Bishop on the block?

PEORIA, Ill – What to do? What to do?
 

Big Ben Bishop is in his fourth full year with the Peoria Rivermen. The 25-year old goaltender has shown steady improvement each year, marching his Save % up from 0.897 to 0.929 (currently leading the AHL) and drawing down his GAA from 2.77 in his first full season down to a 2.25 (4^th in the AHL) so far this season. He leads the American League in shutouts (6) and is at or near the top in games and minutes played, shots faced and saves made, and, most importantly, in wins. The Rivermen have ridden Bishop all season and, with rare exception, he has come through for the team. He has shown his endurance and, last week, showed his grit when he left a game during the second period due to an illness and returned to the game less than nine-minutes later to continue playing. (He and backup Jake Allen combined for a shutout.)
 
A late addition to the AHL-All-Star Game, he ended up being the MVP.
 
Everyone feels that Ben Bishop is ready for the NHL.
 
So why are St. Louis Blues fans clamoring for the team to trade him?
 
Bishop, currently on emergency re-call with the NHL team due to Jaroslav Halak battling the flu, is at the bottom of the St. Louis depth chart. Halak is in the second of a four-year contract. NHL All-Star Brian Elliot was just extended for two more years. The Blues current goalie tandem is seemingly set through the 2014 playoffs.
 
On the other hand, unless Bishop plays in 17 NHL games before the end of the season – and there are only about two-dozen games left in the season – he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent. That means he can sign with any team, without restrictions. The Blues would get nothing in return.
 
So, the Blues have a hot goalie prospect. There is no room on the big league team for him and, if they don’t trade him, will almost certainly lose him during the off-season with no compensation.
 
On the other hand, there is no serious successor to Bishop at the AHL level.
 
Jake Allen had a great start as a rookie last season. He was the AHL All-Star starting goaltender in 2011. Since then, though, he has been spotty between the pipes.
 
The current situation with Halak’s illness has given Allen a window of opportunity to prove he is ready to shoulder the load. Perhaps he will show he is ready to be a number one AHL goalie (and thus, a number three NHL goalie).
 
But in no sense of the imagination is Allen ready for the NHL right now, and it behooves the Blues to have someone ready in the AHL in case two goalies go down – it has happened within recent memory (Bishop has 13 games of NHL experience in the past three seasons for just this reason).
 
For this reason alone, any trade that involves Bishop will most likely have to have a goaltender on both ends of the swap.
 
The Blues are playing well. The Rivermen are playing well. For a change to be made, some team is going to have to “wow” the Blues with a package deal.
 
Don’t expect that to happen.
  Contact the author: Shaun.Bill@ProHockeyNews.com .