Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop, after more than a year spent attempting to stage a comeback from a torn meniscus, has reached the end of his playing days, the team’s general manager, Jim Nill, said Saturday.
The Stars recalled Bishop from his conditioning assignment with their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, earlier in the day but noted that he would remain on the long-term injured reserve with the knee injury.
“It’s no secret, he has a degenerative knee injury, and he went down there, he wanted to be a big part of this,” Nill told the Dallas Morning News. “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.”
Bishop was sent down on his conditioning assignment on Tuesday. In his first game since Aug. 31, 2020 on Thursday, he allowed eight goals on 34 shots in net for Texas.
The 35-year-old won 222 games across an 11-season NHL career, posting a 2.32 goals-against average, .921 save percentage and 33 shutouts in 413 games split between the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Los Angeles Kings and Stars.
Throughout, he endured a series of injuries, with the most recent being surgery on a torn meniscus during the short 2020 off-season that kept him from playing in 2020-21 and, ultimately, ended his career.
Bishop is in the fifth year of a $29.5 million, six-year contract and is expected to speak to the media on Tuesday, where it is believed he will announce his retirement.
— With files from the Associated Press
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