Sabres acquire goalie Ben Bishop from Stars in salary cap-related move

The Buffalo Sabres acquired goalie Ben Bishop in a trade with the Dallas Stars on Friday in a salary cap-related paperwork move involving a veteran who is not expected to play again because of a degenerative right knee injury.

The Sabres add the final year of Bishop's contract, which represents nearly a $5 million cap hit to boost their payroll closer to the NHL's $60 million minimum. Buffalo, which also acquired a seventh-round pick in next month's draft, was projected to be nearly $20 million under the cap floor before acquiring Bishop.

There is no anticipation the 35-year-old Bishop will resume playing.

Without saying he's retiring, Bishop announced his career was over in December following a 2 1/2-year saga in dealing with the injury. The decision came after the three-time Vezina Trophy finalist gave up eight goals in a minor-league rehab stint only to have his knee swell up again.

The injury first developed during a seven-game second-round series loss to St. Louis in the 2019 playoffs, which led to him having surgery to repair a torn meniscus. The pain persisted the next year with follow-up surgery revealing the cartilage in his knee had all but worn away.

Bishop hasn't played an NHL game since allowing four goals on 19 shots in a 6-3 loss to Colorado in the second-round of the 2020 playoffs.

Overall, Bishop has a 222-128-36 record split between five teams over 11 seasons beginning with St. Louis in 2008-09. He also played for Ottawa, Tampa Bay and Los Angeles.

In 2015-16 with the Lightning, Bishop led the NHL with a 2.06 goals-against average.

At 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds, Bishop was the NHL's tallest goalie and selected by the Blues in the third round of the 2005 draft.