By now, everyone who is even remotely a fan of the Boston Bruins knows that they have traded goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators in exchange goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, center Mark Kastelic and the 25th-overall pick in this year's draft.
Ullmark had one year left on his current deal and a partial no-trade clause built into it. However, after much intrigue over the last few weeks, he waived his NTC to be traded to the Senators from the Bruins where he will presumably be the starting goaltender.
Let's be real though, this is Boston. Yes, we won't see anymore goalie hugs, but in the grand scheme of things, this can't be just a simple trade, can it? No, of course not.
What does it really mean?
Since it is not just a simple one-off of the Bruins trading a player who clearly wanted out, but only to certain destinations, what else could this possibly mean? The answer lies within the position they just traded.
What it means is that Boston has confidence in the goalies either in the return it received or in the system already. Namely, the Bruins feel very comfortable moving forward with Jeremy Swayman as their starting netminder moving forward.
At the time of writing this, the only signed goalie is Korpisalo as he is signed through 2025, but given his numbers last year, there's no way that Boston lets Swayman walk and hope a contract with Brandon Bussi works out or they ride with Korpisalo and fellow Providence Bruins' goalie Michael DiPietro, who was just signed to an extension in the 2023-24 season.
For the Bruins to let such an establihed netminder in Ullmark go, it definitely shows that that they feel that they have what it takes to win in goal moving forward whoever that choice may be for the team moving forward.
Who is the most likely choice?
Most likely, Boston is working to get a deal done with Swayman so he can stay with the Black and Gold for a long time. He remains a restricted free agent, giving the Bruins leverage in any negotiations, but it's most likely they will have a deal locked up pretty soon after free agency begins.
Korpisalo does have four years left on his current deal, but that's no guarantee he will stick as the starter.