an illness, Konin will serve as backup to 29-year-old Jonas Johansson.

A 27-year-old native of West Kingston, R.I., Konin has previously served as the emergency backup goaltender on three occasions, with his last appearance coming in November with the Philadelphia Flyers. Last April, Konin was the Lightning’s emergency backup and, in December 2021, he played the same role with the St. Louis Blues.

A graduate of the NCAA’s Grand Valley State Lakers, Konin’s last season came in 2019-20 when he made five appearances. The prior season, Konin combined for 20 contests at the ‘Junior A’ level, counting stops with the New Hampshire Avalanche and Vermont Lumberjacks.

For Johansson, the Swedish-born netminder enters Tuesday’s contest with a 6-4-1 record alongside an .894 save percentage and 3.24 goals-against average. Johansson is in his second season with the Lightning after closing out 2023-24 with 12 wins in 26 appearances in which he registered an .890 save percentage and 3.37 goals-against average.

Originally chosen by the Buffalo Sabres in the third round of the 2014 NHL Draft, Johansson has seen 73 career contests with the Sabres, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, and Lightning in which he has notched a 29-24-10 record with an .889 save percentage and 3.32 goals-against average.

Per PuckPedia, Johansson is in the final year of a two-year contract that carries a $775,000 annual average value.

On the season, the Lightning sit 26-19-3 to hold down the final wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference with 55 points. The Lightning have qualified for the playoffs in seven-straight seasons, a stretch that counted three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final.