Andrew Fantucchio of Boston Hockey Now writes that in his opinion the Boston Bruins have no reason to be in a hurry to trade goaltender Linus Ullmark as he has one year left on his deal and the Bruins could conceivably keep the netminder for the remainder of his deal. Ullmark has a lot of contractual control over where he is traded and could nix trades to nearly half of the league.
Goaltenders have been traded in recent years for a minimal return, including recent Vezina Trophy winners. However, as Fantucchio writes, the Ullmark situation is different than that of Marc-Andre Fleury who was dealt in July 2021 in what amounted to a salary cap dump. Fantucchio theorizes that if the Bruins are patient with the Ullmark trade it could drive up the asking price as teams might become desperate for goaltending as the market dries up.
In other morning notes:
- It appears that Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros is prepared to let the goaltender market develop before signing his next deal. Jonathan Bailey of Nashville Hockey Now writes that Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet made his weekly appearance on 102.5 The Game on the Caroline, Willy, and D-Mase show to discuss the future of the Predators netminder. On the show, Friedman said that Saros is willing to see what kind of a contract New York Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin signs before he signs a new contract. Shesterkin figures to sign the richest goalie contract ever, and while Saros won’t reach the same kind of money, he can likely command a large percentage of that.
- Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that he doesn’t think the Pittsburgh Penguins will offer restricted free agent Emil Bemstrom a contract before the June 25th deadline to submit a qualifying offer. Bemstrom was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets and struggled to carve out a role in Pittsburgh despite the Penguins having a very poor bottom-six forward group. The 25-year-old is due a $945K qualifying offer and given the Penguins’ shortcomings it would be reckless to allocate that kind of cap space on a player that would be a 13th forward.
Andrew Fantucchio of Boston Hockey Now realizes the Bruins need Ullmark’s cap space to upgrade their center position, right? And for that reason there is, in fact, some urgency as to when they trade him?
Also, Bemstrom was useless. I might not bring him back even if his cap hit were 0.
They have 29m in cap space right now that’s enough to get you a center and a Bertuzzi type the next blu contract they need to worry about is Swayman’s they’ve already stated they are not bringing any of their FA players back unless DeBrusk he’s willing to take a team friendly contract so ya they have plenty of time to hold and wait for the right deal
They need to fill 8 or so roster spots, not two, with that money.
Ullmark is a luxury.
The Bruins have been spinning their wheels for years now with very good, but improperly constructed and balanced lineups…if they want to waste another year because extracting absolute full value in a trade for a backup goalie is more important than winning…so be it. Enjoy.
Ullmark to Pens