So what did the Bruins give up? The 2023 Vezina winning goalie who was just as good as Jeremy Swayman last year. Ullmark was everything they could have asked for after Tuukka Rask retired and more. He was 88-26 with a .924 save percentage in his 3 years in Boston and the goalie hug will forever be remembered by Bruin fans.
Now what did they get? Quite frankly Joonas Korpisalo might be the absolute worst contract in the NHL as his current stats are 115-107 with a .901 save percentage. He was the backup goalie to Sergei Bobrovski in Columbus and was Ottawa's starting goalie for most of this year, going 21-26 with a .891 save percentage. The worst part is he signed a 5 year deal for $20 million which was completely absurd. Ottawa retains 25 percent of the cap hit but the Bruins now must pay $3 million a year for the next four years. They essentially get $2 million in cap relief by taking on this contract. Sweeney is either a genius or a complete moron depending on how this plays out.
They also got 25 year old cement head Mark Kastelic who had 102 penalty minutes for Ottawa in 2023 and 63 last year. He's 6'3, mean and nasty, exactly what you want on your fourth line. With Pat Maroon near retirement and doubtful Milan Lucic comes back, they needed a new goon and Kastelic fits the bill perfectly.
The final piece of the puzzle is the 25th overall pick in the upcoming draft which was originally Boston's to begin with. They sent the pick to the Detroit Red Wings in 2023 in the Todd Bertuzzi trade and Detroit sent it to Ottawa in the Alex DeBrincat trade. Pundits and experts say this is going to be a pretty bad draft class but ironically whoever they pick at 25 is automatically going to be better than anyone they got in Providence not named Fabian Lysell. The Bruins have been trading their first round picks like candy almost every year and they've had to rely on lower round picks not only in Providence but in Boston as well. Hope Sweeney knows what he's doing.
