Bruins’ Linus Ullmark is Chasing Swedish Goaltending Immortality

On Saturday night, some 2,678 miles from TD Garden, Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark stole another game, improving his league-leading win totals to 22-1-1 through 26 games. Furthermore, he improved upon his already minuscule 1.87 goals-against average (GAA) and .938 save percentage (SV%) numbers.

The Bruins remain atop the National Hockey League (NHL) standings thanks to an insane 32-4-4 record and 68 points. Moreover, they remain 11 points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes and division rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Most observations about the team’s unheralded success come from two sources, new head coach Jim Montgomery employing an offensive-minded system for his players and Ullmark ascending to the top of the goalie mountain in the NHL.

At the start of the 2022-23 campaign, the Bruins weren’t penciled in as a playoff team, thanks to a roster plagued with offseason surgeries and no high price free agent signings. Most of the team came back, including David Krejci, who returned to the NHL after a year in Europe, leaving many questioning what would be different.

One of the most significant differences has been the play of Ullmark, who is on the books for just $5 million this season Boston Bruins Sign Linus Ullmark to 4-Year Deal, a bargain price considering he’s the best goalie in the world right now. Thanks to his success thus far in 2022-23, he’s earned his first All-Star Game selection, an honor the humble Ullmark embraces like his heroes growing up.

Although the ultimate goal of every player is to win the Stanley Cup, Ullmark’s recent success has put him in the conversation regarding which Swedish goalie has had the best regular season of all time. Moreover, there are king-size shoes to fill, but if Ullmark continues down the path he’s on, there is no telling what kind of records he could scribble his name next to.

A Look Back at Sweden Netminders Arriving in the NHL

In 1977, two Swedish goalies, Hardy Åström and Göran Högosta, made their NHL debuts, becoming the first netminders from the nordic country to play in the league. Eventually, Pelle Lindbergh came to North America, joined the Philadelphia Flyers, and won the Vezina Trophy in 1984-85 as the league’s best goalie. As a 25-year-old, Lindbergh led his team to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Edmonton Oilers during their dynasty years.

Sadly, Lindbergh died in a car crash on November 1985, leaving a massive hole in the hockey community as a promising talent gone too soon. Despite several goalies playing in the league over the years, the Swedes didn’t have a bona fide star between the pipes until the late 1990s when Tommy Salo and Johan Hedberg. The two Scandinavian goalies led mediocre teams to playoff upsets while rewriting NHL records for Swedish guardians.

However, no matter what Salo or Hedberg did, the country’s standard always reverted to Lindbergh, the only netminder to win an award. Consequently, everything the league knew about Swedish goaltending changed in 2005 when The King, Henrik Lundqvist, made his debut for the New York Rangers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Lundqvist sits atop the list of the best European goalies of all time, will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and is in the discussion as one of the top goalies ever to play in the league. Although he never won the Stanley Cup, he destroyed every goalie record in Manhattan and Sweden, finishing his career at the top of almost every statistical category.

Although our generation may have yet to see any of Lundqvist’s records fall, he did leave the door for someone like Ullmark to surpass his totals in regular-season competition. With half a season to play, here is a look at what Ullmark could accomplish before the final buzzer in April.

Swedish NHL Records Linus Ullmark Can Surpass in 2022-23

Bruins head coach, Montgomery, plans to follow a recent NHL trend by alternating his goaltenders to cut down on exhaustion and keep them fresh for the playoffs. However, at one point, Jeremy Swayman went down with an injury, allowing Ullmark to suit up for a few additional games; nevertheless, the pair have gone back to splitting the assignments.

Interestingly, this strategy results in goalies playing less during the regular season, meaning the 73 games played record shared by Salo and Lundqvist is safe for the foreseeable future. However, with 22 wins already, Ullmark moves to within 18 wins of the single mark (40) set by Lindbergh in 1984-85. If the Bruins netminder manages to reach the magical number of 40, he will achieve something Lundqvist never did in his outstanding career, whose personal best was 39 wins in 2011-12.

Outside of Ullmark’s chase for the Swedish single-season wins record, there are two other marks worth discussing. During Lundqvist’s Vezina Trophy-winning 2011-12 campaign, he became the first goalie in country history to finish a season with a sub-2.00 GAA, setting the record at 1.97. As of this writing, Ullmark is down to 1.87, ten percentage points under Lundqvist’s best season. Considering that Ullmark has had only one game with more than three goals against, there is a possibility that he registers the second-ever sub 2.00 GAA among Swedish netminders.

As previously mentioned, Lundqvist set the hockey world on fire in 2011-12, producing a career-best .930 SV%, a number unmatched until Robin Lehner tied it during the 2018-19 season. Interestingly, Ullmark is up to a .938 SV%, just eight points ahead of his fellow countrymen, and only has four games with a sub .900 SV% on his resume this season. Although he only has two shutouts this season and six in his career, fans should expect Ullmark to make over 30 saves and give up at least a goal per game, keeping his SV% numbers close to the all-time mark.

Furthermore, another record worth discussing is the Swedish single-season loss record. This mark is rather difficult to decipher because there are two ways to approach it. First, Ullmark will never come close to the Hedberg record of 34 losses in a single season (2001-02). However, Hedberg’s name is associated with the same record but in a different way. In 2006-07, Hedberg played with the Atlanta Thrashers, earning a 9-4-2 record in 21 starts. According to statistics from Quanthockey.com, those four losses in 21 games are the lowest total of a Swedish netminder who played in at least 20 games.

However, if any experts wanted to argue the merits of this particular record, some might point out Jonas Gustavsson’s 16-5-0 record in 2013-14 with the Detroit Red Wings as the actual record. During that season, Gustavsson played 27 games and lost only five times, solid numbers for a backup who played at least 25 contests. Realistically, Ullmark will play in another 20 games and probably lose at least once more, making it difficult to say whether or not his final loss total in a full-length campaign is the best mark of all time.

Linus Ullmark is Looking to Join an Exclusive Vezina Trophy Group

In 1926-27 the NHL introduced the Vezina Trophy to recognize the best goaltenders in the league. Although the qualifications have varied over the years, the general managers have voted for the winner every year since 1981-82.

Currently, Ullmark is the favorite to walk away with the award in the spring, which would be the first significant trophy win of his career. If he is successful in his bid for immortality, he will become just the third Swedish goalie to win the award behind Lindbergh and Lundqvist.

Being named to the All-Star Game is quite an achievement; however, Ullmark and the Bruins have their sights set on the Stanley Cup. Should he lead the team to their first championship since 2011, none of these records will matter since he’ll achieve something no Swedish goalie has ever done: finishing a regular season as a champion.