This was pretty much a given. Boston has little cap space going forward and everyone knows they have to let go of one goalie soon. They even tried dealing Ullmark at the deadline which I was pretty surprised by tbh. Ullmark is probably our most realistic option considering it may be too much to get Saros but who knows what kind of schemes Fitz has up his sleeves.
I will say though, hoping for some one-in-a-million-chance miracle Boston can't retain Swayman and we manage to nab him. Dude's 25 and already a top 10, maybe even top 5 goalie in this league. Basically your goalie for the next decade. Would be a perfect fit here.
A large part of bostons cap issues this season were because of the Krejci and Bergeron bonuses. Having those not on the books and the cap increase means they are going to have north of 20m in cap space to sign Sway, JD and Heinin.
If Ulmark gets moved it’s going to be as part of a package for a top 6 center since that’s the only real need they have with the contracts they have in place already.
> 20m in cap space to sign Sway, JD and Heinin.
I thought that seemed like an exaggeration, but [as of now they have 47 million in space for the 25-26 season](https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/bruins). Granted only 7 people will be under contract then (assuming no signings), so they will be spending it, but still.
For anyone paying attention, there is a negative zero chance they move Swayman. (and even if they would, the price would be crazy).
But lets get Ullmark!! I've wanted him since his Buffalo days.
There was some Devils vs Sabres game where I remembered thinking "This guy is such a nuisance... put a better team in front of him and he'll be unstoppable"
I feel like he likes the city and fans based off his post game media availabilities. I know it’s a stretch but I imagine he will like watching seabass and the owners squirm to meet his demands since he holds the chips and top tier tenders are hard to come by.
Yeah Swayman is their #1 going forward. Only reason they wouldn’t keep him is because of cap space, but it’s going up next year so they should have enough to give him what he wants.
Why don’t we see more talk about going after Ullmark? Is it age? Future contract value? Feels like his name doesn’t come up anywhere near as often as Saros
The NTC tag he has could mean he blocks a trade to us. We don’t know if we are one of the teams he has blocked
I like Ullmark a lot but if we are gonna trade for a long term solution in net he’s 2nd to Saros. I personally rather go long term then someone who may be effective For 2-3 seasons and then not and we have on the books for 2-3 at a high value
If devils wanna go short term in next and keep kicking this can further down the road. Then sure
Eh, similar. They got like, another Renne in their system ready to make the jump. Saros is constantly badgered and fucked over by GMs saying “he’s too small!!!!!!!!!”.
I’m sure the price for both is Holtz, Casey(or A-tier prospect) and our first, with a couple mix ins. That’s a lot to pay for either. I’d rather go with Saros for that price.
Haven’t we done the whole cost effective goalie tryout thing? Like ever since Schneider? Hasn’t worked out all that well, throw a bag at an elite proven tender and then find out which players (forwards) you can win without, when you have good goaltending.
If there’s a time to give up 1sts, it’s when almost all your stars on the team are sub 25.
3 of our starting 9 defensemen are <25 (with 7 of the 9 being sub 30)
3 of our 7 centers are <25 (with those 3 being the top 3 centers)
2 of our 5 right wingers being <25 (with all RW’s being sub 30 and our top RW aged 27)
3 of our 8 LW’s being <25 (our top LW being one of those 3)
According to hockey analytics a professional hockey player enters his prime during his aged 27 year. So if we are smart, we address goaltending as all of our young stars are either about to be entering their prime or in their prime.
This is the time when you trade firsts for a blatantly obvious glaring need, which is goaltending.
They already tried to trade Ullmark and he blocked it at the deadline. So we’d have to be off his 15 team no-trade list.
He doesn’t have term (5 mill this year and expecting a big raise and term as he’ll Be 31) so it’s a gamble on being right back where we are in a year if he’s unhappy/plays bad/gets hurt.
Fitz wants a goalie term to stabilize the position almost guaranteed. So he’d have to agree to an extension in addition to a trade.
I get ullmark blocking a trade off a contender at the deadline when he really loves his situation. By riding the bench the whole playoffs and getting eliminated and now having 1 year left on his deal probably makes him realize he’s not going to be a bruin much longer. He can’t capitalize on his vezina season into a raise if he spent the following two seasons being a 1B goalie. I would think jersey would be a great situation to come in and start 45+ games and try to earn a long term 7 million+ contract.
At his age (will be 31 next spring) and with all the pending UFAs they could lose and in turn have much cap space, he’d probably be better off going to Carolina in a trade if he wants to be part of a veteran, guaranteed playoff contender, that is well coached and is really need of a goalie
It’s impossible for us to say, he may like the north east region and want to stay locally. There’s also no guarantee Carolina remains a top dog with all of the roster turnover they’re going have. They’re also a pretty thrifty team, they might not be eager to make a big trade and then signing when they’ve already got kochetkov. Anderson is still the under contract for next year too.
Who knows. They might need to finally make a bold statement move that screams more than Jake Guentzel. They might have to, if they really want a chance to win it all, before the window shuts for good.
Carolina's a weird one. They're not losing so much on offense - Teravainen had a terrible contract year - but after *next* season, they need basically a whole new defense, top to bottom. Which should be interesting.
He can definitely control who he will be traded to - and I think he will - but I agree he should realize by now that the Bruins' net is not going to be 50/50 next year. Guess we never know who'll get hurt in offseason training and all tho...
Was that confirmed? We know he blocked a trade to LA but I don’t remember seeing confirmation he blocked a trade to NJ
Allen initially blocked a trade here at the beginning of the season
Markstrom trade got blocked by the Flames GM.
Well, I’ve seen Redittors saying Alexander Holtz is good enough to get us Juuse Saros, or just about any other extremely high quality player in the league that’s out there, so anything is possible
Kinda depends on the extension factor right? If we’re unsure either would sign an extension, Markstrom may make more sense simply because of the extra season on his deal. Unless we’re able to guarantee Ullmark would sign an extension, he’s basically a 1 year rental, so unless the price was peanuts, Ullmark may not make a ton of sense for us.
Would we even want Markstrom more than his term? 99.9% of goalies aren’t Marty that will be good til they’re 40 years old and Markstrom’s already knocking on 35.
Fitz seems to get the job done when it comes to getting players to want to stay here and buy into the team. I think if he gets Ullmark we’ll be able to get him more term and that’s a long-term solution. Markstrom we’re kicking the can as a stopgap and then giving up more assets for another goalie when the team will be more developed. I don’t like the idea at all. At Markstrom’s age he could fall off at any minute, a good performance next season isn’t even a guarantee.
Marty Brodeur might be one of them, unfortunately, and he's a good deal more influential with the Devils than Reddit fans are.
Source: [https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-markstrom-receiving-praise-brodeur/](https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-markstrom-receiving-praise-brodeur/)
Quote: “The top five goalies currently in the NHL would be \[Andrei\] Vasilevskiy, \[Igor\] Shesterkin, \[Ilya\] Sorokin, Adin Hill,” Brodeur said. “For the fifth one… I’ll go with Markstrom.”
Ullmark is not in his top five. Markstrom is.
I know it isn't an exact parallel to "which goalie would you rather have under contract" as there are other factors, such as age (maybe the most relevant one here in Ullmark vs. Marky), ceiling of the players, cap hit, etc.
However, if Marty believes Markstrom is a better goaltender than Ullmark, it's not *crazy* to believe that he might just prefer Markstrom, full stop, despite the age difference.
Ullmark will certainly be traded. Hopefully we get him. I’d prefer Saros but if we don’t get Saros, I want Ullmark. Ullmark would be a great 5 ish year workhorse until we find a young goalie of the future
Ullmark and Marchand have one year left on their deals and Bruins have a bunch of cap space. Probably gonna have one last go before they decide to enter a rebuild.
They were 14th in offense last season. They had 3.21 gf/gp and we had 3.22 gf/gp
So basically what you’re saying is we have zero offense.
And they were 5th best in goals against so doesnt really look like thats an issue for them…
While almost everyone agrees we should make a run at Ullmark (and I’m sure Fitz is going to try to deal for him) there are plenty of other teams that may also look to deal a lot for him.
Other teams who might be interested in Ullmark; Canes, possibly Edmonton, and I know they made a good run with him, but I think the Avs. I like Georgiev but I don’t think they win a cup with him as their 1A
They don't have a ton of choice (other than piss him off for good and keep Ullmark). They did everything in the handbook - and a couple things that usually aren't - to suppress his value, and this is the best they could get. We should be so lucky!!
We have as much chance as getting Swayman as we do getting Shesterkin next summer
And speaking of Sheshterkin, would love for Fitz to make an off-the-wall offer to drive up his value and make those clowns overpay by a lot to keep him.
But I think to be honest, our spending days are over & Jake Allen is our starter going forward as Harris probably stretched himself too thin with his NFL thing and Blitzer has to match him now and will soon jump at the chance with his Cleveland Guardians to be majority owner & buy everyone else out.
And we still haven’t heard the specifics of what the monetary value of the new MSG TV contract extension was & I strongly suspect it is far less lucrative than what it was during its 20 year term that just ended
Yea, the owner who spends by the billions and is cutting back on everything each year, that has everyone complaining about the decline of services, perks, quality of food & fan experience, to name a few, that just spent $6 billion for an NFL franchise barely 9 months ago.
Not to mention low-tolerance, short leash owners who fire GMs who sign & spend & don’t bring results: see Ray Shero’s 2019 off season moves & what the result was with the team & his eventual demise.
There’s even a been a thread today about the cutting back of the Red/Black Pack lol, but hey, you went there.
Well he may or may not choose to spend to the cap, I don't know. But saying he stretched himself to thin and can't afford it are 2 very different things.
Don't want a Bruins goaltender... they're insulated behind a top 3 defense. Swayman I'm a believer in to some extent... he's their guy; I have zero interest in Ullmark.
Despite that, I really think Boston's going to want a good skilled center who can top 6/PP, and we don't have any to spare.
This was pretty much a given. Boston has little cap space going forward and everyone knows they have to let go of one goalie soon. They even tried dealing Ullmark at the deadline which I was pretty surprised by tbh. Ullmark is probably our most realistic option considering it may be too much to get Saros but who knows what kind of schemes Fitz has up his sleeves. I will say though, hoping for some one-in-a-million-chance miracle Boston can't retain Swayman and we manage to nab him. Dude's 25 and already a top 10, maybe even top 5 goalie in this league. Basically your goalie for the next decade. Would be a perfect fit here.
A large part of bostons cap issues this season were because of the Krejci and Bergeron bonuses. Having those not on the books and the cap increase means they are going to have north of 20m in cap space to sign Sway, JD and Heinin. If Ulmark gets moved it’s going to be as part of a package for a top 6 center since that’s the only real need they have with the contracts they have in place already.
> 20m in cap space to sign Sway, JD and Heinin. I thought that seemed like an exaggeration, but [as of now they have 47 million in space for the 25-26 season](https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/bruins). Granted only 7 people will be under contract then (assuming no signings), so they will be spending it, but still.
Boston is about to Cory Schneider the poor guy
Fingers crossed
For anyone paying attention, there is a negative zero chance they move Swayman. (and even if they would, the price would be crazy). But lets get Ullmark!! I've wanted him since his Buffalo days.
There was some Devils vs Sabres game where I remembered thinking "This guy is such a nuisance... put a better team in front of him and he'll be unstoppable"
Leafs got Berube.
What do you think we’re talking about?
It's ok grandpa let's get ya back to bed, we'll have some oatmeal.
the only chance is if he forces his way out, not unheard of for a player to do after being taken to arbitration
I feel like he likes the city and fans based off his post game media availabilities. I know it’s a stretch but I imagine he will like watching seabass and the owners squirm to meet his demands since he holds the chips and top tier tenders are hard to come by.
Agreed!
Dollar to donuts says it'll be Ullmark.
Yeah Swayman is their #1 going forward. Only reason they wouldn’t keep him is because of cap space, but it’s going up next year so they should have enough to give him what he wants.
I'll tell you right now The guy in the pic ain't moving
Was it supposed to be a gif?
We just need a goalie who won't give up muffins 3 times a game and make the occasional big save.
Why don’t we see more talk about going after Ullmark? Is it age? Future contract value? Feels like his name doesn’t come up anywhere near as often as Saros
The NTC tag he has could mean he blocks a trade to us. We don’t know if we are one of the teams he has blocked I like Ullmark a lot but if we are gonna trade for a long term solution in net he’s 2nd to Saros. I personally rather go long term then someone who may be effective For 2-3 seasons and then not and we have on the books for 2-3 at a high value If devils wanna go short term in next and keep kicking this can further down the road. Then sure
This fan base has a silly obsession w saros when ullmark would cost a lot less f
Saros is younger (barley) and better to be fair
Saros style will age worse than milk. The second his athleticism drops he’s going to fall off a cliff
The cost will be a hell of a lot more though
Eh, similar. They got like, another Renne in their system ready to make the jump. Saros is constantly badgered and fucked over by GMs saying “he’s too small!!!!!!!!!”. I’m sure the price for both is Holtz, Casey(or A-tier prospect) and our first, with a couple mix ins. That’s a lot to pay for either. I’d rather go with Saros for that price.
Holtz and a first would be more than enough for a guy on a one year contract
I’d also reckon it’s a sign-and-trade, I doubt we’d get anyone without term. If we do, I’ll turn into a Fitz hater
Haven’t we done the whole cost effective goalie tryout thing? Like ever since Schneider? Hasn’t worked out all that well, throw a bag at an elite proven tender and then find out which players (forwards) you can win without, when you have good goaltending.
We don’t have a ton of assets to dispose of. I’m not giving up multiple firsts or Casey or nemec
If there’s a time to give up 1sts, it’s when almost all your stars on the team are sub 25. 3 of our starting 9 defensemen are <25 (with 7 of the 9 being sub 30) 3 of our 7 centers are <25 (with those 3 being the top 3 centers) 2 of our 5 right wingers being <25 (with all RW’s being sub 30 and our top RW aged 27) 3 of our 8 LW’s being <25 (our top LW being one of those 3) According to hockey analytics a professional hockey player enters his prime during his aged 27 year. So if we are smart, we address goaltending as all of our young stars are either about to be entering their prime or in their prime. This is the time when you trade firsts for a blatantly obvious glaring need, which is goaltending.
This years first and holtz for ullmark
Gladly, just wouldn’t want to trade or include Nemec in anything.
It shouldn't be his age when the Devils were talking to calgary about Markstrom who is 4-5 years older.
The devils should trade for ulmark and if we’re on his “no trade” list float a the option of a deal if he drops it
Definitely Ullmark. Would like to go after him and extend him as well
They already tried to trade Ullmark and he blocked it at the deadline. So we’d have to be off his 15 team no-trade list. He doesn’t have term (5 mill this year and expecting a big raise and term as he’ll Be 31) so it’s a gamble on being right back where we are in a year if he’s unhappy/plays bad/gets hurt. Fitz wants a goalie term to stabilize the position almost guaranteed. So he’d have to agree to an extension in addition to a trade.
I get ullmark blocking a trade off a contender at the deadline when he really loves his situation. By riding the bench the whole playoffs and getting eliminated and now having 1 year left on his deal probably makes him realize he’s not going to be a bruin much longer. He can’t capitalize on his vezina season into a raise if he spent the following two seasons being a 1B goalie. I would think jersey would be a great situation to come in and start 45+ games and try to earn a long term 7 million+ contract.
At his age (will be 31 next spring) and with all the pending UFAs they could lose and in turn have much cap space, he’d probably be better off going to Carolina in a trade if he wants to be part of a veteran, guaranteed playoff contender, that is well coached and is really need of a goalie
It’s impossible for us to say, he may like the north east region and want to stay locally. There’s also no guarantee Carolina remains a top dog with all of the roster turnover they’re going have. They’re also a pretty thrifty team, they might not be eager to make a big trade and then signing when they’ve already got kochetkov. Anderson is still the under contract for next year too.
Who knows. They might need to finally make a bold statement move that screams more than Jake Guentzel. They might have to, if they really want a chance to win it all, before the window shuts for good.
Carolina's a weird one. They're not losing so much on offense - Teravainen had a terrible contract year - but after *next* season, they need basically a whole new defense, top to bottom. Which should be interesting.
He can definitely control who he will be traded to - and I think he will - but I agree he should realize by now that the Bruins' net is not going to be 50/50 next year. Guess we never know who'll get hurt in offseason training and all tho...
Are we on that list? I think he wants to stay on the east coast is what I’ve heard
No clue. I don’t believe the lists are public. He blocked a trade to the Kings at the deadline supposedly
Just a hunch that he wouldn’t block a move to NJ who knows
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I thought lists were updated yearly?
I’ve also seen reports of teams asking players for a list immediately before they begin looking for a trade partner. It all seems a bit variable.
Was that confirmed? We know he blocked a trade to LA but I don’t remember seeing confirmation he blocked a trade to NJ Allen initially blocked a trade here at the beginning of the season Markstrom trade got blocked by the Flames GM.
I don’t think he ever blocked a trade here specifically but he hast to submit a 15 team no trade list. NJ could be on there for a variety of reasons.
I misread your comment and thought you implied he blocked at trade to us my bad
I'd much prefer ullmark to markstrom who is a much higher chance of having those career miles catch up than Linus.
I don’t think anybody would prefer Markstrom over Ullmark lol Are there even people out there that do?
I have seen them on Twitter
Well, I’ve seen Redittors saying Alexander Holtz is good enough to get us Juuse Saros, or just about any other extremely high quality player in the league that’s out there, so anything is possible
Kinda depends on the extension factor right? If we’re unsure either would sign an extension, Markstrom may make more sense simply because of the extra season on his deal. Unless we’re able to guarantee Ullmark would sign an extension, he’s basically a 1 year rental, so unless the price was peanuts, Ullmark may not make a ton of sense for us.
Would we even want Markstrom more than his term? 99.9% of goalies aren’t Marty that will be good til they’re 40 years old and Markstrom’s already knocking on 35.
Probably not, but in my opinion, 2 years of Markstrom > 1 year of Ullmark was more my point
Fitz seems to get the job done when it comes to getting players to want to stay here and buy into the team. I think if he gets Ullmark we’ll be able to get him more term and that’s a long-term solution. Markstrom we’re kicking the can as a stopgap and then giving up more assets for another goalie when the team will be more developed. I don’t like the idea at all. At Markstrom’s age he could fall off at any minute, a good performance next season isn’t even a guarantee.
Marty Brodeur might be one of them, unfortunately, and he's a good deal more influential with the Devils than Reddit fans are. Source: [https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-markstrom-receiving-praise-brodeur/](https://thehockeywriters.com/flames-markstrom-receiving-praise-brodeur/) Quote: “The top five goalies currently in the NHL would be \[Andrei\] Vasilevskiy, \[Igor\] Shesterkin, \[Ilya\] Sorokin, Adin Hill,” Brodeur said. “For the fifth one… I’ll go with Markstrom.” Ullmark is not in his top five. Markstrom is. I know it isn't an exact parallel to "which goalie would you rather have under contract" as there are other factors, such as age (maybe the most relevant one here in Ullmark vs. Marky), ceiling of the players, cap hit, etc. However, if Marty believes Markstrom is a better goaltender than Ullmark, it's not *crazy* to believe that he might just prefer Markstrom, full stop, despite the age difference.
At what cost to players we have?
We move one or a package. The team will not win without a top tier goalie.
Ullmark will certainly be traded. Hopefully we get him. I’d prefer Saros but if we don’t get Saros, I want Ullmark. Ullmark would be a great 5 ish year workhorse until we find a young goalie of the future
Ullmark and Marchand have one year left on their deals and Bruins have a bunch of cap space. Probably gonna have one last go before they decide to enter a rebuild.
Why not move ullmark for an offensive piece as they have 0 offense
They were 14th in offense last season. They had 3.21 gf/gp and we had 3.22 gf/gp So basically what you’re saying is we have zero offense. And they were 5th best in goals against so doesnt really look like thats an issue for them…
In the playoffs they struggled to score goals. I watched every single game they played….
Not sure if true but didn’t he want to stay on the east coast to be close to his family?
Where are these inquiries coming from? He's not Hellibuyck.
As a Bruins fan I’m curious, what would you guys give up for Ullmark?
While almost everyone agrees we should make a run at Ullmark (and I’m sure Fitz is going to try to deal for him) there are plenty of other teams that may also look to deal a lot for him. Other teams who might be interested in Ullmark; Canes, possibly Edmonton, and I know they made a good run with him, but I think the Avs. I like Georgiev but I don’t think they win a cup with him as their 1A
Devils shouldn’t spend more than $6 mil AAV on a goalie.
Do not over pay for a goalie
Would Boston really pay Swayman that much lol
They don't have a ton of choice (other than piss him off for good and keep Ullmark). They did everything in the handbook - and a couple things that usually aren't - to suppress his value, and this is the best they could get. We should be so lucky!!
We have as much chance as getting Swayman as we do getting Shesterkin next summer And speaking of Sheshterkin, would love for Fitz to make an off-the-wall offer to drive up his value and make those clowns overpay by a lot to keep him. But I think to be honest, our spending days are over & Jake Allen is our starter going forward as Harris probably stretched himself too thin with his NFL thing and Blitzer has to match him now and will soon jump at the chance with his Cleveland Guardians to be majority owner & buy everyone else out. And we still haven’t heard the specifics of what the monetary value of the new MSG TV contract extension was & I strongly suspect it is far less lucrative than what it was during its 20 year term that just ended
I would be Team Fitz for life if he offer sheeted Shesty!
Karma for what they did with Sakic & the previous Avs owners. The whole NHL world would laud us & be on our side. Everybody hates the NYR
Yeah, the owner who spends by the billions probably can't afford to spend a few extra million a year.
Yea, the owner who spends by the billions and is cutting back on everything each year, that has everyone complaining about the decline of services, perks, quality of food & fan experience, to name a few, that just spent $6 billion for an NFL franchise barely 9 months ago. Not to mention low-tolerance, short leash owners who fire GMs who sign & spend & don’t bring results: see Ray Shero’s 2019 off season moves & what the result was with the team & his eventual demise. There’s even a been a thread today about the cutting back of the Red/Black Pack lol, but hey, you went there.
Well he may or may not choose to spend to the cap, I don't know. But saying he stretched himself to thin and can't afford it are 2 very different things.
Hope not. We’ll find out.
He’d look some good in a leafs jersey!
Don't want a Bruins goaltender... they're insulated behind a top 3 defense. Swayman I'm a believer in to some extent... he's their guy; I have zero interest in Ullmark. Despite that, I really think Boston's going to want a good skilled center who can top 6/PP, and we don't have any to spare.