The search for a new Penguins goaltender continues on today. There aren’t many perfect options. It is the nature of the position, but there are better relative to what the Penguins have and the goal is always to get better. Some of the options I've explored will have more risk than others. Some might cost the Penguins assets. Today’s focus will have both risk and an acquisition cost with a potential high ceiling reward. The goaltender is Ben Bishop and he didn’t even play a single game last year.

Throughout the years Bishop has been a really good goaltender. In 413 NHL games he has a career all-situations save percentage of .921. That is elite, period. The last three seasons he has played in Dallas he’s been at .923, also elite.



Now the question isn’t what you’ve done it is what can you still do? This is where things get a little murky because of the missed time and the fact he will be 34 years old next season. He is also not a free agent. He is due to make 4.9M for the next two seasons. I think it is a reasonable contract *if* he can play and I think he can. He had meniscus surgery in October and should be fully healed a calendar year later. I’ve actually had the procedure done and it was a pretty straight forward recovery and I certainly don’t have access to the resources an NHL player does. I think there’s a decent chance of Bishop’s health being totally fine. It isn’t like tearing your hip labrum as a goaltender.

Another big question here is if Bishop is even available. He has a full NMC so as far as the expansion draft is concerned, he has to be protected. The Stars currently have Anton Khudobin and 21-year-old Jake Oettinger who isn’t eligible for the expansion draft. Oettinger played 29 games at .911 this year in place of Bishop. Khudobin had an underwhelming .905 campaign in 32 games. This boils down to what the Stars want to do with Khubodin. Do they want to run back the Khudobin-Oettinger duo, do they want the pricier Bishop-Khudobin duo, or go with Bishop-Oettinger? My guess is they wouldn’t mind parting ways with Khudobin and go with the better Bishop and the young future, but I’m not piped into the Dallas Stars this is just my outside speculation.

If I were Dallas, I would probably move forward with Bishop and Oettinger. Khudobin is oldest of the trio and I would want to give Oettinger more NHL games. However, if for some reason the Stars don’t want to take the risk on Bishop coming back from his long layoff a team like the Penguins (and others) should definitely inquire about the cost to acquire.

Thanks for reading!

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