When 6-foot-7 Ben Bishop was a teenager he was constantly being pestered by the basketball coach at his high school.

"The basketball coach was our gym coach, so he had a lot of talks with me. He would say, ‘Why don’t you come off the ice and come on the court’. And I said I couldn’t do that."

What Bishop could do was play goal. Unusually agile for such a big man Ben doesn’t leave much of the net exposed for opponents to shoot at.

"He’s a big man," said Rivermen head coach Davis Payne. "He leans over at the waist and he can barely back himself into the goal. And with that size comes a great deal of athleticism. He doesn’t look clumsy or clunky in there. He moves like you would not expect a guy whose 6-foot-7 to move."

Bishop has some extra motivation to make it to the NHL. He grew up in St. Louis following the Blues. And as a goalie at the University of Maine he got to play in a Frozen Four in his home town.

"That was really cool. I had a lot of friends and family there. It was hard for them to get all the way up to Maine to watch me play. Getting to play a big game like that on ESPN at home was pretty cool. It was a little nerve-racking, but once you step on the ice you don’t really think about it. It helped me in my first pre-season game because I had already played a pretty big game in St. Louis."

Bishop went to training camp with the Blues this year and played 5 games for the Rivermen at the end of last season. With a player of his stature in goal Peoria is hoping for a big season.