The Boston Bruins knew they couldn’t go into next season with an unhappy Linus Ullmark serving as the backup goalie to their clear No. 1 in Jeremy Swayman, and they also knew that the Ottawa Senators were the only trade partner left standing after the Devils and Kings acquired goalies in trade.
So Don Sweeney made the best deal possible while getting a first-round pick (25th overall) back from Ottawa that they had originally traded away in the Tyler Bertuzzi deadline deal, a hard-hitting bottom-6 player in Mark Kastelic that Bruins are going to absolutely love and an experienced goalie in Joonas Korpisalo that could be a veteran backup to Swayman.
Some Bruins fans will be disappointed that Shane Pinto or Jakob Chychrun didn’t come back from Ottawa as part of the return, and certainly there are some that aren’t happy with Korpisalo as a salary cap dump that was probably necessary to make it a first-round pick rather than a second rounder coming back in return.
But the Ullmark trade is in the same neighborhood as the Jakob Markstrom deal with Jersey where the Flames also received a first-round pick and a useful roster piece in big defenseman Kevin Bahl, so the reasonable expectation was that the return for Ullmark would be around the same level as it turned out to be.
The bottom line: The Bruins have saved themselves more than $1 million in salary cap space while adding a first-round pick and a useful roster piece that seems to make a habit of getting into fights after blowing up opponents on the ice.
So they are better now than they were a day ago when they had a goalie situation that wasn’t going to work next season. They moved a player who wasn’t going to be happy returning to Boston as a backup netminder and wasn’t exactly easy to trade due to the fickle goalie trade market and his no-trade provision.
It’s undeniably good value that the Bruins received in exchange for Ullmark even if it’s less than some perhaps expected for a goaltender that had won the Vezina Trophy just a season ago. It didn’t turn out to be the perfect trade return or what some fantasy hockey GMs might have preferred for a goalie who brought so many strong performances to the Black and Gold over the last three seasons.
But it was more than good enough return to the Bruins for a deal that they had to make as they now turn their eyes to the NHL Draft with a shiny new first-round pick, and to the July 1 opening of NHL free agency where they can make an even bigger splash than they did with this Ullmark deal just hours before the Florida Panthers became Stanley Cup champions.
Will have much more tomorrow on this.