Why The Golden Knights Should Aggressively Pursue A Trade For Linus Ullmark
A few days I came up with a creative trade that landed Linus Ullmark with the Golden Knights. It turns out… that very thing is being discussed.
The Sens remain the most aggressive team in trade discussions. However, Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen has reported that Detroit and Vegas are heavily involved in talks for Ullmark.
“The Vegas Golden Knights and Detroit Red Wings are reportedly also involved in talks to acquire Ullmark.”
We did the Golden Knights offseason guide yesterday. The easiest way to create cap space is by sending out Adin Hill. Finding a way to get Ullmark retained at 50% by using a third party is the best path forward. Not only does it create cap space but Vegas also gets a goalie upgrade. Ullmark is far more reliable from a health standpoint and all of his underlying metrics are off the charts.
Ullmark, 31 at the end of July, played in 40 games this past year posting a .915 SV% and a 2.57 GAA. The former Sabres netminder also won the Vezina award the year prior. Even when Ullmark was in Buffalo around a terrible team, he still posted good numbers. Imagine what Ullmark can do behind this Vegas blue line?
On the latest episode of 32 Thoughts with Elliotte Friedman, the infamous Sportsnet reporter essentially said that Ottawa is on the no-trade list for Ullmark. Which totally makes sense given the financial implications of Canadian taxes. If Ullmark turned a deal down to go to LA, Ottawa has to be on the no-trade list and it turns out that they very much are. From what I gather, the only way Ullmark is going to Ottawa is if they blow him away with an extension. That’s a lot of hurdles to climb to get a deal done. Plus, I’m sure Ullmark would love a say in who he is extending with. He would have to be a total lunatic to prefer Ottawa over Vegas for financial reasons alone.
The hard part is getting a deal done with Boston while not giving up anything of substance. Given that Ullmark is a rental, he’s worth far less than he would be if an extension came with the deal. Does Zach Whitecloud and draft pick compensation start the conversation? Can Vegas trade Hill or Logan Thompson to then use those assets for Ullmark?
Don’t count out Kelly McCrimmon on this one. It makes too much sense for Vegas to jump in. Almost like they did for Noah Hanifin when everyone thought Tampa Bay was the one who had the deal done. All I know is if you put Ullmark on this team as status quo they’re the favorites to win the Cup in 2024-25. No question about it.
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