Long Island's Keith Kinkaid says he has a lot in the tank for NY Islanders tryout

The biggest surprise attendee on Day 1 of the New York Islanders rookie camp was goaltender Keith Kinkaid. The 35-year-old Farmingdale, Long Island native told reporters he has “a lot left in the tank” as he aims to impress the Islanders and other teams around the league.

Kinkaid played last season with the Chicago Wolves of the AHL, going 8-14-2 in 24 games with a 3.54 GAA and .880 save percentage. Not encouraging stats for a player looking to return to the NHL after playing a single game for the Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins during the 2022-23 season. Overall, Kinkaid has 169 career NHL games on his resume after first breaking in with the New Jersey Devils in 2012-13 as a 23-year-old who grew up idolizing Hall-of-Famer Martin Brodeur from his Long Island house.

He played in a career-high 41 games during the 2017-18 season, going 23-8-13 with a 2.77 goals-against average. He played in 41 games again the following season before being traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 5th-round draft pick. He appeared in six games for the Montreal Canadiens in 2019-20 and then a total of 10 games with the New York Rangers over two seasons.

The team did not indicate whether inviting Kinkaid, who has an existing relationship with Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello from their days in New Jersey, has anything to do with the Elliotte Friedman report that franchise goaltender Ilya Sorokin was "battling something" this off-season. If Sorokin is limited during training camp or the start of the season, it is understandable why the Islanders would be looking to improve their organizational depth at the position.