NHL trade qualities: Senators get Linus Ullmark from Bruins for Joonas Korpisalo

The trade

Get senators: Goalkeeper Linus Ullmark

Bruins gets: Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo (Senators keep 25 percent of salary), center Mark Kastelic, first-round pick (No. 25) in 2024.

GO DEEPER

Bruins trade Linus Ullmark to Senators for 2024 first-round pick Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic

The Bruins probably not want to to continue by Linus Ullmark. He was an elite 1A in 2022-2023 when he saved 38 goals above expectations in 49 games en route to a Vezina trophy. He was a great 1B for Jeremy Swayman this past season.

But the fact is, Swayman is the future of the Bruins, not Ullmark, and the rest of the league knew it. Swayman’s excellent regular season and postseason confirmed this. With Ullmark’s contract set to expire in 2025, the clock was ticking to make this move.

So Boston lost some influence. And Ullmark’s control of the situation created another hurdle: He had a list of 15 teams not trading, which limited the Bruins’ options. If the idea had been to include a contract extension in the trade, their options would have shrunk even further.

But at the end of the day, the 25th pick in Friday’s NHL Draft, Mark Kastelic and Joonas Korpisalo combined don’t nearly match the value Ullmark brings to a lineup. And none of these pieces address Boston’s most pressing needs in advance.

Maybe the 25th pick can be flipped. Perhaps Korpisalo could be useful behind Swayman; the Bruins’ defense is much closer to the Kings, who he thrived behind, than Ottawa’s. Or perhaps he could be turned around again, with another portion of his salary being withheld. Maybe Boston will just buy him out.

But maybe shouldn’t be good enough for a team’s most important asset and one of the best goalies on the market, even if all leverage considerations are kept in mind and there is no contract extension.

On the other hand, the Senators are a pretty perfect landing spot for Ullmark. Ottawa had one of the league’s weakest losses last season, with Korpisalo, Anton Forsberg and Mads Sogaard combining to score 26.7 goals above expectations. They were a top team that could acquire a goaltender this summer if they could terminate Korpisalo’s contract, which turned out to be an unmitigated disaster in Year 1.

Getting Korpisalo out and bringing back Ullmark all at once is a huge win. The Senators need two things this summer: difference makers to help push them over the hump as quickly as possible, and stability in goal. Ullmark should accomplish both. The only question is how he will fare behind the Senators defense, as the Bruins have been a very solid defensive team for him the past two years. But it’s a gamble worth making considering what they were working with before the trade.

Would it help to arrange a contract extension? Certainly. But it also doesn’t hurt that the Senators aren’t overcommitting to another big contract after abandoning a contract that could have sunk them.

The cost is also nothing to brag about for Ottawa, even if Korpisalo keeps the 25 percent salary. The Senators have spent years collecting draft picks and strengthening their prospect pipeline. Moving up from the 25th pick is fine for a team that still has the seventh pick, which has a much better chance of providing value in the near future.

Bruins class: C
Senator rank: A

(Photo by Linus Ullmark: Bob DeChiara/USA Today)