Bruins Trade Linus Ullmark to Senators for 2024 NHL 1st Round Draft Pick, More

The Boston Bruins traded goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators on Monday for a package headlined by a first-round pick in the 2024 draft.

In exchange for Ullmark, the Bruins received forward Mark Kastelic, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, and the No. 25 overall pick (per NHL.com). The Senators will retain 25 percent of Korpisalo's salary as part of the deal.

According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, an extension for Ullmark was not part of the trade.

Although Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman established themselves as one of the NHL's top goalie duos over the past three seasons, it was getting harder to justify keeping both due to their respective contract situations.

Ullmark has one season left on a four-year deal worth $20 million that he signed with Boston in 2021 (per Spotrac). As for Swayman, he's currently set to enter restricted free agency once again.

Although the two split time during the regular season, the writing appeared to be on the wall after Ullmark started just one playoff game compared to Swayman's 12 starts. It's also easy to see why the Bruins preferred to keep the 25-year-old Swayman over Ullmark, who'll be 31 years old at the beginning of the regular season.

Still, he hasn't shown too many signs of slowing down after winning the Vezina Trophy in 2023. During his 2023-24 campaign, Ullmark finished with a record of 22-10-7 in 39 starts while allowing an average of 2.57 goals against.

He should immediately help a Senators team that is coming off a 37-41-4 season. Ottawa allowed an average of 3.43 goals per game, the fifth-worst mark among all teams (via NHL.com).

For the Bruins, Kastelic recorded five goals and five assists in 63 games during his 2023-24 campaign while Korpisalo finished with a 21-26-4 record in his 49 starts.