Ty Anderson joins Mike Felger on Sports Sunday to discuss a possible Linus Ullmark trade, and why the Bruins should not trade Jeremy Swayman
This will be a busy week for the NHL.
It starts Monday night when the Edmonton Oilers look to make history against the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers trailed the series 3-0 but have battled all the way back to force a dramatic winner-take-all matchup.
After the Stanley Cup is awarded, the offseason should really pick up, beginning with the 2024 NHL Draft on Friday (first round) and Saturday (rounds two through seven).
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The trade market will be interesting to monitor as well, especially in regards to goaltenders. We saw two veteran goalies -- Jakob Markstrom (Flames to Devils) and Darcy Kuemper (Capitals to Kings) -- traded last week.
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Will Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins be the next notable netminder dealt? What does the goalie market look like after the two deals last week?
"I think it's put a lot of focus on Linus Ullmark, there's no question about that," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Sunday on NHL Network.
"Boston and Ottawa have been working on something. There's the challenge there of Ullmark's 14-team no-trade list, but there's also the challenge of an extension. Boston is hoping for a higher price than New Jersey paid for Markstrom. And the teams, including Ottawa, that are looking at this, they're kinda like, 'We're not interested in paying that price if it doesn't come with an extension.' So now the challenge becomes, can you find an extension that both Ullmark and a team like the Senators are happy with?"
It makes sense that the Senators, or any team with interest in Ullmark, would want him to sign an extension as part of the trade.
It would be foolish for these teams to pay a steep price to acquire Ullmark and then risk him leaving as an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025. He has just one more year left on his contract with a salary cap hit of $5 million.
The Senators badly need a goalie upgrade after ranking 31st in save percentage and 28th in goals allowed last season. Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy in 2022-23 and then posted a 22-10-7 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.58 GAA this past season.
The Devils sent a 2025 first-round pick and 23-year-old defenseman Kevin Bahl to the Flames in exchange for Markstrom. If Bruins general manager Don Sweeney could get something similar for Ullmark, that would be a win for the Original Six club.
