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.