After his first season with the Boston Bruins, goalie Joonas Korpisalo made his feelings known about his lack of playing time for the Black and Gold. I'm not really sure what he was expecting after Boston signed Jeremy Swayman to a monster deal right before the puck dropped on the 2024-25 season.
Acquired from the Ottawa Senators as part of the return that sent former Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark to Canada, Korpisalo returned for a second season in 2025-26. Swayman got a majority of the starts in the compacted season schedule, with NHL players going over and playing in the Olympics in February.
Last summer, on July 1, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney ended up trading Korpisalo to the New York Rangers, ending his two-year tenure in Boston. Going to the Rangers would allow him to back up Igor Shesterkin. However, he was injured early in the season and lost for the rest of the year; Korpisalo suffered a lower-body injury and missed the first month of the season. He made his debut on Saturday afternoon, and it was an impressive one.
Former Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo wins Rangers debut
Korpisalo got the start in Seattle against the Kraken on Saturday afternoon and turned back 25 shots he faced in a 4-3 New York win that moved them into third place in the Metropolitan Division after Saturday night's results.
The Rangers gave their new goalie some breathing room right away, as they scored three goals in the first 14 minutes of the game, then added a fourth in the second period to take a commanding 4-0 lead into the third period. However, as is the case in the NHL, nothing comes easy until the clock strikes triple zeroes at the end of regulation.
Seattle got goals from Kaapo Kakko, Jordan Eberle, and Vince Dunn to close the gap to 4-3, but the Rangers and Korpisalo were able to hold on for the one-goal victory.
"4-0 lead, maybe we didn’t have our foot on the gas as much (in the third period),” Korpisalo said, per NHL.com. “They scored one early, they got the momentum, and it’s such a small thing that happens and it kind of turn (the game) all the way around. But it turns out to be a one-goal game.”
Korpisalo wasn't bad for the Bruins, but trading him was a move that Sweeney needed to make for multiple reasons. One of them, and maybe the biggest one, was to clear a roster spot for Michael DiPietro to be a cheaper backup to Swayman, so they wouldn't lose him on waivers if they tried to sneak him through to the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League (AHL). It was a win-win for everybody.
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