Sep 21: It did seem odd that Bishop was joining the Stars while his contract was still in effect. Since he is not retiring, the NHL has told the Stars that they are not allowed to hire Bishop yet, according to Saad Yousuf of The Athletic. He will not be around the Dallas front office until his contract with Buffalo runs out.
Sep 12: Earlier this summer, the Dallas Stars traded Ben Bishop to the Buffalo Sabres. Bishop will not be playing again due to chronic, degenerative injuries, but his contract still has one year remaining on it with a salary of $3.5MM (including a $1MM signing bonus).
Now, just a few months later, the Stars are bringing him back. The Stars have hired Bishop as a player development coordinator, according to Matthew DeFranks of the Dallas Morning News. It is not clear how this will affect his contract with the Sabres yet.
The team has also promoted Sam Lites to director of organizational analysis.
Bishop, 35, was one of the best goaltenders of his generation but struggled with injuries his entire career. The towering, 6’7″ netminder has a career save percentage of .921 in 423 regular season appearances, was a Vezina finalist three times, and went 222-128-36 across parts of 11 seasons. His most incredible performance came in 2018-19 with the Stars, when he led the league with a .934 save percentage in 46 games, including a whopping 32.2 goals saved above average.
In 2015, he led the Tampa Bay Lightning to game six of the Stanley Cup Final, posting a .921 in 25 postseason appearances. Overall for his career, his playoff numbers were even better than the regular season, with a .924 in 52 games.
After trying to make a comeback in 2021-22, after more than a year of rehab, he played just one match for the Texas Stars before waving the white flag and announcing his career was over. While he did not use the word retired at the time, due to his ongoing contract, he will not play again. His time in hockey is not over, however, as the netminder will join a front office and begin the next chapter at a relatively young age.
This is the NHL & the NHLPA once again NOT being on the same page. What could go wrong.
@Dave—Wouldn’t you think Bishy would now have to file official retirement papers for this to go through? It almost seems a bit like the cart before the horse, eh?
Obviously agreed to a buyout with the Sabres. The only way he’s free to leave and take another job.
He is hurt, so he can’t take a buyout. Also, that window has passed.
Yep and here we have it. Not free to go to the Stars. Makes sense.
So, once again the NHL allows Chris Pronger to get away with stuff no one else is allowed to do.
Yep, exactly my thoughts!
Funny how NHL.com doesn’t have this on their front page (at this moment). You’d think Gary & Bill would be humble enough to rub their own noses in it, right? Or, maybe not…
You would think an NHL teams management would know the league rules.
Lmao. Every gm learns every way around the salary cap . Very few people including bettman probably know this part of agreement.
Oh, come now. You can’t work for one team while getting paid by another (or on another’s reserve list) has been the case since forever. Heck, it cropped up in 1967, when Pittsburgh tried to hire Red Kelly as a coach while he was still on Toronto’s roster. They had to pay the Leafs off before Punch Imlach would agree to it.