Over the last two seasons, the Boston Bruins had the best goaltending tandem in the NHL. Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman backboned the Black and Gold to a historic 2022-23 season where they set records for wins (65) and points (135). Then this past season, they led the Bruins to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division, finishing one point behind the Florida Panthers.
In June, GM Don Sweeney broke up the duo by sending Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators and despite Swayman still being a free agent, the Bruins are going into the future with Swayman in goal, and when/if he signs a new deal, it'll make him one of the top paid goalies in the league. The NHL Network ranked the Top 10 goalies right now and both Swayman and Ullmark made the list.
NHL Network ranks Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark as Top 10 current goalies
The NHL Network ranked the current Top 10 goalies and Swayman and Ullmark both made the list. Swayman ranked the highest of the pair coming in at No. 4, while Ullmark came in at No. 10, but if we're being honest, it was weird seeing the Senators logo next to his name.
There's a new #⃣1⃣ on our Top 10 Goalies Right Now list!
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 8, 2024
What are your thoughts on our list?@NHL | #NHLTopPlayers pic.twitter.com/1kIQ5NAGRM
Two seasons ago, Ullmark outplayed Swayman and had an incredible season, going 40-6-1 with a 1.89 GAA and a .938 SV% on his way to winning the Vezina Trophy. Last season, Swayman played better of the two going 25-10-8 with a 2.53 GAA and a .916 SV% in the regular season before playing incredibly in the playoffs for the Black and Gold splitting his 12 games with a 2.15 GAA and a .933 SV%. They don't survive a seven-game first-round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs without the former University of Maine standout.
In the end, the writing has been on a wall for some time that Sweeney was eventually going to split up the duo and it finally happened in June. Now they didn't get the return that they were hoping for as they had to take back the struggling Joonas Korpisalo from Ottawa and his $3 million AAV, but it did free up $2 million in valuable cap space. This is a duo that Bruins fans will remember for a long time that won a lot of games together in two seasons.