Bruins trade Linus Ullmark to Ottawa Senators for 2024 1st-round pick, 2 players
Linus Ullmark formed one of the best goalie tandems in the NHL alongside Jeremy Swayman over the last few years.
The goalie hug is no more in Boston.
The Bruins traded netminder Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators on Monday evening, with Boston getting back the 25th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, forward Mark Kastelic, and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo.
Ottawa will retain 25% of Korpisalo’s salary, with the 30-year-old netminder currently under contract through the 2027-28 season. With the Senators retaining money on the deal, Korpisalo will account for a $3 million annual cap hit moving forward for Boston.
There is no extension currently in place between Ullmark — a free agent in 2025 — and the Senators, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. That lack of a long-term deal might have hindered some of the return that the Bruins were hoping to secure for a goalie who has a Vezina Trophy on his resume.
Signed as a free agent during the 2021 offseason, Ullmark developed into one of the best goalies in the NHL over his three seasons in Boston. In his 130 career games with the Bruins, Ullmark went 88-26-10 with a .924 save percentage and five shutouts — taking home the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie.
Together with Jeremy Swayman, Ullmark helped form arguably the league’s best goalie tandem. But with Swayman due a hefty new contract this offseason — coupled with his stellar play in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs — the writing was on the wall that Ullmark’s time in Boston was coming to a close
Even though Ullmark largely split reps with Swayman throughout the 2023-24 regular season, he ultimately only started one of Boston’s 13 playoff games this spring — with Swayman’s performance against both Toronto and Florida keeping him between the pipes for most of that run.
“This is the thing about playing professional sports, one of the hardest things is to be off to the side, because you want the team to succeed, but you want it to succeed with you as well,” Ullmark said of his limited reps during the playoffs during his last media availability with the Bruins. “So it’s definitely one of the hardest things, but I wasn’t alone in it.
“Obviously there’s other guys that wanted to play as well. I thought that having the support system that I have and also having the conversations that I had with people around it… I felt that I did what I could, I did what needed to be done, I tried to carry myself very professionally and support every single one of my fellow teammates throughout this stretch.”
While Ullmark might have been viewed as a luxury on the Bruins in 2024-25 when factoring in Swayman’s next deal, the return for Boston on Monday does raise a few eyebrows — namely with Korpisalo.
Boston did manage to get back into the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft by plucking that No. 25 overall pick from Ottawa — allowing the Bruins to add an intriguing prospect to their pipeline of young talent.
That No. 25 pick is actually Boston’s own first-round pick, which has traded hands over the last few seasons. Boston’s first-round pick was first acquired by the Red Wings in the trade involving Tyler Bertuzzi in March 2023, but Detroit shipped it to the Senators as part of the Alex DeBrincat deal four months later.
Kastelic, 25, appeared in 63 games during the 2023-24 season with Ottawa, recording five points and five assists for 10 points. He should add some heft to Boston’s bottom-six unit, with the 6-foot-3 forward ranking third in penalty minutes (63) and fourth in hits (126) for Ottawa last season.
But Korpisalo — even with a reduced cap hit — is a puzzling add for Boston. One of the primary perks for Boston moving Ullmark was going to be the additional cap savings, allowing Boston to further address other deficiencies on the roster.
But instead of freeing up $5 million by moving Ullmark’s contract off the books, it’s now only $2 million with Korpisalo in place.
And even though Korpisalo could be lined up as Swayman’s backup moving forward, the Bruins did have a cheaper alternative in Brandon Bussi — or a free-agent netminder available for a better price.
Korpisalo was one of the worst goalies in the NHL last season, sporting an .890 save percentage over 55 games with the Senators.
