Three time Vezina trophy finalist Ben Bishop has called it a career. After attempting to rehab a torn meniscus in his right knee, the 11 year veteran elected to hang up his skates following a recent setback.
Sidelined since Oct 21st 2020 when he originally underwent surgery, Bishop allowed 8 goals on 34 shots in his AHL conditioning stint on Thursday. Bishop reportedly didn’t feel right throughout the contest which made his decision clear after the final whistle blew.
Stars General Manager Jim Nill told NHL.com “After one game, he could tell…That’s why he wanted to go give it a try. It was the best he’d felt in some time. We were thinking of putting him in some games earlier, around training camp time, but he just didn’t feel it was right then. He wanted to give it the best chance to heal up and to get it strengthened and get his game back in order so hopefully he could become a player again. So we’ve been kind of holding off. He’s been working hard. He’s done everything he could do from his end. He went down and played the one game, and in the end, he’s just unfit to play, unfortunately.”
Since placing Bishop on LTIR, the Stars have cycled through several goaltenders, with varying degrees of success. While they nearly won the cup behind Anton Khudobin’s bubble performance, they’ve now placed the 35 year old on waivers, electing to ride with Braden Holtby and 23 year old Jake Oettinger. Dallas currently finds themselves 4 points out of a wildcard in the Western Conference with a 13-10-2 record.
Bishop was originally selected by the St. Louis Blues in the 3rd round (85th overall) in the 2005 NHL entry draft. Standing 6’7”, Bishop shares the distinction of being the tallest goaltender in NHL history with Mikko Koskinen. Bishop spent time with 5 different NHL clubs throughout his career, and posted a 2.32 GAA, 0.921 SV%, while racking up 222 wins in 413 games.