With the addition of goaltender Ben Bishop on Tuesday, the Dallas Stars now have three goaltenders on their roster, who combined for a cap hit of $15.6 million this season.

The Stars will try to sign Bishop, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent in July, to a contract in the next month and then protect him from the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft. If the Stars can sign Bishop, they'll leave both Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi exposed to Golden Knights.

However, should the Golden Knights elect to select a different player (two ESPN writers sent defenceman Stephen Johns to Vegas in a March mock), the Stars will be on the have a combined cap hit of $10.4 million between Lehtonen and Niemi in addition to whatever Bishop is signed for.

On Tuesday, Bishop made it clear he expects to sign with the Stars and play next season.

"I don't want to get ahead of myself, because I know we have the negotiating process to go through, but I'm excited," Bishop said, per the Dallas Morning News. "I know the area down there, I graduated from Frisco High School, and I know how passionate the fans are there. I was just really excited to hear the news."

Mike Heika of the Dallas Morning News believes that if the Golden Knights pass on selecting a goaltender from the Stars, Dallas will likely look to trade or buy out Niemi. The 33-year-old netminder is signed through next season at a cap hit $4.5 million. A buyout would leave the Stars with a remaining cap hit of $1.5 million over the next two seasons.

The Stars signed Niemi to a three-year contract in June 2015 after acquiring his rights from the San Jose Sharks. He posted a .917 save percentage in five seasons with the Sharks, and a .910 save percentage with the Chicago Blackhawks prior to that, before joining the Stars. Since, however, he has posted a .900 save percentage in two seasons with the Stars and a career-low .892 mark with a 3.30 goals against average last season.

The 33-year-old also backstopped the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup in 2010.

Heika expects the Stars to hold on to Lehtonen, also signed for one more season at a more costly $5.9 million cap hit. Lehtonen signed a five-year contract extension with the Stars in 2012 but has struggled over the past three seasons.

He owns a .904 save percentage since the start of the 2014 season after posting a .918 save percentage over the previous four seasons with the Stars. He finished the 2016-17 season with a 22-25-7 record and a .902 save percentage with a 2.85 goals against average.

The Stars currently have $20.785 million in cap space for the 2017-18 season, according to CapFriendly. Heika notes that if Bishop is signed at a $6 million cap hit and Niemi is bought out, the Stars will have $12.5 million of the $73 million cap allocated to goaltending.