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NHL insider: Linus Ullmark was ‘expecting that he would be traded’ last week
"I think Boston is going to be a really interesting team in the offseason. There's no question about that to me.”
Linus Ullmark was finally able to breathe easy on Friday evening after the NHL’s trade deadline passed.
The reigning Vezina Trophy winner had several trade rumors hovering over his head throughout the week, with Ullmark reportedly invoking his 16-team no-trade list to nix a potential deal to the Kings.
Even though Ullmark did not confirm that he used his trade protections to block a deal, the 30-year-old goalie acknowledged that it was an “emotional” week.
Speaking on the “32 Thoughts Podcast” this week, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman echoed the same sentiment that Ullmark shared over the weekend when it came to his uncertain status on Boston’s roster.
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“I heard it was a really emotional week for him behind the scenes,” Friedman said of Ullmark. “He made it very clear he didn’t want to leave. But I think he was expecting that he would be traded. The thing is here is that — I always say this. It’s a player’s right. If you get it in your contract and you have a no-trade clause — it is your right to say no. And I believe he exercised that.”
A potential deal with the Kings made sense for Los Angeles, considering the uneven returns put forth by Cam Talbot and David Rittich this season. The Kings had a few appealing assets for Boston, be it a first-round pick, a defenseman like Matt Roy or even a top-six pivot like Pierre-Luc Dubois (who has plenty of baggage, along with a hefty $8.5 million annual cap hit through the 2030-31 season).
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But beyond the Kings, Friedman believes that the Bruins were working the phones on a potential Ullmark deal with teams in the Eastern Conference, along with other moves.
“I’ve heard the Kings are not very happy, because that leads to questions about who potentially was involved,” Friedman said. “But I’ve heard nothing that makes me disbelieve that L.A. was the team [involved]. But I also think that there were some teams in the East that Boston was talking to — potentially about some other situations.
“And I think there was more than one. I think there were a couple and I don’t know if they were ones he could have blocked or not. I believe in at least one case, the deal fell apart. I think it’s also possible the team that was talking to Boston said, ‘Well, we’d rather do Swayman’ and Boston just shut that down and said that’s not happening.”
Even though Ullmark will remain in Boston through the end of the 2023-24 season, his long-term future in Boston is far from secure.
If the Bruins end up signing Jeremy Swayman to a long-term contract extension, Boston will likely revisit a trade for Ullmark in the offseason — rather than move forward in the 2024-25 campaign with at least $11-12 million committed to the goaltender position.
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“There’s definitely some conversations about Ullmark that happened over the last couple of weeks that I think will be revisited in the summer or after the season’s over,” Friedman noted. “I don’t think this is over. I think Ullmark realizes that.”
The Bruins still managed to add at the trade deadline by acquiring forward Pat Maroon from the Wild and defenseman Andrew Peeke from the Blue Jackets. But be it a reported blocked Ullmark deal or other larger trades, Friedman believes the Bruins had big plans at the deadline — some of which could be revisited this summer.
“I would guess that Boston was one of the most disappointed teams at the deadline,” Friedman said. “They got Maroon, they got Peeke from Columbus. And people told me that Peeke is a better player than what happened to him this year. He just got caught in a numbers game in Columbus.
“But I think Boston would be one of the more disappointed teams in that they couldn’t do some of the things that they wanted to do. But I think Boston is going to be a really interesting team in the offseason. There’s no question about that to me.”
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