The Bruins received a solid backup option
The Bruins made a big splash on Monday by trading goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators. In return, Boston received goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in addition to a first-round draft pick in this year’s draft and forward Mark Kastelic.
The Senators will retain 25% of Korpisalo’s $5,000,000 salary with a cap hit of $4,000,000.
The trade cements goaltender Jeremy Swayman as the No. 1 guy in Boston’s net and also gives Don Sweeney more cap space to work with. Korpisalo is most likely going to be a solid backup option for Boston.
The 30-year-old appeared in 55 games with the Senators in the 2023-24 season and posted a 21-26-4 record. In that time, Korpisalo had a 3.27 goals against average and a .890 save percentage.
The 6-foot-3, 189-pound goaltender’s season in Ottawa was nothing to write home about, but he did post solid numbers in the past.
Korpisalo posted a 7-3-1 record and a .921 save percentage to go with his 2.13 goals against average in 11 games played with the Los Angeles Kings in the 2022-23 season. The Finland native, who played eight seasons in Columbus, had his best season with the Blue Jackets in 2019-20 when he logged a 19-12-5 record, .911 save percentage and 2.60 goals against average.
While the Senators got the better goaltender in Ullmark, Korpisalo will be a good backup option for the Bruins moving forward.
With the cap space Boston has freed up, it could make more moves with free agency starting next Monday.