Bruins trade Ullmark to Senators for 2024 first-round pick, two players originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
Linus Ullmark’s career with the Boston Bruins is over.
The Bruins traded the veteran goaltender to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for forward Mark Kastelic, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and a 2024 first-round draft pick (25th overall), the team announced Monday night. The senators will also retain 25% of Korpisalo’s salary. He is signed through 2027-28 with a $4 million cap hit (now $3 million with salary retention).
Kastelic is a physical forward at 6-foot-10 and 226 pounds. He scored 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 63 games for the Senators this season.
Korpisalo was one of the league’s worst goaltenders in 2023-24. He went 21-26-4 with an .890 save percentage and a 3.27 GAA. He had a terrible team in front of him, but the numbers speak for themselves.
The 2024 first-round pick is a good fit for the Bruins. This pick was originally theirs, but they traded it to the Detroit Red Wings as part of the 2023 Tyler Bertuzzi deal. The Red Wings eventually traded it to the Senators as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade.
Ullmark signed with the Bruins as a free agent in the summer of 2021 and has played very well for the Original Six franchise. He won the Vezina Trophy after a dominant 2022-23 campaignand he posted a 22-10-7 record with a .915 save percentage and a 2.58 GAA last season.
The Senators desperately needed to improve their goaltending position after having the second-worst save percentage and allowing the fifth-most goals as a team this season. Adding a goaltender of Ullmark’s caliber will give them a much better chance of returning to the playoffs in 2025.
The fact that Ullmark was traded at B is not a surprise. Jeremy Swayman became the team’s number 1 goalie after a spectacular run in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, during which he took the team to the second round. Swayman is a restricted free agent this offseason and is expected to receive a large raise.
Ullmark still has one year left on his current contract, with a $5 million salary cap hit. After trading him, the Bruins we now have just under $24 million in salary cap space.
The Bruins could use this cap space to re-sign some of their own free agents and look for outside additions on the trade and free agent markets. A top-six center and a proven goalscorer on the wing are the team’s two most glaring roster problems to resolve this summer.
