Linus Ullmark has signed a four-year contract extension with the Ottawa Senators paying the goaltender an annual average value of $8.25 million per season, the team announced Wednesday. The contract includes a full no-movement clause for all four seasons.
Ullmark was about to enter the 2024-25 NHL season as a pending unrestricted free agent. When asked about Ullmark’s contract status in an interview late last month, Senators GM Steve Staios said it would be a conversation for him to have with agent Joakim Persson in the “near future.” Ullmark also preached patience regarding his contract.
“I don’t want to rush into decisions that are quite big or quite decisive,” Ullmark previously told The Athletic. “And you never want to do a big decision when you’re affected emotionally by certain things. You want to be in a good mindset. You want to be calm, you want your family to feel like they’re thriving and that they’re enjoying their time as well. Once that sorts itself, that’s when I can make the appropriate decision.
“Whenever I have to make a decision, I’ll make the decision.”
Ullmark was traded to Ottawa from the Boston Bruins in June in exchange for goalie Joonas Korpisalo, a 2024 first-round pick and forward Mark Kastelic. Ullmark won a Vezina Trophy with the Bruins in 2023 after a 40-6-1 record with a .938 save percentage and a 1.89 goals-against average. This past season, Ullmark’s record was 22-10-7 with a .915 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against average in Boston.
Why did the Senators make this move?
Goaltending has been an Achilles heel for the Senators dating back to 2017 when they last made the postseason. The Senators’ team goals-against average has ranked no higher than 21st in the league since then. With the Senators trying to end a seven-year playoff drought, upgrading the goaltending position was a high priority for Staios. Now, the Senators have him locked in place for the next five seasons, including the final year of his current contract.
In three preseason games with the Senators, Ullmark has looked the part of a No. 1 goaltender. According to Natural Stat Trick, Ullmark recorded a .930 save percentage, a 2.41 goals-against average and no losses.
“It means a lot,” Senators coach Travis Green said earlier this week when asked about having a goalie like Ullmark on his team. “Every time you have a good goalie it puts a lot of confidence in your team. It’s an important position. I think it goes without saying how important it is having a good goalie or an upper-echelon goalie in the league.” — Julian McKenzie, Senators beat writer
How does this reset the goalie market?
Not only does the AAV match the one given to his good friend and former teammate Jeremy Swayman by Boston last weekend, but this deal places Ullmark in select company among the game’s highest-paid goaltenders. He and Swayman are currently slotted fourth among active goaltenders under contract for 2025-26 — trailing only Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky ($10M AAV), Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9M AAV) and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5M AAV).
Pending unrestricted free agent Igor Shesterkin will almost certainly bump them down a spot before next season — he’s currently negotiating a deal with the New York Rangers on terms that would make him the NHL’s highest-paid goalie — but it still represents a strong contract for the 31-year-old Ullmark.
He passed up on his opportunity to test the free agent waters next summer by signing with the Senators before ever appearing in a regular-season game for the team, getting a significant raise on the $20 million, four-year contract he signed with the Bruins in 2021. — Chris Johnston, NHL senior writer
(Photo: Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Photography / Getty Images)
