Nope. Ullmark is just worth the 2025th 1st thats it nothing more.

Then NJ, COL, etc. can waste another year with horrible goaltending.

Here’s your problem.

I know the bruins have to move off of Ullmark to upgrade their center depth. I know the bruins have to trade him. Regardless of how good he is, he is a cap dump. At this point, all any team acquiring Ullmark has to be is the highest bidder.

He s not a cap dump, he have another year left and Bruins could keep him and they have 22.5mil to get a center

I really like Hatakka, I don't think he gets moves here

Every team interested in Ullmark is willing to give a first round pick. That is his value. The winner of the Ullmark sweepstakes will be willing to throw in a sweetener to get an elite goaltender on a terrific $5m cap hit for the season.

How many of those teams have a first rounder to give away without completely depleting their store of draft picks? I think you’ll find that part hard to get around. Any team that wants to be competitive has likely spent several trade deadlines trading away draft picks, they don’t have that many left.

Bruins have 21mil in cap this upcoming year.
Even if Sway gets say 7.5m x 7, we'd rather JDB walk and resign Heinen. Then we'll have 11mil to secure a #1 C, and a 3LD in FA.
Team will be filled out with an additional 4-5 F fighting for a spot out of camp, and 3 D fighting for #7 D, not to mention Bussi is ready in goal. If we keep Ullmark we'll lose Bussi to waivers, but we still have Dipietro, Keyser, Dyck, and Svedback ready to take action in Providence.

You can let debrusk walk but you need to replace him. The reason the bruins got eliminated is because they didn’t have enough goal scoring. They should not let him walk without having an established replacement (who will likely be more expensive) in place.

You probably have an $8M budget for a center, a $6M budget for DeBrusk (or his replacement) and a $3.5M budget for Swayman’s pay raise. This eats $17.5M out of the available $21M. Money gets tight very quickly.

There are also non-competitive teams that think they can be. I assume Ullmark will be traded with an extension in place. Teams with young cores are looking at this two years from now saying they could have an elite goaltender locked up with a young talented team in front of Ullmark.

Ullmark of course has to agree to any extension. I cannot see him wanting to go to a “non competitive” team if his goal is to have postseason success. He has personal reasons for wanting to stay in New Jersey as well. We got his old teammate Erik Haula and Ullmark and Jesper Bratt share an agent (I think they’re close).

I cannot see Ullmark wanting to extend with a team like Ottawa (no offense) that hasn’t sniffed the playoffs in some time.

No I would imagine that all seven Canadian teams are off the table, and probably several of the coastal teams like SJ, LAK, VAN, ANA, etc.

I would imagine teams like PHI, PIT, COL, BUF are the other teams interested in Ullmark. I think NJ is definitely the best match, and I do think the Bruins would be happy to just get the 2025 first round pick. Will there be a sweetener? Could go either way.

You’re probably right about this. Let’s review the teams:
PHI: they just sign Ilya Fedotov to a $3M+ per season contract. They have two goalies under contract. I do not see a fit
PIT: they are in cap trouble again. They would have to shed someone’s salary to make this work. If they were somehow able to trade Ryan Graves, that has a cost associated with it. It’s a draft pick they can no longer trade for Linus Ullmark
COL: this is very difficult to assess. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Valeri Nichushkin. They also have Mikko Rantanen on an expiring contract that is going to need a pay raise. They also have no draft picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 draft to trade
BUF: they believe they have their tandem of the future with Levi and Lukkonen. They have capable goaltenders on a good cost control, there’s no reason to add another goaltender. I also don’t see a scenario where Ullmark wants to go BACK to Buffalo.

While i certainly agree we need top 6 help, a few of the prospects fighting for a spot next year will be Offense first. JDB played himself in to a nice raise after these playoffs, but 6mil a little too rich for the B's i'd believe just based on historical performance he gives regular season. Great to have his straight line speed, shot (when he uses it) and PK ability, but i think we can find a cheaper replacement for what he realistically brings to the table. I think he'd probably thrive elsewhere maybe under a different structure.
Looking at next years roster too there's realistically not many more holes we'd be looking to fill right now. I'm not saying there isn't room for some serious improvement, this is just the hypothetical discussion if Ullmark is viewed by league GMs as a "cap dump"
Yes i know we'd look at letting him walk for free, but realistically what's a #20+ pick do for the Devils. There's been a million comps thrown around for Ullmark. I think this is close to what we'll see draft day should it happen

What does that pick do for the devils? It’s another trade asset if the devils want it. It’s another prospect. You can reference my other posts. There are no other teams that both need goaltending and are willing to give up a first round pick for Linus Ullmark. The devils aren’t going to give that away. You can negotiate around the margins with your salary situation, but you will still be tight for money.

curious on Devils fans thoughts though of valuation of some prospects like Clarke, Casey, and Holtz. Your ACGMs were a little over the map so was hard trying to find relative value. I figured you were more interested in giving up the uncertain (#20s pick) vs giving up a proven commodity
I'm also not aware of Hatakka play at all admittedly, so idk if that sways the value in one direction or another

I’ll start with what I think the Linus Ullmark trade is going to be.

I think the bruins can expect the 2025 WPG 2nd round pick and Graeme Clarke in return for Linus Ullmark. If I were New Jersey, I’d give Boston their choice of the 2026 4th round picks we have in order to push the deal across the finish line. I know you might disagree with this, but I’ve given my reasons why the return for Linus Ullmark might be softer than you hope it will be.

I’d like to see a full season out of Holtz without a coach that actively sabotages him before I make any judgements but I really like his offense if he can round out the rest of his game. Including him in an Ullmark trade would be selling low on Holtz in my view.

Seamus Casey figures to be the long term John Marino replacement. I doubt he sees a lot of NHL time this season. The devils can afford to bring him along slowly until John Marino becomes a UFA. I view Casey as the long term replacement for John Marino. I’d be hesitant to trade him.

Graeme Clarke I just proposed to you in a trade. There’s good offensive upside there for him to be a full time contributor someday.

Santeri Hatakka is a good nuts and bolts 6th defenseman. He can move the puck decently enough and you won’t get completely caved in if he’s on a third pairing.

I see that being a fair enough trade. I think right now Bs pass on Casey due to Carlo/McAvoy, would be stuck 3RD and still fight Peeke, Regula, Walsh, Mitchell for #7 time over next few years. I think all in BOS would prefer Holtz, but i can certainly see your view point on that one. Curious about Clarke, but seems just a Lysell 2.0 almost.
I'd be curious if we forego the prospects and work out a few comparable picks just based off need. I'm sure a few 2nds or whatever it ends up being won't end up being same caliber, but just based off hockey needs. I still think there's a good trade to be made between the 2, so i'm curious to see how it pans out.

Just for fun bs, would something like Ullmark at 50% move the needle towards the #10? I know it would be ever so slightly in the "right" direction. Obviously adding more BOS end

I’m not sure how much the retention helps. The devils would need to have plans for the $2.5M they would save and I’m not sure there’s a player in free agency that warrants it that would be on devils radar. Boston would have to have a package of Ullmark+ in order to land 10th overall. Alternatively, the bruins could trade Swayman for 10th overall, but I have a pretty good feeling that Swayman is off the table completely. I’m not even sure what that package would be.

I’d be willing to make a trade for Ullmark for 2 second round picks. That’s about the value I gave the package with Graeme Clarke. I thought I was doing you a favor by trading Boston a player that’s close to full time NHL games. He’s an RFA but his contract shouldn’t break the bank at all and he’d be a very cost efficient bottom 6 forward for the time being.