Grading the Linus Ullmark trade: Senators stage a coup, Bruins faceplant

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Grading the Linus Ullmark trade: Senators stage a coup, Bruins faceplant
Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Less than an hour before arguably the biggest game of the last decade, the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins decided to crash the party.

At approximately 7:45 p.m. ET on Monday, the two teams officially announced one of the biggest trades of the summer to date. Linus Ullmark is an Ottawa Senator; Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic, and the 25th pick in this year’s draft now belong to Boston.

Everyone had their fun talking about the trade in the moment, although it was quickly forgotten once Game 7 began. But now that a new day has arrived, it’s time to turn our attention back to a deal that could have an enormous impact on the Atlantic Division standings next season.

You know what this means. It’s time for another edition of Daily Faceoff‘s Trade Grades!

OTTAWA SENATORS

Receive:

G Linus Ullmark, 30 – $5 million cap hit through 2025

The Senators have a few things to address this offseason. Jakob Chychrun is just one year away from unrestricted free agency, Shane Pinto needs a new contract, and Mathieu Joseph is rumored to be on the trade block. But, without a doubt, the No. 1 priority for newly-minted Sens GM Steve Staios entering the summer was to find an upgrade in goal, and he did just that on Monday.

Ullmark is one year removed from winning the Vezina Trophy as the best goaltender in the entire National Hockey League. He has posted a save percentage of at least .915 in each of the last five seasons, including two behind a porous Buffalo Sabres defensive group. His career save percentage is a sparkling .918, which is 17 points higher than that of the guy the Senators sent the other way in this deal. There weren’t many better targets than Ullmark on the market this summer.

No, Ullmark isn’t a perfect goaltender by any means — but who is? If he wants to cement himself as a bona fide elite goalie in this league, Ullmark will need to prove he can manage a starter’s workload. Owing to his tandem role alongside Jeremy Swayman in Boston, Ullmark has yet to play in 50 or more games in a single season. He’s also appeared in just 10 postseason games in his entire NHL career (with spotty results) and watched the vast majority of Boston’s 2024 playoff run from the bench.

The Sens are looking to end a seven-year playoff drought. Ullmark will be asked to form a tandem with fellow Swede Anton Forsberg next season behind what should end up being a significantly reshaped Ottawa defensive group. It’ll take a lot of effort for the Sens to become even three-quarters as strong and structured on defense as the Bruins have been, but Ullmark proved in his later years in Buffalo that he’s more than capable of posting good results in less than ideal circumstances.

Ullmark will need a new contract after this forthcoming season. It’s a good sign that he agreed to go to Ottawa at all — his contract includes a 16-team no-trade list — but it remains to be seen whether the Senators will be able to retain Ullmark’s services beyond 2025. If they’re successful on that front, feel free to tack a plus sign onto the letter below.

Grade: A

BOSTON BRUINS

Receive:

G Joonas Korpisalo, 30 – $3 million cap hit (25% retained, down from $4 million) through 2028
C Mark Kastelic, 25 – $835,000 cap hit through 2025
2024 first-round pick (No. 25 overall)

Boy, this is a tough one. Less than a week after the Calgary Flames traded Jacob Markstrom — who, mind you, has a full no-movement clause — to New Jersey for a first-rounder and defenseman Kevin Bahl, the Bruins traded a younger goaltender in Ullmark with better numbers, far less trade protection, and a Vezina Trophy win to his name for a demonstrably worse return.

While, yes, the Bruins did receive a first-round pick in this trade — their own 2024 pick, coincidentally — they had to take on the final four years of Joonas Korpisalo’s contract to get it. The Senators were kind enough to retain a quarter of Korpisalo’s cap hit, but that doesn’t change the fact that Boston now has the goaltender who saved the fewest goals above expected in 2023-24 (per Evolving-Hockey) on their payroll at a relatively hefty $3 million cap charge until 2028.

As mentioned, Ullmark has posted at least a .915 save percentage in five consecutive seasons. Korpisalo hasn’t reached that mark in the last eight. He’s posted some of the worst numbers in the league in three of the last four seasons, with the lone exception being 2022-23, in which he went 18-14-4 with a .914 in 39 games split between the Columbus Blue Jackets and L.A. Kings. His save percentages in the other three years of that four-year stretch? .894, .877, and .890. Yeesh.

Considering the term remaining on Korpisalo’s deal — and the extent to which he hampered Ottawa’s attempts at competing for a playoff spot last year — it feels like the Senators should’ve needed to attach a first-round pick just to move him. Even with the caveat that buying out Korpisalo would cost relatively little, it boggles the mind that Boston took him off Ottawa’s hands seemingly without any additional compensation.

Was the market for Ullmark really that thin? Were there no offers out there that involved a first-round pick without the Bruins needing to take on a heavily problematic contract? It just feels like a bizarre misstep on Boston’s part to move someone like Ullmark for a return in which the value of a first-round pick is essentially negated by the inclusion of a deal like Korpisalo’s. When the Arizona Coyotes traded the final year of Darcy Kuemper‘s contract to the Colorado Avalanche three years ago, they didn’t have to take on any bad money to extract a first-rounder, and neither did Calgary in the Markstrom trade.

Is there a chance Korpisalo rebounds in Boston’s system? Yes, for sure — but the Bruins receiving any value at all in this trade shouldn’t be contingent on such a risk. If Korpisalo doesn’t bounce back, they’ve essentially given away Ullmark for free. Even with the cap going up, space remains at a premium in this league (especially for top teams), and Boston didn’t create much at all in this deal — if anything, they may have tied themselves to an anchor. A late first-round pick and a fourth-line center in Kastelic aren’t enough to make up for that.

Grade: D

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