Report: Ullmark Could Net Bruins Chychrun, First Round Pick

Could goalie Linus Ullmark net the Boston Bruins a top 4 defenseman and a first round pick on the NHL trade market?

According to longtime NHL columnist and Ottawa Senators beat reporter Bruce Garrioch, the Senators were among the teams that pushed hard to acquire Ullmark heading into the 2024 NHL Trade market.

From Garrioch in a report on Thursday in the Ottawa Citizen:

‘After failing in a bid to acquire goaltender Linus Ullmark from the Boston Bruins at the National Hockey League trade deadline in March, Staios and the club’s hockey operations department are expected to make another pitch before the draft set for June 28-29 in Las Vegas.

The Senators, Los Angeles Kings, and New Jersey Devils were among several teams that made a push for the 30-year-old Ullmark before the deadline. The indications are Ullmark refused to change his 15-team no-trade list, which meant a possible deal to the Devils was scuttled.’

According to Garrioch, NHL insiders believe goalie Joonas Korpisalo was part of the NHL trade package the Senators offered the Bruins for Ullmark. However, the whole point of moving Ullmark was and still is not to have potentially $12 million tied up between the pipes. Ullmark, who will turn 31 on July 31, is entering the final season of a four-year, $20 million ($4M AAV) contract. Meanwhile, Korpisalo is entering the second season of a five-year, $20 million ($4M AAV) contract.

What was really interesting about this latest NHL trade rumor surrounding Linus Ullmark was an NHL executive source opining to Garrioch that the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner, who is now seemingly the Bruins’ backup goalie – or 1B at best – with the emergence of Jeremy Swayman as the starter in the team’s recent playoff run, could net the Bruins a longtime NHL trade target of theirs and potentially allow them to pick in the first round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft next month.

‘A league executive said Thursday he believes the Senators would likely have to offer defenceman Jakob Chychrun along with a first-round pick and another selection to acquire Ullmark. Even then, he has the hammer because he does have the modified no-trade clause.’

As reported here last offseason and prior to that, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has long coveted Jakob Chychrun on the NHL trade market. While he likely doesn’t want to trade Ullmark to a division rival, one would have to think that if Sweeney could secure the suggested return above, that won’t matter, and he will do whatever he can to convince Ullmark to waive his 15-team no-trade clause to go to the capital of Canada.

Sweeney touched on the Ullmark NHL trade rumors in the Bruins’ end-of-season press conference on Wednesday.

“Those things will take care of themselves,” Sweeney said. “No conversation I’m going to have with a player in terms of what we’re trying to do until we have to have a conversation is really going to go public. I hope you all respect that because ultimately that’s, as a player, a former player, I would hope would happen. We’re gonna find a landing spot with Jeremy Swayman, and if we can make the math work, we’re going to have the best tandem.  If we can’t, we’re going to explore, and for Linus [Ullmark], he may come to us and change his mind. That may occur as well.

Right now, we’re very happy to sign Linus [Ullmark], and in a perfect world, we would keep the tandem because I think it’s damn good. But we’re going to explore opportunities. My phone’s going to ring; I’m going to make calls. That’s just what the job requires. At times, unfortunately, things start to leak out. That’s your job, and you guys do a hell of a job of figuring those things out and piecing them together. Some guys are really wrong, but it doesn’t stop you from throwing it out there, and that’s okay. It’s good for the business overall. It’s good for hockey in terms of drawing attention and eyes to it. So I understand.”