On the final day of the NHL season, the Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins made a deal that sent Linus Ullmark to Ottawa in exchange for Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic and a first-round pick (25th overall).
Similar to his counterpart in Los Angeles, Senators General Manager Steve Staios wanted to get out of a mistake and upgrade the goalie position. The Senators ranked dead last in save percentage last season.
NHL Trade: Boston Boston Trade Linus Ullmark to Ottawa Senators
Ever since the Senators traded Filip Gustavsson away, the goalie position has been a revolving door, with Matt Murray, Anton Forsberg, and now Korpisalo.
Staios did a brilliant job of sending Korpisalo to Boston and retaining 25 percent of Korpisalo’s remaining salary as part of the deal. The Bruins must pay Korpisalo $3 million over the next four years.
While it may look good on paper, and Korpisalo will be the backup, the Bruins owe Jeremy Swayman an extension. The reports are that Swayman’s new contract will be an eight-year extension worth around $8 million to $8.5 million. That’s $11 million the Bruins are spending on goalies.
Back to Ottawa. Let’s face it: If the Ottawa Senators want to make the playoffs, they need a goaltender, not to mention a timely save.
And to give up a guy they did not want in Korpisalo, a fourth-line player in Kastelic, and a first-round and get a Vezina Trophy-winning goalie was impressive by Steve Staios.
Along with the goaltending, the Senators need a better start to their season. Adding Ullmark will help them with that, but they need to play better defensively in front of their new goaltender. There are holes to fill there, but not paying 100 percent for Korpisalo is a win for Steve Staios.
This is a step in the right direction for the Ottawa Senators. Their defensive play improved last season, but not getting a big save at the right time was demoralizing to the players on the ice. So now they have sure up that position.
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The next item for Staios regarding Ullmark is signing him to an extension. During his media availability, Ullmark stated, “There has been no extension discussion. He wants to find a place to live first and acclimate to the area. The contract is something that Steve and my agent will deal with off the ice.”
As it stands right now, Ullmark is just playing out the year with the Senators.
On the Boston side of things, outside of the contract, the Bruins did get a good fourth-line player in Mark Kastelic. With his size and physical play, he is a prototypical Bruin. He may not score much, but he brings the Bruins center depth. But the biggest thing Boston got out of this was a first-round pick.
Again, it is easy to look at things right now and say Ottawa won, but what if Korpisalo turns his game around in Boston goalie coach Bob Essensa? What does that say about the goalie coach in Ottawa? That is for another discussion.
But right now, the Senators have addressed their most significant need between the pipes and getting the W in the win column until it is proven otherwise.
