Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators Could Wait on a New Contract

Who Should Want An Extension More? Linus Ullmark or the Ottawa Senators?

TSN Hockey Analyst Frankie Corrado joined Jay Onrait on SportsCenter and was asked about a possible contract extension for Linus Ullmark in Ottawa and how long it might take.

** NHLRumors.com transcriptions

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Jay Onrait: “Finally, we’ve got Linus Ullmark traded from Boston to the Ottawa Senators in the offseason. One year remaining on his deal. Should it be the Senators wanting to extend Linus Ullmark more or should it be Linus Ullmark wanting a contract extension more with the Ottawa Senators?”

Frankie Corrado: “That’s a good thing. It’s a good question, Jay. I feel like it should be a little bit of a game of chicken between these two and I’ll tell you why. For the Ottawa Senators, they have committed to goaltenders, they committed to Matt Murray, they committed to Jonas Korpisalo.

Ultimately, they had to find a way to get out of those two contracts. Now Linus Ullmark comes over, and he’s a former Veznia winner. He was really good in Boston. All signs would point to he’s going to be good. Get this guy locked up. See if you can have a little you know, reassurance in that as far as what the future looks like.

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But when you look at the past, you almost say from Ottawa’s point of view let’s see how this plays out. Like let’s just see how he fits. Let’s see how the team plays in front of him because maybe we just want to get a feel for what it looks like for Linus Ullmark. I wonder if he looks at things and says okay, I would like to get an extension done for sure because you know, you’re gonna have money locked in and all that kind of stuff.

But at the same time if your Ullmark, you kind of want to see what the market looks like for goaltenders. You know, Jeremy Swayman, his contract is up. Is he going to be getting six, six and a half million dollars? Probably very realistic. You know, what does that number look like for Ullmark if he’s on the open market?

I’m sure it’s a little bit of a game of chicken between the two, but I think with this one, it’s almost like you want to wait and see how things go before both sides commit to this long-term.”