Senators Upping Efforts To Land Linus Ullmark
With Jacob Markstrom now in New Jersey, the Senators have stepped up their efforts to acquire Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Ullmark saw his numbers drop this year compared to his Vezina-winning 2022-23 campaign but he still posted a solid 2.57 GAA with a .915 SV% in 40 games. Those numbers would represent a significant improvement on the 3.30 and .888 that Ottawa put up as a team in 2023-24. Ullmark has one year left on his contract with a $5MM price tag and it’s worth noting that he has a 16-team no-trade clause so he does have some say in where he could ultimately be moved.
Meanwhile, Garrioch adds that the Bruins don’t have interest in taking back the final four years of Joonas Korpisalo’s contract as expected. However, with Anton Forsberg ($2.75MM) set to enter the final year of his deal next season, Boston could be amenable to taking him back, allowing the Senators to reduce the additional salary they’re taking on. That said, Garrioch notes that there is still work to be done before this possible swap has a chance of reaching the finish line.
Bruins Won't Re-Sign Oskar Steen
The Bruins won’t re-sign pending Group VI unrestricted free agent Oskar Steen, his agent Joakim Persson told Värmlands Folkblad’s Johan Ekberg. Steen, 26, isn’t eligible for standard UFA status until 2025 but hits the open market early with less than 80 NHL games played and three or more professional seasons accumulated.
A sixth-round pick of the Bruins in 2016, Steen played in a career-high 34 games this season but managed just one goal on 24 shots. He averaged 9:04 per game and had poor possession metrics, although he was disproportionately deployed in defensive zone usage.
He ends his Bruins career with four goals and eight points in 60 games over the last four years. While he may not have turned into a regular contributor, getting even brief NHL action out of a late-round pick is good value.
The Karlstad, Sweden native, had 12 goals in 25 AHL games this year as well and will look to land a two-way contract with another club next month. Persson indicated that the Bruins have given him permission to seek other NHL fits for Steen, and it doesn’t appear he’ll be heading overseas.
Offseason Checklist: Boston Bruins
The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs. For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Boston.
There were some question marks surrounding the Bruins heading into the season after they lost both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. However, they nearly won the Atlantic Division once again to bring their playoff streak to eight straight years. Boston got past Toronto in the opening round before falling to Florida in the second round. Armed with cap and roster flexibility for the first time in a while, GM Don Sweeney has a chance to reshape the roster or to keep the bulk of the core together. Here’s what should be on their to-do list in the coming weeks.
Add Impact Center
After losing their top two middlemen from the year before, the Bruins didn’t do a whole lot to replace them. Morgan Geekie came over after being non-tendered by Seattle while John Beecher and Matthew Poitras came up from the minors and the OHL respectively to largely fill the other vacancy. In the meantime, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha covered the tough minutes. All things considered, they cobbled together a solution relatively well given their cap constraints.
Now they don’t have those constraints; they have over $21MM in cap room, per CapFriendly. They now have an opportunity – and a need – to try to address that. While their internal options fared well, they’re not a group of middlemen that a contender typically has.
There aren’t any true number one options on the open market this summer but there are some proven second options that can at least give them some more impactful depth. They were speculatively linked to Elias Lindholm last summer and it stands to reason they’ll have interest in someone who can cover the hard two-way minutes like Bergeron used to.
Among the secondary options are Chandler Stephenson, Sean Monahan, and Matt Duchene. All three have had success on the second line recently and have some upside at the offensive end. They might not produce more than the 60 and 59 points that Coyle and Zacha put up but a third middleman in that range would lengthen their offense and hedge against some injuries.
In theory, they could try to trade for a center but given the dearth of trade assets they have (a byproduct of going for it regularly), it’s hard to see them putting together a package that could land a top-six piece so turning to free agency should be the way they go.
Goalie Decisions
For the last couple of years, the Bruins have had a high-end goalie tandem between Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, allowing them to have starting-level goaltending on a nightly basis. However, it’s about to become a luxury that’s too expensive for them to afford.
Swayman and the Bruins couldn’t agree on a contract last season, resulting in the two sides going to arbitration where he was awarded $3.475MM. Now, with another strong campaign under his belt, Swayman’s camp has a much better case this time around and will be heading for another big raise. Another one-year deal would push past the $5MM mark but it’s evident that both sides will want to get a longer-term agreement done this time around. A deal that buys multiple years of club control should cost at least $6MM while a max-term agreement probably pushes past $7MM, doubling his price from this season.
With that type of commitment to Swayman, Ullmark becomes a very expensive second option with one year and $5MM left on his deal. While they have enough cap room to carry both, that’s not necessarily the best use of their cap space with the other spots they’ll be looking to fill on their roster. That means they’ll be turning to the trade market as they had looked to back at the trade deadline when Ullmark is believed to have nixed a trade with his partial protection.
Ullmark will still have the ability to block a trade to nearly half the league this summer so it’s not a given that something will get done with Boston’s preferred option. It’s unfortunate for them that Ullmark will be in the market at a time where he’s not likely to be viewed as the number one option available and, in general, goalies don’t typically yield high-end returns too frequently. But they should find the best offer they can get in the next couple of weeks to get this taken care of before free agency opens up as they’ll then know if they were able to fill a need with the swap or, if it’s a futures-based package, if they’ll have other assets to trade to fill one of those needs.
Sweeney will also have to decide if they’ll go with rookie Brandon Bussi as the second-string option behind Swayman next season or if they want to bring in a more experienced veteran. If they don’t get a veteran to serve as the backup in the NHL, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them go after a veteran third-stringer to partner with Michael DiPietro in the minors.
Re-Sign Or Replace DeBrusk
Jake DeBrusk’s future with the Bruins has been murky for several years, going back to his trade request, extension, and the eventual rescinding of that request. But even after that time, his name was floated out as potential salary-matching ballast in hypothetical scenarios where Boston was landing a more impactful winger or help down the middle.
One way or the other, the uncertainty is coming to an end over the next couple of weeks. DeBrusk is now a pending unrestricted free agent and is one of the younger players to hit the open market next month. Accordingly, the time has come for the Bruins to decide if he’s part of their future plans which would require a long-term commitment and remove him from any trade speculation. Alternatively, he’ll be parting ways in early July and Sweeney will be on the lookout for a replacement.
The 27-year-old has reached the 40-point mark five times in his seven-year career but has only hit the 50-point plateau once back in 2022-23. Still, he’s in line for a sizable raise from the $4MM he made over the past two seasons. A long-term agreement could conceivably push past $6MM if the open market is as strong as some are making it out to be. Boston has the money to pay that if they want or they could take that offer and look at some other options on the open market.
There are a few wingers who should check in around that price point in free agency. Tyler Toffoli, Vladimir Tarasenko, and David Perron are shorter-term options if they don’t want to make a long-term commitment at that spot while Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi (someone who has some familiarity with the team already) could command longer-term agreements. Viktor Arvidsson could be a good fit as well but coming off an injury-prone year, he might want just a one-year deal to bolster his market value for 2025-26. Either way, whether it’s re-signing or replacing DeBrusk, the Bruins have a big contract to hand out on the wing.
Add Depth
Last summer, the Bruins had several roster spots to fill for cheap, resulting in a lot of short-term contracts for role players. Included among those were James van Riemsdyk, Danton Heinen, Milan Lucic, and Kevin Shattenkirk, all of whom are set to return to the open market this summer so Sweeney will likely be looking to follow a similar script this time around.
Up front, they have at least two and arguably as many as four spots to fill as Pat Maroon is also a pending UFA. They won’t necessarily be as limited in terms of having to shop for players who will accept close to the league minimum although if they are able to land an impact center and either keep or replace DeBrusk, they will have to go bargain-hunting at some point. The good news for them is that there will be plenty of players that will be in that price range. They may not all sign quickly but Sweeney should be able to fill those spots.
On the back end, with Mason Lohrei showing that he’s ready for full-time NHL duty, the acquisition of Andrew Peeke at the trade deadline, and Parker Wotherspoon holding his own, they really only have to fill one spot even with Shattenkirk, Matt Grzelcyk, and Derek Forbort all heading for the open market. As a result, they could target someone a little higher in price that could play in a fourth or fifth role. It also wouldn’t be shocking to see an extra depth defender added to battle for the seventh spot. Again, there are a lot of blueliners who fit into these buckets so they should be able to take care of this one fairly easily.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bruins Name Jay Leach Assistant Coach
Now taking his third trip through the Boston Bruins organization, Jay Leach will return to the team as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 NHL campaign. The Bruins announced the hiring of Leach this afternoon as well as the promotion of Joe Sacco as an associate coach.
Leach began his tenure in the Original Six organization in the 2003-04 season as he suited up in three games for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins. Leach would not get his first taste of NHL action until 2005-06, registering two games in Boston without any points.
Over the next five years, Leach played on four additional teams before retiring as the captain of the Albany Devils after the 2013-14 AHL season. Shortly thereafter, Leach began his coaching tenure with Adler Mannheim of the DEL as an assistant coach before a brief stint in the same role with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins the following year. Ahead of the 2016-17 AHL season, Leach returned to the Bruins organization for a second stint as an assistant coach of Providence before being named the team’s head coach ahead of 2017-18.
Leach earned his first opportunity in the NHL after a four-year run in Providence in which the team produced a 136-77-26 record under the then-rookie head coach. Shortly after the inception as the league’s 32nd franchise, Leach was hired as an assistant coach by the Seattle Kraken to join Dave Hakstol‘s staff. With the Kraken looking to re-create their coaching staff after a disappointing 2023-24 season, Leach was granted the opportunity to pursue other options.
Sacco, on the other hand, is seeing a well-deserved promotion after spending the last decade as an assistant coach for the Bruins. During his tenure, Boston has made it to one Stanley Cup Final appearance while also winning two Presidents’ Trophies as the top team in the regular season.
Morning Notes: Ullmark, Saros, Bemstrom
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.
Bruins, Hurricanes Could Swap Linus Ullmark and Martin Necas
The Boston Bruins are continuing to garner more and more interest for their former Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Linus Ullmark, giving them a chance to be picky about the return. That could exclude much of the league from acquiring the star netminder, with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman sharing on The Jeff Marek Show that he doesn’t believe teams like the Vancouver Canucks or Montreal Canadiens have the assets to acquire Ullmark. Friedman added that the Carolina Hurricanes could be one of the few teams rich enough for the deal, especially if they involve forward Martin Necas.
Necas has been a recent addition to trade rumors, with Friedman recently sharing that the Hurricanes “prefer” to trade the pending restricted-free-agent rather than re-sign him and that they were eyeing top prospects in return. Necas, the 12th-overall pick in 2017, posted a career-high 28 goals and 71 points in 82 games last season. He succeeded it with a much more modest 53 points this year, though he still managed 24 goals. Necas has totaled 243 points across 362 career games, working his way into a regular role in Carolina’s top-six after growing pains early in his career. At just 25, Necas represents one of the best young scorers on the open market and should be poised for a long-term deal with a yearly price tag of around $7.5MM.
Adding young, secondary scoring is a big priority for the Bruins entering this off-season, giving relief to the more surprising pieces of their top-six, like Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie. On top of his offense, Necas could also support the team’s center depth, after recording a career-high 417 faceoffs last sesaon. He won 45.1 percent of those draws, bringing his career total to 41.5 percent at the faceoff dot. That’s certainly not strong enough to warrant an everyday role at center, but it could be a welcome boost for a Bruins lineup that still hasn’t reloaded their depth chart after Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retired. Ullmark could be a small price to check off two big boxes for Boston.
But shaping a trade package around Necas and Ullmark will be tricky. There isn’t
much precedent for swapping top-end goalies and forwards, though each of Frederik Andersen, Robin Lehner, Cory Schneider, and Semyon Varlamov were traded for first-round picks at some point in their careers. Two of those trades didn’t involve any other pieces, while the other two added a second-round pick onto the pile. That’s a bleak valuation of top goalies on the trade market, made more challenging by Necas’ RFA status making him a much more controllable asset than the 2025-UFA Ullmark. Those factors could put Carolina in a good position to ask for even more Ullmark in a swap, especially as interest in Necas grows across the league.
The Hurricanes would confidently round out their lineup with Ullmark’s addition, while moving out a winger set to command a good deal of cap space. That’d be a fantastic win-win for interim general manager Eric Tulsky, who’s in his first tenure as an NHL GM after Don Waddell left Carolina for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Carolina is also facing contract negotiations with Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, Brett Pesce, and Brady Skjei this summer – surely pushing them to want an answer on Necas sooner rather than later.
Photos courtesy of USA TODAY Sports.
Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark Are Devils’ Top Goalie Targets
The Devils’ pursuit of a bonafide starting goaltender has been a dominant storyline for months and remains one of the few certainties of the summer. While there are more than a handful of qualified names on the trade block, the Flames’ Jacob Markström and the Bruins’ Linus Ullmark are the two likeliest names that New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerald would swing a deal for, sources told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic on Tuesday.
Fitzgerald also confirmed to reporters yesterday that he would make the Devils’ 2024 first-round pick, 10th overall, available in trade talks. In what’s viewed as a deep class of high-end talent, that pick could very well be enough to pry Markström or Ullmark away from their respective teams, although a low-to-medium-value asset may also be required.
The other big fish on the goalie trade market, 2022 Vezina Trophy nominee Juuse Saros, doesn’t appear likely. He’s only been connected to the Devils sparingly in recent weeks and wasn’t mentioned at all as an option for New Jersey in LeBrun’s reporting yesterday.
Markström and Ullmark are the elder statesmen of the group, but as such, could cost less to acquire than the sub-30 Saros. Ullmark finds himself in the conversation after throwing up a .924 SV% average over three seasons with the Bruins, but he’s only started more than half his team’s games in a season once. That was Boston’s record-setting 2022-23 campaign when he won the Vezina Trophy after recording a 40-6-1 record, .938 SV% and 1.89 GAA.
Markström’s numbers have been more inconsistent over the past few seasons, but he has a much longer track record of being a true starter. The 34-year-old Swede has started more than half his team’s games in each of the last seven years and is two years removed from a league-leading nine shutouts that helped him earn his only career Vezina nomination in 2022.
He’s coming off a verifiably above-average season, too, posting a .905 SV% and stopping 13.7 goals above expected (MoneyPuck) despite a .500 record. The other advantage is his contract – he’s got two seasons left at a $6MM cap hit compared to Ullmark, who’s only signed through next season.
Markström isn’t the higher-ceiling option, but he may be the safer one. He carries a full no-move clause, but multiple reports indicated he waived it for a move to New Jersey before this season’s trade deadline that ultimately fell through. LeBrun confirmed that notion yesterday.
Bruins Expected To Open Talks With Danton Heinen
- The Boston Bruins are expected to begin talks with Danton Heinen about contract extension soon, shares The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta (Twitter link). Heinen rejoined the Bruins for this season after a three-year tenure split between the Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored 17 goals and 36 points in 74 appearances in the reunion, offering flexible offense from the bottom of the depth charts. He’ll be set for his eighth NHL season, and his sixth with the Bruins, with a new deal this summer.
Derek Forbort Likely Headed For Free Agency
On his 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliotte Friedman confirmed earlier reports about the Ottawa Senators coaching staff. Friedman said that former Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson is expected to remain as an assistant coach behind Ottawa’s bench, as will Ben Sexton. Friedman also went on to say that former head coach Mike Yeo and former NHLer Nolan Baumgartner are also expected to join the Senators staff.
Friedman’s confirmation follows several previous reports about the Senators and likely signals that Ottawa is close to finalizing new head coach Travis Green’s coaching staff. The group will have their work cut out for them as the Senators have struggled to play with much structure in recent seasons despite boasting some very talented young players. Ottawa hasn’t made the playoffs since 2017 and has been mired in a rebuild for the better part of the past decade.
In other Atlantic Division notes:
- David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period is reporting that the Montreal Canadiens could be buyers once again at this year’s NHL entry draft. Montreal has been a buyer at the two previous drafts and has reportedly made the draft a priority over making trades. Montreal is currently holding the fifth-overall pick as well as the 26th overall pick and Pagnotta wonders if the Canadiens may look to move the later pick as part of a package to acquire a young proven scorer. The Canadiens have several good young scorers in their lineup but would do well to add another scoring forward to their ranks to better balance their offensive attack.
- Boston Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort is reportedly headed to the free agent market on July 1st (as per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period). The former 15th overall pick spent a great deal of the season on long-term injured reserve and was limited to just 35 games. The 32-year-old has never offered much offense from the backend, topping out at 18 points with the Los Angeles Kings in 2017 and 2018, but he is a big body and can still skate. Forbort will have suitors in free agency, particularly from teams that are looking for a depth defenseman who isn’t afraid to engage the opponent physically.
Latest On Linus Ullmark
Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff writes about four potential trade destinations for Boston Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark. Larkin believes that the Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators would be the frontrunners for the services of the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner should he be moved. Ullmark reportedly blocked a move at the trade deadline in March and has a 15-team no-trade list that could impede a potential trade this summer. Larkin’s list is largely based on speculation, but on the surface, it makes sense, given that the four teams on it were all undone by inconsistent goaltending this season.
In Colorado, Alexandar Georgiev didn’t have a very good regular season for the Avalanche and fell apart in the playoffs with an .894 save percentage. The story was similar in Los Angeles where Cam Talbot and David Rittich both had good regular seasons but couldn’t give the team enough to get out of the first round. The Kings pursued Ullmark prior to the deadline but were unable to complete a deal due to the netminders no trade list.
Ottawa and New Jersey aren’t surprising possibilities for Ullmark as they were two teams that came into the season with playoff expectations but were let down by some of the worst goaltending in the NHL. Ottawa signed netminder Joonas Korpisalo to a five-year $20MM contract last July in the hopes that he would steady their goaltending situation, however, the first year of the deal was a flop and Korpisalo finished second to last in the league in goals saved above expected with a -16.1 (according to Money Puck). Mads Sogaard and Anton Forsberg also appeared for the Senators this season and struggled as well.
New Jersey didn’t fare much better as Vitek Vanecek lost his game and finished near the bottom of the league in goals saved above expected with -11.2. Akira Schmid also saw his play fall off and found himself in the AHL for a big chunk of the season. The team brought in Jake Allen at the trade deadline from Montreal, but with one year left on his contract, the 33-year-old is more of a stopgap for the Devils and would be a terrific backup should they acquire Ullmark.
With his limited no-trade clause, Ullmark will have some say in where he ends up this summer, but won’t have full control. He is just a year out from becoming an unrestricted free agent once again and can choose his preferred destination in the summer of 2025.