Ty Anderson reacts to the Bruins trading Linus Ullmark to the Senators and breaks down why the team taking back the contract of goalie Joonas Korpisalo in the deal makes no sense.
Linus Ullmark's career with the Boston Bruins is over.
The Bruins have traded the veteran goaltender to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Mark Kastelic, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and a 2024 first-round draft pick (25th overall), the team announced Monday night. The Senators also will retain 25 percent of Korpisalo's salary. He is signed through 2027-28 with a $4 million cap hit (now $3 million with salary retention).
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Kastelic is a physical forward at 6-foot-4 and 226 pounds. He tallied 10 points (five goals and five assists) in 63 games for the Senators this season.
Korpisalo was one of the league's worst goalies in 2023-24. He went 21-26-4 with a .890 save percentage and a 3.27 GAA. He had a bad team in front of him, but the numbers speak for themselves.
The 2024 first-round pick is a nice get for the Bruins. This pick originally was their own, but they traded it to the Detroit Red Wings as part of the Tyler Bertuzzi deal in 2023. The Red Wings eventually dealt it to the Senators as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade.
Ullmark signed with the Bruins as a free agent in the summer of 2021 and played very well for the Original Six franchise. He won the Vezina Trophy after a dominant 2022-23 campaign, and he posted a 22-10-7 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.58 GAA this past season.
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The Senators desperately needed to upgrade at the goaltender position after they had the second-worst save percentage and allowed the fifth-most goals as a team this season. Adding a goalie of Ullmark's caliber will give them a much better chance of returning to the playoffs in 2025.
The fact that the B's traded Ullmark is not a surprise. Jeremy Swayman became the clear-cut No. 1 goalie on the team after a spectacular run in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, during which he led the team to the second round. Swayman is a restricted free agent this offseason and due for a massive raise.
Ullmark has one more year left on his current contract with a $5 million salary cap hit. After trading him, the Bruins now have a little less than $24 million in salary cap space.
The Bruins can use this cap space to re-sign some of their own free agents and look for external additions in the trade and free agent markets. A top-six center and a proven goal scorer on the wing are the team's two most glaring roster issues to address this summer.
