Skating between juniors Nicolas Roy and Julien Gauthier on the Carolina Hurricanes, Bishop played against the Washington Capitals Monday night at the Verizon Centre in D.C.
He sat out Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but is expected to dress in a rematch tonight against the Lightning in Raleigh, N.C.
This is Bishop’s third training camp with the Hurricanes after Carolina plucked him in the fifth round, 127th overall, in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. But it’s different this time around, mainly because the 20-year-old from St. John’s is set to turn pro after four years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Not to mention the fact he’s hanging around camp, as opposed to being one of the first cuts and dispatched back to junior.
“It was a surreal moment,” he said of Monday’s game in Washington. “Not many hockey players can check that off their list.”
The pace of play, of course, was much quicker that what Bishop had been accustomed to the past four years with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. But given the fact skating is one of his assets, the 6-0, 190-pound pivot felt he adjusted well to the speed of the game.
Hockey players often claim that as they move up a level, from junior to minor pro and eventually the NHL, the game gets a little easier because the players are better.
“Definitely,” Bishop said, “the game is more controlled.
“And you find that even in practice. The guys know where they should be on the ice, and they’re always in the right position to give and receive passes. There’s no running around.”
Bishop signed a three-year entry level deal with Carolina last spring, a contract that will pay him $575,000 next season, $650,000 in 2017-18 and $650,000 in 2018-19, or $65,000 per year in the American Hockey League. As well, the contract, worked out by Don Meehan's Newport Sports Management, called for a $210,000 signing bonus. All figures are in U.S. dollars.
“I’m signed and ready to make the jump (from junior to pro),” he said. “To be sitting in an NHL dressing room next to Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk is pretty surreal … pretty cool.”
Bishop will eventually be reassigned to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers where he hopes to be relatively healthy this season.
He’s endured his share of injuries in junior, starting in 2013-14 when a finger ailment forced him to miss 12 games. He sat on the sidelines for much of January and February of the 2014-15 campaign — when he was named the Screaming Eagles' captain — with a high ankle sprain, and was scratched for 18 games last season with a skate cut to the back of his leg and a nagging hamstring injury.
He’s also missed five of Cape Breton’s first six games in the playoffs last spring with an unrelated lower body injury.
Skating between juniors Nicolas Roy and Julien Gauthier on the Carolina Hurricanes, Bishop played against the Washington Capitals Monday night at the Verizon Centre in D.C.
He sat out Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but is expected to dress in a rematch tonight against the Lightning in Raleigh, N.C.
This is Bishop’s third training camp with the Hurricanes after Carolina plucked him in the fifth round, 127th overall, in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. But it’s different this time around, mainly because the 20-year-old from St. John’s is set to turn pro after four years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Not to mention the fact he’s hanging around camp, as opposed to being one of the first cuts and dispatched back to junior.
“It was a surreal moment,” he said of Monday’s game in Washington. “Not many hockey players can check that off their list.”
The pace of play, of course, was much quicker that what Bishop had been accustomed to the past four years with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. But given the fact skating is one of his assets, the 6-0, 190-pound pivot felt he adjusted well to the speed of the game.
Hockey players often claim that as they move up a level, from junior to minor pro and eventually the NHL, the game gets a little easier because the players are better.
“Definitely,” Bishop said, “the game is more controlled.
“And you find that even in practice. The guys know where they should be on the ice, and they’re always in the right position to give and receive passes. There’s no running around.”
Bishop signed a three-year entry level deal with Carolina last spring, a contract that will pay him $575,000 next season, $650,000 in 2017-18 and $650,000 in 2018-19, or $65,000 per year in the American Hockey League. As well, the contract, worked out by Don Meehan's Newport Sports Management, called for a $210,000 signing bonus. All figures are in U.S. dollars.
“I’m signed and ready to make the jump (from junior to pro),” he said. “To be sitting in an NHL dressing room next to Jordan Staal and Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk is pretty surreal … pretty cool.”
Bishop will eventually be reassigned to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers where he hopes to be relatively healthy this season.
He’s endured his share of injuries in junior, starting in 2013-14 when a finger ailment forced him to miss 12 games. He sat on the sidelines for much of January and February of the 2014-15 campaign — when he was named the Screaming Eagles' captain — with a high ankle sprain, and was scratched for 18 games last season with a skate cut to the back of his leg and a nagging hamstring injury.
He’s also missed five of Cape Breton’s first six games in the playoffs last spring with an unrelated lower body injury.
