For quite some time now, I have been firmly on the side of the Lightning trading Ben Bishop no matter the return. However, Tampa Bay's recent performance and the makeup of the current goalie market have me placing my foot in my mouth and changing my mind.
The Tampa Lightning entered their bye week playing the best hockey they have all season long, winning three of their last four games and acquiring seven of the possible eight points. Some would say that having the bye week now is just bad timing but that's a conversation for a different day.
With the Eastern Conference as tight as it could possibly be, the Bolts still have a realistic chance of making the postseason. As of right now, Tampa is four points behind the second wild card spot with 26 games to play.
This reason alone is enough to throw caution at the idea of sending Ben Bishop elsewhere before the March 1st trade deadline. He has progressively gotten better since returning from injury and is the Bolts most reliable goalie at this point. Andrei Vasilevskiy looked fantastic in his last game against the Wild but I do not think Tampa trusts him enough to lead them to the postseason and beyond.
Even if Steve Yzerman felt strongly that Vasilevskiy could bring the Lightning to the playoffs all on his lonesome, the potential return for Bishop just makes dealing him not worth it. There are so many goaltenders on the market right now, and not many teams shopping for one.
As we all know, Bishop will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. This makes dealing for him quite tricky. Teams that need an improvement between the pipes are most likely going to look for an option that helps them out further than just the rest of the 2016-17 campaign. Unless a potential suitor could get a guarantee that Bishop would sign on long-term, I do not think they would want to give up any assets of value for him.
Of course, there are teams out there that would love to have Bishop. However, some of these teams could just wait until the offseason. This way, all they have to cough up for him is money.
If the Lightning believes they have a shot at making the postseason, trading Bishop just has no benefit. It is more than likely that the return they would receive would not improve their chances.
Still, a lot can change from now until March 1st and this will be an interesting storyline to follow right until the deadline strikes.
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