NHL Rumors: What is the Goalie Trade Market Looking Like Now?

NHL Now: David Pagnotta on NHL Now when asked about the goalie market after Jacob Markstrom and Darcy Kuemper were traded this week.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Bill Pidto: “So Kuemper’s a King. Markstrom’s a Devil. How about the rest of the goalie trade market? Linus UIlmark may be on the move soon, from the Bruins. What do you think?

Pagnotta: “Yeah, well, look, there’s I mean, he’s not the only one. There are certainly other goaltenders that are out there as well. John Gibson, Anaheim willing to listen on him. Juuse Saros, Nashville is listening on him. Elvis Merzlikins in Columbus. You can also add Filip Gustavsson in Minnesota to that list. He’s available as well.

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There are other teams that are looking to shore up their goaltending position. Ottawa being one of them. They’d like to move out Joonas Korpisalo if they could, and then kind of go from there.

Toronto was poking around, as we mentioned, on Markstrom. I believe there’s interest in both Ullmark and Saros. It’d be interesting if Toronto and Boston could put anything together. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. But Saros is certainly a player that is going to generate more interest, along with Linus Ullmark who has another year left that his, they both have one more year left on their contract.

Now with the Bruins likely to sign Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year extension north of $8 million per season, obviously, the future there’s gonna look bleak in terms of anything beyond next season for, for Linus Ullmark but you’re gonna see the juicy, Juuse Saros, excuse me, is also looking at a deal in and around $8 million to eight and a quarter on an AAV on an extension. I don’t think Nashville has an appetite to do that. Not with Askarov coming up right behind him.

So these are two teams, both the Boston and Nashville, that could be pretty active here in the next, you know, 10 days or so leading into draft, where we may see some more goaltender movement.

And again Minnesota with respect to Gustafsson. Billy Guerin and the Wild have made it known that he’s available. There’s gonna be a lot more fireworks here over the next few days and in the days leading up to the draft next week.

Pidto: “Alright, so we ask, any chance Saros and Ullmark remain with their current teams before opening night next season?

Pagnotta: “I’d be more surprised if Saros is still there to be honest because of how high they are with respect to, the Predators are, with respect to Askarov.

The Bruins have, they don’t have a ton of cap space. They’ve got a little wiggle room but they’ve got some holes they want to fill. Nashville has a lot more cap flexibility in terms of potentially adding to their roster.

They’re team has checked in, they want to add a front. They’re a team that’s checked in on Martin Necas. They want to add their blue. Brett Pesce is a player that if he hits July one is a free agent, they’re going to look to add and certainly inquire about his availability. They even tried to trade for him last offseason from Carolina. So I certainly looked at Nashville looking at a guy like Pesce.

But from Boston’s perspective, you know, Don Sweeney made it known he wants to add another score to his lineup and they’re going to have a couple holes on defense with some guys in the bottom pair leaving. Derek Forbort‘s going to test the market and others.

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So if you can move out Ullmark, free up a little additional cap space in that $5 million and then maybe either address it immediately, another hole, or use that cap space to fill that void elsewhere. I think that’s something that Bruins would like to do. They’re exploring it. But Ullmark holds a lot of cards here with a pretty lengthy trade, no-trade list. So it’ll be interesting to see how the Bruins navigate this over the next 10 days or so.