Former Bruins Goaltender Approves Of Linus Ullmark Trade

There have been many differing opinions on Boston’s return on the Linus Ullmark trade, but ex-Bruins goaltender and NESN analyst Andrew Raycroft believes that his former team did the right thing.

The Bruins got a first-round draft pick in this year’s draft, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and forward Mark Kastelic from the Ottawa Senators in return for Ullmark.

“It’s a win for me because you had to trade Linus Ullmark,” Raycroft said on WEEI’s “The Gresh & Fauria Show” on Tuesday. “It just wasn’t going to work to have him come back and the longer the deal doesn’t get done, the less places there are for Linus to go, the harder it is.”

While Raycroft didn’t exactly talk about what Boston got in return, he does believe the Bruins are working toward making more moves in the offseason.

Ullmark has a $4.5 million salary with a cap hit of $5 million for the upcoming 2024-25 season. Korpisalo’s salary is $5 million, but the Senators agreed to take 25% of that so the trade freed up cap space for Boston.

With extra money in the Bruins’ pocket, they could make a big move with NHL free agency opening next Monday.

“I think this is a good start,” Raycroft said. “There’s a long way to go here. They have $24 million in cap space over the next week to spend on players and there is a lot of guys out there. So, I like the start, this opens up free agency, it gets the biggest question mark off the table for the Bruins so now they can really work the phones and get on the agents and get some players.”

The Bruins can use their No. 25 pick in the first round of the NHL Draft that they acquired on Friday, June 28 at 7 p.m. ET.