All the pressure is on Swayman to shine for Bruins after Ullmark trade originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
There’s no debate anymore: The Boston Bruins‘ net belongs to Jeremy Swayman.
The Bruins traded his goalie partner and 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner, Linus Ullmark, to the Ottawa Senators on Monday for netminder Joonas Korpisalo, center Mark Kastelic and a 2024 first-round draft pick (25th overall).
This trade clears the way for Swayman to be the undisputed No. 1 goalie in Boston for the long term. And while that’s great for Swayman, it does come with added responsibility and pressure.
One of the reasons why the Bruins were in the mix for the Presidents’ Trophy until the final week of the 2023-24 regular season was their goaltending.
The Bruins did not defend very well this past season. They ranked 18th in shots allowed, 17th in scoring chances allowed and 21st in high-danger chances allowed at 5-on-5 last season, per Natural Stat Trick. The B’s survived in large part because Swayman and Ullmark posted a combined .929 5-on-5 save percentage, which was third-best in the NHL. The goaltending bailed out the Bruins in a lot of games.
It was such a luxury for the Bruins to be able to roll out a Vezina-caliber goalie every night, and it was one that almost no other team had. That luxury is now gone as a result of the Ullmark trade.
Korpisalo is coming off an awful season in which he posted a 21-26-4 record with a .890 save percentage and 3.27 goals-against average for the Senators. He ranked 97th out of 98 goalies in goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. Unlike Ullmark, you’re probably not going to get 35-40 games of consistently above-average (let alone elite) play from Korpisalo. If there’s anyone who can turn Korpisalo back into a competent player, it’s Bruins goalie coach Bob Essensa, but banking on a quick rebound from the Finnish netminder would probably be unwise.
Providence Bruins goalie Brandon Bussi is another potential backup. He has a lot of talent and projects to be a solid NHL player, but he has zero experience above the AHL level. It would be foolish to expect him to play 35-40 games as a backup next season.
All of this means Swayman likely will need to take on a workload next season that he’s never experienced. There were 14 goaltenders who started 50-plus games last season, and 11 of them led their team to the playoffs.
Swayman played in a career-high 44 games this past season, and he started consecutive games just three times. It was…