Could Ben Bishop be preparing to announce his retirement from professional hockey?
The Dallas Stars had announced on Saturday morning that goaltender Ben Bishop had been recalled from his AHL conditioning stint, with the Stars placing the 35-year-old right back on long-term injured reserve.
Bishop had played just one game with the Texas Stars in the AHL on his conditioning stint, allowing 8 goals in his first game back since the 2019-20 season.
On Saturday afternoon, The Athletic's Saad Yousuf, who covers the Stars, reported on Twitter that the veteran netminder is expected to speak with the media on Tuesday, leading many to jump to the conclusion that Bishop may be preparing to announce his retirement, due to injury.
Bishop, an 11-year NHL veteran who has spent time with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators and Los Angeles Kings during his career, has been a top-tier NHL goalie when healthy.
In 413 regular season NHL games, the Denver, Colorado native holds a 222-128-36 record to go along with a 2.32 GAA and a .921 SV%. Very strong career numbers.
«It's no secret, he has a degenerative knee injury, and he went down [to the AHL], he wanted to be a big part of this,» Stars GM Nill said on Saturday. «He wanted to do everything he could to get back. In the end, by going through the process, going down there and playing, he found out that it's the end of his career.»
If this truly is the end of the line for Ben Bishop, it's quite unfortunate, given how great he's been when he's been in the lineup. Obviously, his health has to come first. If his body can no longer handle the rigors of playing professional hockey, then retirement is probably a good idea.
Bishop missed the entire 2020-21 season due to injury and has not played a single game for the Stars this season, despite working very hard to get himself back into game shape following knee surgery.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Kyle Connor | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Owen Power | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Michael Bunting | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Drew Helleson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jirí Kulich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Isac Lundestrom | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladislav Namestnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nino Niederreiter | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Vilardi | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Johnston | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Evgeni Malkin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Morrissey | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Perfetti | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Bryan Rust | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Scheifele | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Trevor Zegras | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||