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Calgary trades for a goaltender, but it isn’t Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop

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At that price, the Tampa Bay Lightning did just fine in holding onto goaltender Ben Bishop Friday night.

The Calgary Flames, supposedly deep enough in trade talks with the Lightning to be discussing contract renegotiation, instead traded for St. Louis goaltender Brian Elliott. They gave their second-round pick, 35th overall, for Elliott and a conditional third in 2018.

Can you imagine if the Lightning had taken the 35th pick for Bishop. Tampa Bay fans would storm Amalie Arena.

The Flames didn’t want to give up their No. 1 pick, spent on Matthew Tkachuk.

Bishop had the better season this year, slightly. He won 35 games (Elliott won 23). He had a .926 save percentage (Elliott was at .930). He had a 2.06 goals against average to Elliott’s 2.06. In other words, Bishop had the edge, but probably not a round’s worth.

Announcers at NBCSN said they still expected Bishop to be traded.

Gary Shelton is one of the most recognized and honored sportswriters in the history of the state. He has won the APSE's national columnist of the year twice and finished in the top 10 eight times. He was named the Florida Sportswriter of the Year six times. Gary joined SaintPetersBlog in the spring, helping to bring a sports presence to the website. Over his time in sports writing, Gary has covered 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics, Final Fours, Masters, Wimbledons and college national championships. He was there when the Bucs won a Super Bowl, when the Lightning won a Stanley Cup and when the Rays went to a World Series. He has seen Florida, FSU and Miami all win national championships, and he covered Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden and Don Shula along the way. He and his wife Janet have four children: Eric, Kevin, K.C. and Tori. To contact, visit [email protected]

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