The Stars have acquired the rights to goalie Ben Bishop in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings for a fourth-round pick (the 114th pick acquired from Montreal for Jordie Benn) in this year's draft.
Bishop, 30, was a Vezina finalist in 2016 and has a career record of 270-148-80 with St. Louis, Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Los Angeles. He has a career goals against average of 2.23 and a career save percentage of .919.
The Stars have made no secret that they would like to shore up their goaltending, and Bishop would do that. He was 35-21-4 in 2015-16, finishing as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. He had a 2.06 GAA and .926 save percentage in that season. Bishop also was strong in the playoffs with the Lightning, going 21-13 with a 2.08 GAA and .926 save percentage in two seasons.
Bishop (6-7, 216) has battled groin injuries at times and is looking for a big contract, one of the reasons Tampa Bay traded him to the Kings this season. The Lightning also has a young goalie in Andrei Vasilevski, so the decision was easier.
The Kings only wanted Bishop for a playoff run, so they had no interest in trying to sign him as an unrestricted free agent.
Bishop is no stranger to Dallas, having played one season with the Texas Tornado in 2004-05. He went 35-8-0 that season with a 1.93 GAA and a .920 save percentage.
The odds of the Stars now signing Bishop are good. Teams that trade for a player's rights typically find a way to get a deal done. Bishop, who had a cap hit of $5.95 million last season, could be looking for a five- or six-year contract at somewhere close to that figure.
That would give Dallas by far the highest goaltending cost in the NHL next season. The Stars have Kari Lehtonen ($5.9 million) and Antti Niemi ($4.5 million) under contract for next season. If they keep Lehtonen and buy out Niemi (a $1.5 million cap hit for two seasons), the Stars could have more than $13 million in cap hit dedicated to goaltending for one season.
