Stars goalie Ben Bishop agrees to waive no-movement clause for expansion draft – The Dallas Morning News

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with quotes from Ben Bishop and his agent.

Stars goaltender Ben Bishop has agreed to waive his no-movement clause for the upcoming Seattle expansion draft, Bishop and Stars general manager Jim Nill told The Dallas Morning News on Thursday.

Nill said Bishop approached the Stars about four weeks ago and thought it was in the best interest of the team that he waives his no-move clause. Bishop’s decision allows the Stars to protect Anton Khudobin in the expansion draft, while Jake Oettinger is exempt from selection. The decision to waive his NMC applies only to the expansion draft and not to a trade, Nill confirmed.

“I just thought it was best for the team,” Bishop said in a phone interview. “You can see the writing on the walls as far as what might happen. You’ve got Dobby being exposed. I think the Dallas Stars, we still have this window here where we’re trying to win the Stanley Cup. Just thought it was the best thing to do. We all agreed.”

Bishop did not play during the 2020-21 season after undergoing offseason knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus in October. He last played in the second round of the playoffs against Colorado last year, but has not been a regular in the Stars lineup since March 2020.

When healthy, Bishop is one of the league’s best goaltenders. He’s been a Vezina Trophy finalist three times. He led the NHL in save percentage in 2018-19, and helped form one of the strongest goaltending duos in the NHL alongside Khudobin. In 2019, he made 52 saves in Game 7 against St. Louis, nearly dragging Dallas to the Western Conference Final.

Bishop, though, has been hurt in each of his four seasons in Dallas, missing 88 regular season games and 22 playoff games. Last season was the first time in his career that he missed the entire year.

“To have a season where you don’t get to play, it’s a bummer,” Bishop said. “You want to be out there. You want to be playing. Those competitive juices don’t leave you. But knowing that you can’t get out there and play, it kind of stinks. It’s hard to watch.”

The status of Bishop’s health for next season is unclear, and makes it unlikely that Seattle selects him in next week’s expansion draft. He is under contract for two more years with a $4.917 million cap hit, money that could be applied to long-term injured reserve should he not be able to play.

Bishop said he began skating recently for the first time since he was shut down around the trade deadline last season, though he has been able to lift weights. He said the idea is to be ready for training camp in September “if the knee allows that.”

“Still a long ways to go,” Bishop said. “With a little bit of uncertainty, we’ve still got to get to where I can play at an elite level. There’s still a process to be played out here.”

Bishop appeared close to a return around mid-April after skating on his own before Stars practices, but was instead ruled out for the season so his knee was given more time to heal. Looking back, Bishop said, “probably wasn’t ready at that point in the season. It was the right decision.”

“We sat back and realized that if I was able to come back, it wasn’t going to be until with a week or two left in the season,” Bishop said. “It was kind of like ‘What’s the point in trying to push this thing and rush it when you’re only going to be able to come back for, at best, the last week or two?’”

He has not undergone any other scopes or procedures on his knee this summer, Bishop said.

It is unlikely, but still possible that Seattle selects Bishop in next week’s expansion draft. He said he did not think about the possibility of joining the Kraken.

“I wasn’t too worried about it,” Bishop said. “Just trying to think about the Dallas Stars and our opportunity here. It’s one of those things where hopefully, my goal is to get back and be able to play, but it’s still up in the air. I didn’t want to put the Stars in a bad situation. It’s just what was best for the team and myself, as far as what I thought was right. Obviously, you do expose yourself and there is a chance, but that’s not what I’m thinking about.”

Bishop’s decision to waive his no-movement clause clarifies the Stars’ murky goaltending situation. Entering the summer, both Khudobin and Oettinger’s statuses were up in the air. Khudobin could have been selected by Seattle or traded or backing up Bishop. Oettinger could have been playing in the NHL or the AHL.

Now, with Bishop’s health in question, the Stars could lean on another season of a Khudobin-Oettinger tandem in the NHL, and Dallas will be able to protect Khudobin from Seattle because of Bishop’s choice.

Last season, the Stars ranked 16th in the league with a .903 save percentage. Khudobin went 12-11-7 with a .905 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average, while Oettinger went 11-8-7 with a .911 save percentage and 2.36 GAA in his rookie season.

Khudobin is entering the second season of a three-year contract that carries a $3.333 million cap hit, while Oettinger will be in the final year of his entry-level contract.

“I thought that was a good move for him and the team,” Bishop’s agent Allain Roy told The News. “In the big picture, the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, so I think he felt that was the right move for the team to be the best team possible next year. Makes sense.”

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