Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop held a press conference today to discuss the end of his career. After trying to rehab and recover from a knee injury that has bothered him for more than two years, Bishop played a single game in the AHL before throwing in the towel. He explained just what he was dealing with all this time and how it didn’t allow him from continuing his career:
If I was a forward, I could be playing right now. But just with the butterfly, the torque you put on your knee, it just couldn’t really get better.
Last week when we drained it, there was still some flecks in the fluid which means there was some cartilage wearing away. With all that, I still wanted to go down and give it a try because I wanted one last try to make sure. I was hoping I could go down and everything would be OK. But obviously after the game, it blew up. In talking to the doctors, it doesn’t make sense to just kind of be ripping your knee apart if you’re not going to get back to playing.
Bishop will not technically retire, as his contract extends through the 2022-23 season. He’s owed $3.5MM for this season and next, meaning he’ll be just moved to long-term injured reserve for now. His playing days are over though, which means fans can look back and dissect an outstanding playing career that was unfortunately cut short.
There is a real question that arises when considering Bishop’s excellent-but-limited NHL career. Should he be considered for the Hall of Fame?
At first thought the easy answer may be no, given he never won a major award, never won the Stanley Cup, and was really only a full-time NHL player for seven years. But that seven-year stretch was also some of the best goaltending the league has ever seen, as fans of the Lightning and Stars will attest.
In 2013-14, his first full season with Tampa Bay, Bishop started 64 games for the Lightning, going 37-14-7 with a .924 save percentage. He finished third in Vezina Trophy voting, behind the winner Tuukka Rask (36-15-6, .930) and runner-up Semyon Varlamov (41-14-6, .927). He actually finished ahead of Rask in the Hart Trophy voting though (but behind Varlamov) because of the view of Tampa at the time. After all, they’d missed the playoffs each of the previous two seasons and were under the guidance of a rookie head coach–some guy named Jon Cooper.
Not a bad start for a goaltender that was already on his third team.
In 2014-15, he took a slight step back in terms of save percentage, posting a .916 for the Lightning. The team was a lot better though, as Bishop secured 40 wins in 62 appearances during the regular season. He then started another 25 games in the playoffs, helping the Lightning all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, where they would fall to the Chicago Blackhawks. Bishop’s numbers that postseason? A .921 save percentage and playoff-leading three shutouts.
When 2015-16 rolled around there was no doubting his ability, and what would follow was an incredible goaltending season. In 61 appearances, Bishop went 35-21-4, posted a .926 save percentage, and league-leading 2.06 goals-against average. In the playoffs, he’d go 8-2 with a .939 save percentage and it looked like he was on his way to a potential Conn Smythe nomination, but ended up stretchered off the ice during the first period of game one of the Eastern Conference Finals. Young Andrei Vasilevskiy would play the next six games, ultimately losing in a heartbreaking game seven to the Pittsburgh Penguins. When the Vezina votes were tallied that year, Bishop would come close to another victory, but end up coming second to future teammate Braden Holtby’s 48-9-7 record, despite the Washington netminder’s worse numbers in other categories.
Injury had robbed him of a chance to further his legacy those playoffs, and the Vezina finish would be a sign of things to come. Bishop played just 39 games in 2016-17 as Vasilevskiy took over in Tampa Bay, forcing the Lightning to find a trade partner. Bishop was shipped to the Los Angeles Kings, where he served as a backup to Jonathan Quick down the stretch. He’d play just seven games with the Kings before an offseason trade and extension brought him to the Dallas Stars.
It’s in Dallas where perhaps his most compelling case for the Hall of Fame took place. In his first year, he was a strong starter for the Stars, putting up a 26-17-5 record with a .916 save percentage. It’s that 2018-19 season that could have changed his legacy though, had voters felt stronger about his case over that of his former protege. Andrei Vasilevskiy took home the Vezina as the Lightning posted a historic 62-16-4 record, but Bishop had outpaced him in nearly every goaltending metric. In fact, since they started tracking shot data, Bishop’s 2018-19 .934 save percentage is the fourth-best in history among goaltenders who appeared in at least 41 games. He’d finish second in the voting, a finalist for the third time in his career.
Overall, Bishop ranks 78th all-time in wins by a goaltender with 222. He’s even further down that list in terms of games played. His career was extremely short, there’s no getting around that. But it was also outstanding. His .921 career save percentage puts him fifth, behind only Dominik Hasek, Johnny Bower, Rask, and Ken Dryden. Three of those names are in the Hall of Fame, the fourth likely will be one day.
So is Bishop a candidate for the Hall of Fame? Or is he just another member of the Hall of Very Good, with a career cut short by injury, overlooked by voters, and ultimately, unsuccessful in reaching the pinnacle of the sport–the Stanley Cup.
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Not even remotely close imo. He played just over 400 games (and some consider 500 for a goalie to be equivalent to the 1,000 mark for skaters) and while he was very good for most of his career I don’t think that’s enough on its own to get you into the hall. He was a Vezina finalist 3 times but never won. He never won a Stanley cup either. If he had won either of those at least once I’d say he’s probably in the conversation to be called to the Hall, but I think he’s just a member of the “Hall of Very Good”. Too bad his career was derailed by injuries because if he had played (and played well) the past 2+ seasons he’d be a shoe in.
i might be in the minority but i say he barley gets in, but also i see the arguments that he is in the hall of the very good. in bish’es case even if he didn’t win any major awards he played at a hof level for most of his career and unfortunately for him he played against some good hof caliber goalies that won something. long and short of it i consider bishop a coin flip, he is the perfect guy that is literally on the line of hof and the hovg.
Must be a slow day. No chance he’s a hall of famer.
Not a HOFer but that contract for two seasons is a huge trade chip. LTIR is a beautiful thing.
@Dave – “LTIR is a beautiful thing.” – Signed, VGK
(Paging Johnny Boychuk!)
:)
My capologist,Sheff,has had heart palpitations since Bishop has the knee drained over the weekend.
Said they should package the two goalies and have TML/VGK ship the other to AZ with a pick.
I gotta get him a hobby.
@Dave – You have to love a guy that gets to have a career involving the coolest game on earth. His job really is a hobby, too!
I’m a little ignorant to why the contract would be a trade chip. How does that help a team to take on a contract then remove said contract from the salary cap hit?
What?
If he gets in, quick is lock. Quick has both more wins and shuts out for an american goalie and 2 cups.
Is this a serious question? Seriously.
No Curtis joseph . mike richter ,tom barrasso, mike vernon in hall of fame . All superior to bishop
Well said. In order who would you vote for? I’m going Ritcher, Barrasso, Vernon, Cujo
I would agree with your order.
Richter, CuJo, Barrasso in…Vernon a maybe.
I’d say he was a borderline candidate, someone who might be tabbed by a Veterans Committee.
But Bishop didn’t really have a massive seven year stretch, as Gavin implies. He had four great years: 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020. In three other seasons (2013, 2015, 2018) he was better than league average, but not all that much better.
If I’m going to pick a goalie for the HHOF after only seven seasons as a starter, I want his career to look like Ken Dryden’s or Bill Durnan’s — multiple Vezinas, multiple Cups, multiple First Team All-Star nods. I want there to be no question or doubt that he was the greatest goalie of his day. And how many people would take his career over Carey Price’s? Over Corey Crawford’s? Over Henrik Lundqvist’s? Over Tuukka Rask’s? Over Pekka Rinne’s? Over Andrei Vasilevskiy’s? Does he have a clearly better resume than the Hellebucyks, Fleurys or Gibsons of the world? I wouldn’t say so.
Hall of Very Good, yes. Hall of Fame, I wouldn’t vote for him.
You forgot quick in the list
Longevity is the issue here. if voters think he played long enough, the answer is yes, because his rate stats are stellar.
I’d love to see him play a few more years and make the HOF, but there’s no way I could nominate him if it were up to me. I don’t think anyone would ever try to say he wasn’t great, but he just didn’t accomplish enough for that prestigious honor. He will be remembered by our generation(s) as the guy who “should have” but just didn’t quite make it. Best of luck to Ben in his next chapter
Not only not a HOF’er, not even a guy I would have ever even thought to ask this question about.
The fact that this is even a question proves the hockey hall of fame is a joke. Baseball hall of fame has it right only inducting the best of the best. Not every player who had a few good years should be inducted
Harold Baines says hello.
Not the HHoF but he could get in the Hockey Hall of Real Good
No
Tony LaRussa says yes