Bishop enjoying 'easy transition' to player development with Stars

DALLAS --Ben Bishop officially retired from hockey June 30. The next day, there he was, on the ice with Dallas Stars prospects in his new role as director of player development.

The 36-year-old, a three-time finalist for the Vezina Trophy (2014, 2016, 2019) awarded to the best goalie in the NHL, couldn't have been happier. He was appreciative to Stars general manager Jim Nill, who first brought him to Dallas in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings on May 9, 2017.

"I love the organization," Bishop said. "Jim's been great and the management here, and I know everybody in the organization, so it's kind of an easy transition than if you went to a different organization and had to meet everybody from scratch. I feel like I'm a Dallas Star. Obviously last year I wasn't technically, but I still felt like a Dallas Star. I just kind of feel like this is home.

"It's nice to kind of go from one career into the next right away. Obviously, the year off last year was a little adjustment. It's fun to be back at the rink and be back on the ice with these kids, get a chance to work with them on the player development side this year, and just looking forward to it."

That year of adjustment came after Bishop's playing career ended because of a degenerative knee injury that began bothering him during the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He had surgery at that time to repair a torn meniscus and experienced persistent pain following the procedure. His last NHL game was Game 5 of the 2020 Western Conference Second Round against the Colorado Avalanche on Aug. 31, and he had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee Oct. 21 of that year.

Bishop attempted a comeback at the start of the next season, and formally announced the end of his career in December 2021, after going 222-138-26 with a 2.32 goals-against average .921 save percentage and 33 shutouts in 413 regular games (397 starts) for the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Kings and Stars. His save percentage is tied with Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins for fifth in NHL history among goalies who played a minimum of 100 games, behind Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers (.924), Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders (.924), Dominik Hasek (.922 for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings) and Ken Dryden of the Montreal Canadiens (.922).

He was 29-21 with a 2.27 GAA, .924 save percentage and five shutouts in 52 playoff games, helping Tampa Bay reach the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, a six-game loss to the Blackhawks. His 131 regular-season wins and 17 shutouts each rank second in Lightning history (minimum 100 games) behind Andrei Vasilevskiy (263 wins, 32 shutouts).

Bishop, who had one season left on his contract, was traded to the Sabres on June 10, 2022, in an NHL salary cap-related move. At that time, the Stars announced that Bishop would join their hockey operations staff, but prior to the start of the 2022-23 season, Nill said he would not be able to begin that role until the goalie was officially retired from the NHL.

"They just think it's not proper at this time for him to be paid by Buffalo to work for us," Nill said at the time.

Over the past year, Bishop was away from hockey for the first time since he was a kid, traveling and spending time with his two children before he and his wife, Andrea, welcomed their third a few weeks ago.

"It was different not coming to the rink," Bishop said. "I definitely missed it, but it was also nice some mornings when I didn't have to get up and go to the rink or have some weekends off."

Bishop's new role with the Stars will entail traveling to junior hockey, college hockey and American Hockey League games to meet with prospects. He's been doing his homework, familiarizing himself with each of the players in the system and talking to his player development colleagues to understand how they approach the role.

"Definitely asking a lot of questions, that's for sure," Bishop said.

A recipient of those questions has been Stars director of player personnel Rich Peverley.

"For Ben, he loves the game so much," Peverley said. "It's not just what he's going to bring to the goaltenders. He works with the [defenseman], he talks to everybody, he's working with the forwards. From the goaltending perspective, he probably sees the game a little different from everyone else. That can have its advantages as well."

One is what Nill called the eyes and ears of the organization.

"He's got a great presence to himself, he's got the resume to back it up, and he's got a passion to do this," Nill said. "He loves it. To have that person representing us is a big thing."