PEORIA — Ben Bishop left the Peoria Rivermen as an NHLer years ago.
Now he’s coming back as a Hall of Famer.
The goaltender has been elected to the Rivermen Hall of Fame, and will be invited to attend an induction ceremony during the 2023-24 season at Carver Arena. Those details will be announced by the Rivermen later this season.
“This is such an honor for me,” Bishop said Monday. “The Rivermen are my beginning, the place where my path began in my pro career.
“I’ve never forgotten my time there, the teammates I had and the fans, the booster club and the community.
“I’m proud to be in that Hall of Fame.”
Bishop played five seasons for the Rivermen in the American Hockey League as a touted prospect for the NHL parent club St. Louis Blues. The 6-foot-7 goaltender — the tallest in the 42-year history of the Rivermen and matching the tallest ever to play in the NHL — appeared in 159 Rivermen games for Peoria, including one playoff outing. He compiled an 81-65-8 record (0-1 in the playoffs) with a career 2.59 goals-against and .910 saves rate and nine shutouts for the Rivermen.
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His best season for the Rivermen was his last, in 2011-12, when he won 24 games, with six shutouts a 2.26 goals-against and .928 saves rate.
During his time with Peoria, Bishop was called up to play 13 games for the Blues. St. Louis, which picked him in the third round of the 2005 NHL Enty Draft, traded him to Ottawa in July of 2012.
A wild debut and a fond farewell
Bishop played for former Rivermen captain Tony Curtale on NAHL championship team Texas Tornado in 2004-05.
He went on to play three years at NCAA Maine before coming to Peoria.
His home debut with the Rivermen — in his second pro game — saw him charge down the ice to join a brawl and fight former Rivermen goaltender Jason Bacashihua, who was playing for Lake Erie in that March 2008 game.
Bishop’s final line that night, in front of 8,000, was 17 saves, 1 win, 1 fight.
He wound up his Rivermen career with 81 wins — the third most in franchise history, behind Darrell May and Eric Levine.
On to the NHL
Bishop went on to play in 413 regular-season NHL games during a 14-year career with the Blues, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Dallas. He won 222 NHL games and had a career goals-against of 2.27 with a .927 saves rate. He added another 29 wins in the playoffs.
Bishop made the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, signed a six-year, $29.5 million contract with Dallas in 2017 and appeared in two Stanley Cup Finals.
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He went to the championship series with Tampa Bay in 2014-15, a six-game loss to Chicago. During that postseason he became just the third goaltender in NHL history to win two Game 7s by shutout in a playoff series.
He returned to the Finals in 2019-20 with Dallas.
Bishop was a three-time nominee for the Vezina Trophy.
He is the Dallas front office in 2023-24, serving as a player development coordinator.
Bishop is the fourth player from the Rivermen AHL era to gain the Hall of Fame, following Jean-Guy Trudel, Trent Whitfield and Chris Porter.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: How the Rivermen will add an AHL-era goaltender to their Hall of Fame
