Quoting: TheMooterus
Bishop has his NMC so he's not going anywhere.
Sorry to jump in here, but I'm fascinated with rebuilding/retooling teams. Years of punishment as an Oiler fan I guess.
I partially disagree on this given that the NMC probably exists more for waivers than it does a trade, given that his M-NTC has kicked in. I fully believe there's an intersection in where Bishop wants to go and a team that would be willing to take him on, possibly with modest retention: Bishop has a very low actual cash-dollars owed to him over the next two seasons. If the Stars were to agree to pay his upcoming signing bonus, retain a percentage of his salary, and then trade him, I think the market opens up substantially.
I think his having taken the year off to get healthy helps in this regard. Despite the injuries, his past 3 seasons of work are very encouraging. Nill's due diligence comes in finding that aforementioned intersection, and I'm half-tempted to think that Arizona could make the cut (I'm assuming his NTC applies to the bottom-10 teams in the league, of which Arizona is coincidentally not one of them anymore), especially if they lose Hill during expansion. A retained Bishop could come cheaper than Raanta. Chicago might be an option too if Bishop thinks that they're closer to being a playoff team than not.
Khudobin's new contract makes moving him look suspicious in the eyes of prospective free agents. Not something I'd rush to do. I think an Oettenger-Khudobin pairing probably works fine over the next two seasons if that's the retool window.
Would I be correct in identifying Pavelski and Klingberg as the two big pieces the Stars would look to flip at next year's deadline in order to fuel this retool?