Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
The NHL goaltending business is a fickle one. In one market, you can win a Vezina Trophy as the world’s top netminder and be traded out of town a year later. In another, you can be plucked from another squad, see your workload rocket up and earn a long deal.
Those are the cases for former Boston Bruin and current Ottawa Senators goalie Linus Ullmark and current Seattle Kraken Joey Daccord, who both agreed to contract extensions on Wednesday.
For Ullmark, who won the Vezina in 2022-23, landing a contract extension shows the Sens’ need for stability in net for the first time since Craig Anderson played for them. And considering the four-year, $33-million deal he got out of Ottawa management, Ullmark shouldn’t lack confidence as he begins this season.
The new deal, which begins in the 2025-26 campaign, bumps his average annual salary from $5 million to $8.25 million. It shows, for better or worse, that Senators GM Steve Staios wasn’t shy about throwing out another contract after the disappointment that was the five-year, $20-million deal former GM Pierre Dorion gave to Joonas Korpisalo, the netminder Ullmark was traded for this summer.
Like Ullmark, the 30-year-old Korpisalo hadn’t played a game for the Senators when he was signed off the UFA market. And as we all know by now, Korpisalo was a bust in his only season with Ottawa, as he posted an .890 save percentage and 3.27 goals-against average in 55 appearances. The Senators were fortunate Boston took Korpisalo off their hands, as they were looking for an experienced backup to star No. 1 goalie Jeremy Swayman. And now, both Ullmark and Korpsialo are getting a fresh beginning with a new team.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, the 28-year-old Daccord landed a five-year, $25-million contract extension Wednesday despite playing only 69 regular-season games at the NHL level. The Senators left Daccord unprotected in the Kraken expansion draft, and Seattle’s big investment in him suggests it couldn’t have made a better choice at the time.
Daccord generated a career-best .916 SP and 2.46 GAA in 50 appearances last season with the Kraken, which is more than double the number of NHL games he played in the five seasons beforehand. His new deal puts the writing on the wall for presumptive Seattle starter Philipp Grubauer, who has never put up a save percentage better than .899 in any of his three seasons with the Kraken while carrying a $5.9-million annual salary.
That said, the 32-year-old Grubauer has this season and another two campaigns to play with Seattle, so beginning next year, the Kraken will be shelling out nearly $11 million for their goaltending. There could be a contract buyout down the line for Grubauer, but Kraken GM Ron Francis clearly wants Daccord to feel like his future is solidified with Seattle, and Daccord’s new contract delivers that message in an unmistakable way.
Both Ullmark and Daccord weren’t the NHL’s best at their positions this past season, but for teams that strongly needed consistently strong netminding, the two of them had enough leverage to demand hefty paydays from the Senators and Kraken, respectively. Time will tell whether the investment made in them was a savvy move or a mistake on management’s behalf, but for the moment, Daccord and Ullmark have had the team’s faith in them underscored.
You need to show your GM you’ve got the potential to thrive before they pour money into you as a key asset, and Ullmark and Daccord have done that. But it remains a significant gamble to throw big money and long term at your netminder, and there’s a real risk that one or both of these new deals could turn sour and cause buyer’s regret.
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