The Ottawa Senators badly need to upgrade their goaltending and, according to the Ottawa Citizen's Bruce Garrioch, have not relented in their pursuit of a Linus Ullmark trade with the Boston Bruins.
"While league sources told Postmedia earlier in the day the Senators had already had stepped up their efforts to acquire goaltender Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins, Ottawa may be the last serious team in the mix," Garrioch wrote in a story published Wednesday.
Garrioch later wrote: "League sources say the Senators have circled back to the Bruins to see if there’s a fit to acquire Ullmark to steady the club’s struggling net and those talks have intensified." He also noted that Senators president of hockey operations and general manager Steve Staios "has been making a hard push to try to acquire Ullmark."
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The Senators ranked 31st out of 32 teams with a .884 save percentage last season. They also ranked 28th in goals against. Ottawa was a trendy preseason pick to reach the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, but subpar goaltending decimated any chance the franchise might've had to accomplish that goal. As a result, the Senators finished with 78 points in seventh place in the Atlantic Division.
Ullmark is arguably the best goalie left for the Senators to target on the trade market. Wednesday was a busy day for goalie trades as the Calgary Flames dealt Jacob Markstrom to the New Jersey Devils and the Washington Capitals sent Darcy Kuemper to the Los Angeles Kings.
Trading Ullmark could free up as much as $5 million in salary cap space for the Bruins and allow rising star Jeremy Swayman to be the undisputed No. 1 goalie in Boston. Swayman was fantastic during the Bruins' 2024 playoff run, which ended with a Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers in the second round.
Ullmark has one more year left on his contract with a $5 million cap hit. He is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025. His current contract has a no-trade clause that allows him to veto a move to 15 teams, per CapFriendly.