Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Ben Bishop thought he’d be traded to the Calgary Flames this summer. A trade never fully materialized, but the two teams were in the advanced stages of working out a deal to send the 29-year-old goalie to the Flames who at the time were searching for a top goaltender.
The Tampa Bay Times report that the Flames received permission from the Lightning to speak to Bishop directly about a future contract in Calgary. Bishop is in the final year of his current contract which carries a cap hit of $5.95 million and would have needed a new deal for 2017-18 and beyond.
Meanwhile, though Bishop and the Flames were in what sound like advanced talks, the Flames ended up making a trade with the St. Louis Blues for Brian Elliott.
“It looked like for a little bit it was going to happen,” Bishop told the Tampa Bay Times by phone Friday. “At kind of the last minute (the Flames) went out and got Elliott. It was close, but there was never… It wasn’t that close, obviously.
It was a tough time. I went to Vegas for the awards when I found out there was a possibility I might be traded. Going to the awards and in the back of your mind worried about it. It was definitely an emotional week. In the end it didn’t end up happening.”
GM Steve Yzerman also said that a potential trade for Bishop wasn’t that close, but it would seem that the talks were pretty far along if the Flames were allowed to speak with Bishop directly about a new contract. It’s fairly common for a team to downplay reports about deals that fail to pan out.
The trade rumors involving Bishop have quieted for now, but it’s fairly likely they’ll resurface when the Lightning are forced to make a decision on which goaltender they want to retain for the future as the expansion draft draws near.
