NHL Now: David Pagnotta on NHL Now when asked about the goaltending market after Jacob Markstrom and Darcy Kuemper were traded this week.
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Bill Pidto: “So Kuemper is the king. Markstrom is an excellent host. What about the rest of the goalie trade market? Linus Ilmark may be leaving soon, from the Bruins. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Pagnotta: “Yes, look, I’m saying something, he’s not the only one. Of course there are other goalscorers out there. John Gibson, Anaheim is willing to listen. Juice Saros, Nashville is listening to him. Elvis Merzlikins in Columbus. You can also add Filip Gustavsson in Minnesota to that list. You are also available.
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There are other teams looking to upgrade their goalkeeper position. Ottawa is one of them. They would like to land Joonas Korpisalo if they can, and go from there.
Toronto has been hovering, as we said, for Markstrom. I believe there is interest in both Ullmark and Saros. It would be interesting if Toronto and Boston could put something together. I couldn’t hold that breath. But Saros is a player who will generate more interest, along with Linus Ullmark who has another year left on his, both with one year left on their contracts.
Now that the Bruins are likely to sign Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year extension north of $8 million per season, it’s clear that the future will look bleak for anything beyond next season, for Linus Ullmark but he’ll see the juice. , Juuse Saros, I’m sorry, and you’re looking at a deal between and between eight and eight million and a quarter in AAV on the extension. I don’t think Nashville has any desire to do that. Not with Askarov coming up behind him.
So these are two teams, Boston and Nashville, that could work well here in the next, you know, 10 or so days leading up to the draft, where we can see some goaltending moves.
And also Minnesota in relation to Gustafsson. Billy Guerin and the Wild have made it known that he is available. There will be plenty of fireworks here over the next few days and in the days leading up to next week’s draft.
Pidto: “Okay, so we ask, any chance Saros and Ullmark stay with their current teams before opening night next season?
Pagnotta: “I would be very surprised if Saros is still there if he is telling the truth because of how high he is, the Predators, about Askarov.
The Bruins have it, they don’t have a ton of cap space. They have little room to move but they have holes they want to fill. Nashville has plenty of cap flexibility in terms of adding to their roster.
The team is in, they want to add to the front. They are the team that entered Martin Necas. They want to add their blue. Brett Pesce is a player that when he becomes a free agent come July 1st, they will look to add him and certainly ask about his availability. They even tried to trade him last season from Carolina. So I looked in Nashville looking for a guy like Pesce.
But from Boston’s point of view, you know, Don Sweeney has made it known that he wants to add another point guard to his roster and they’re going to have a couple of holes on defense and some guys on the bottom couple going. Derek Forbort will test the market with others.
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So if you can’t get Ullmark out, free up a little extra cap space on that $5 million and maybe fix it up quickly, another hole, or use that cap space to fill that space somewhere else. I think that’s something the Bruins would like to do. They check it. But Ullmark has a lot of cards here with a very long list of trades, not trades. So it will be interesting to see how the Bruins navigate this in 10 days or so.
