Report: Trade rumors around Linus Ullmark started before off-ice drama

Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons lately. Not only has the team struggled on the ice in his absence, but the organization is now dealing with a wave of negative noise off it as well.

Rumors surrounding the reason for Ullmark’s personal leave of absence, which began on Dec. 28, spread so widely on Thursday that general manager Steve Staios felt compelled to issue a statement through the team’s social media, pushing back strongly against the online speculation.

It’s not appropriate to get into the specifics of what was circulating on social media, though there’s no question that Staios’ comments only added fuel to the fire. As a result, Ullmark remains the No. 1 talking point around the hockey world, and on Friday, insider David Pagnotta revealed that the 2022–23 Vezina Trophy winner had already been popping up in trade chatter even before the latest controversy.

Pagnotta said:

“I had heard — and I didn’t just hear it this week, I heard this when he went on personal leave, even a little bit prior — that there’s been a little bit of tension with respect to his relationship with the club. I don’t know the specifics, but I had heard over the last few weeks, going into this personal leave, that maybe the relationship had been strained a little bit and needed some mending.

And then you know, his name starts to get out there a bit, he goes on personal leave, and even yesterday I was checking in with a couple of different clubs asking if they’d heard anything. The answer was yes — we’ve heard it, we don’t know how serious it is, but his name is starting to swirl around anyway,”

The 32-year-old Ullmark is in the first season of the four-year, $33 million extension he signed with the Senators upon being acquired in a trade from the Bruins in 2024. He’s posted a 14-8-5 record to go with a 2.95 goals-against average, a .881 save percentage and one shutout in 2025-26.

How does this impact Linus Ullmark's trade market?

If Staios and the Senators were quietly testing the market on Ullmark before Thursday’s chaos, it’s fair to wonder how much that situation has changed in the aftermath.