Bruins might purchase a $20 million player in Linus Ullmark trade.

On June 24, the Boston Bruins traded goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators. The deal also included forward Mark Kastelic and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo from Boston. According to Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic, only hours after finalizing the sale, the Bruins may consider buying out Korpisalo’s large contract to free up salary room for the offseason. If the Bruins do not believe Korpisalo is worth the investment, they may pursue a buyout,” Shinzawa wrote following the trade news. “This would allow Brandon Bussi to be Jeremy Swayman’s No. 2 in 2024-25.” Bussi signed a one-year, two-way contract worth $775,000 on Monday.

If the Bruins buy out Korpisalo, they will be accountable for $8 million of his $10,666,667 salary. This is due to the Senators’ salary retention in the deal for Linus Ullmark. The $8 million figure would be distributed over eight years. It is unclear whether Boston will cut Korpisalo, as Shinzawa stated in his piece, citing an unknown NHL general manager. “Not sure,” one GM told Shinzawa via text message about the possible buyout. Korpisalo signed a five-year contract for $20 million in July 2023. He’s under contract until the conclusion of the 2028 season, with an average cap hit of $4 million each year.

Did the Bruins lose the Linus Ullmark trade?

Shayna Goldman of The Athletic evaluated the Ullmark transaction shortly after it became official. She gave the Bruins a “C” and the Senators a “A,” indicating who won and lost the trade in her opinion. “At the end of the day, the 25th pick in the NHL Draft on Friday, Mark Kastelic and Joonas Korpisalo combined don’t equal nearly the value Ullmark brings to a lineup,” Goldman wrote in his post. “And none of these pieces address Boston’s most pressing issues directly. Shinzawa also observed in his own column that the value of Ullmark was significantly lower in fact than it had been rumored.