What will Lightning do with Bishop and Vasilevskiy?

[BreadManPanarin]

Would love to get some opinions on this.

I LOVE the position Vasi is in right now because with Bish's contract ending next year and a high likelihood of expansion, the Lightning will have to choose between extending and protecting Bishop or letting Bishop go and protecting Vasi. This makes me think it is almost guaranteed that Vasi will either take over the Lightning crease in 2017-18 (great job to have!!) or grab a starting job on an expansion team (not as exciting, but still better than sitting behind Bishop).

If you are the Lightning do you extend and protect Bishop or ride with Vasi going forward? And if they expose Vasi is there any reasonable likelihood that he doesn't end up starting for an expansion team? I own both of them so however it shakes out will be very interesting to me.

My dream scenario is for the Lightning to let Bishop go and keep Vasi, and for Bishop to sign with Buffalo or Calgary, which would possibly give me two stud starters where I only had one. Anything can happen of course, but fingers crossed.

[JagrBomb]

let stamkos walk.
sign bishop to extension
keep Vas until they are pretty much forced to trade him, and hope to get a D with top 4 potential

[BreadManPanarin]

let stamkos walk.
sign bishop to extension
keep Vas until they are pretty much forced to trade him, and hope to get a D with top 4 potential

Interesting. I wouldn't mind that at all. Keeps Bish in place where he is performing at Vezina-worthy level and send Vasi somewhere (hopefully) better than an expansion team.

[Dikoi]

I gotta think they stick with Bishop, he's a proven starter. Vas is still all about potential only.

[Oakville Squires]

I think they would like to keep Bishop but may have to move him for cap reasons if the want to re-sign their core. Even if they don't re-sign Stamkos, Kucherov is up for a huge raise this offseason and next offseason they will have to re-up Hedman, Palat, Johson and Drouin. I just don't see how there is enough cap space for them to do that and also resign Bishop to a big contract.

I just noticed that Bishop has a NMC. This complicates things as Vasilevskiy would have to be exposed to an expansion draft if they don't move Bishop before the end of next season making it more likely they consider moving Vasilevskiy and finding a way to re-sign Bishop.

[havanablast21]

I think Vas will start his #1 goalie career with another team.

[Pit Bulls]

There seems to always be teams in need of a starting goaltender.

I would keep both, then trade one of them (depending on TB's cap situation and Vas' development) before they are forced to expose one to the expansion draft.

[BreadManPanarin]

I just noticed that Bishop has a NMC. This complicates things as Vasilevskiy would have to be exposed to an expansion draft if they don't move Bishop before the end of next season making it more likely they consider moving Vasilevskiy and finding a way to re-sign Bishop.

Isn't Bishop's NMC a moot point if the expansion draft is done in 2017-18 and Bish becomes a UFA after 2016-17 season? Unless they resign him, of course.

[Sherpa]

TB will keep Vas. Yzerman drafted this kid himself with high hopes.

If you really look back at the way TB structured their contracts, they had Bishop on an expiring UFA contract before this season. They also had a year until they have to sign Stamkos to an extension (though it's still very much in doubt if reality follows this through). Groom Vas for two years and he replaces Bishop and do it on an RFA contract. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Only Vas lost a season to injury and hasn't had enough time to develop into the starter role.

So the Plan's been turfed but the planner's still at the helm and I'd be shocked if he traded Vas out.

Also, if you have a goalie surplus to solve and it appears that quite a few teams may have this problem next year, maybe it's better to sell the goalie with the best track record. The market will be terrible so might as well maximize what you can get, right?

[Oakville Squires]

Isn't Bishop's NMC a moot point if the expansion draft is done in 2017-18 and Bish becomes a UFA after 2016-17 season? Unless they resign him, of course.

My understanding was that the lottery would happen before 2017 draft (likely sometime in mid-June) and since players with NMC's like Bishop do not officially become UFA's until July 1st that they would have to be included as a protected player for their respective teams. I hope I am wrong as for the Jets this means they would have to protect Enstrom (who is also a UFA after the 2016-17 season) along with Byfuglien and expose one of Myers or Trouba (or go with the 8 player protection option as opposed to 7 forward and 3 d).

[Goldendelicious]

Figure that Vas will be kept in the long term plan.

There will be a market for both goalies next season IF the NHL decides to go expansion in 2017/18 season. We'll know that next month. If no expansion is planned, then I could easily see TB retaining both.

[BreadManPanarin]

If no expansion is planned, then I could easily see TB retaining both.

This scenario would give me a sad face.

[Instant Karma]

Trade one of them to the Stars, hopefully...

[BreadManPanarin]

Trade one of them to the Stars, hopefully...

I could see that happening. Stars have Lehtonen under contract for $6mil/yr through the 2017-18 season and Niemi under contract for $4.5mil/year through 2017-18 season, but they could fit Vasi in there despite those contracts. Bishop probably not so much.

[Eskimo Brother]

I can't remember what thread this came up in two weeks ago, but we came to the consensus that a decision would be reached by the end of the 2017/18 season because that is when Bishop's contract is up.