Stars Notes: Bishop, Offseason Targets, L’Esperance

Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop is participating in training camp but don’t expect him to be ready for the season opener.  Instead, his goal is much simpler as he told Mike Heika of the Stars’ team website is that he’s hoping to simply be able to play at some point during the year.  The 34-year-old has dealt with lingering knee issues that have seen him undergo two surgeries and the uncertainty surrounding his availability for the season led them to sign Braden Holtby to join holdovers Anton Khudobin and Jake Oettinger.  As Heika notes, the Stars will need to free up cap space in order to have Bishop on the active roster so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them be very cautious in bringing Bishop back to the point where he maybe starts on LTIR for a few weeks to buy them some more time to evaluate him.

More from Dallas:

• In a separate piece from Heika, he reports that the Stars showed interest in trading for defenseman Seth Jones and signing winger Blake Coleman this summer. However, those discussions didn’t last too long as the price tag got too high for their liking.  Dallas was still able to add to their back end this summer, inking veteran Ryan Suter to take Jamie Oleksiak’s spot on the roster.  They weren’t able to make a big splash up front – veteran center Luke Glendening was their biggest UFA forward signing but the returns to health of Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov effectively give them two significant additions compared to what they had for most of last season.
• Winger Joel L’Esperance confirmed to Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News that he has not been vaccinated nor does he intend to be. The 26-year-old scored twice in a dozen games for the Stars last season but is likely ticketed to play in the AHL for most of the season.  Dallas’ affiliate in Texas has six games in Canada this season and under new protocols for 2021-22, the team will be able to suspend L’Esperance without pay for those missed games while it may affect his chances of getting recalled knowing there may be a seven-day quarantine to be served following any promotion from the minors.