For Bruins fans, there won’t be another goalie tandem quite like Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark. Between their stellar play on the ice and their close relationship off it, the two had a unique partnership.
With Swayman due for a new contract and Ullmark entering the final year of his, the Bruins shipped the latter off to the Ottawa Senators for a package that included his likely replacement: Joonas Korpisalo.
The Bruins’ new tandem won’t be the one that preceded it – in more ways than one – and Korpisalo understands that. His main focus is building up his own relationship with his new goalie partner organically.
“[Swayman] seems like a great guy,” Korpisalo said on a Zoom call with Boston media on Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to [meeting] him and [getting] to know him, and spend time with him on the ice and off ice. That’s how it starts.”
Korpisalo added that Swayman, for his part, reached out to him shortly after the trade to give him a "warm welcome" to Boston. Officially entrenched as the team’s No. 1 starter rather than the ‘1A’ or ‘B,’ Swayman is still awaiting a new contract with the Bruins, but he made an appearance at Boston’s development camp on Tuesday, and Bruins general manager Don Sweeney insists there is plenty of time – and salary cap space – to get a deal done.
“Jeremy has always been a priority for us,” Sweeney said on Monday, following the first afternoon of free agency. “We're in a good spot because we have depth in net right now. But he's the priority now as I sit today. I don't have a timeline. I’ll be patient in every other thing that we do.”
The depth Sweeney speaks of is there, but also not quite reliable. Brandon Bussi, 26, is the Bruins’ top goalie prospect who recently signed a one-year, $775,000 extension. Bussi had a strong year with AHL Providence last season, but does not have an NHL start to his name and is eager to change that.
Then of course there’s Korpisalo, who arrives on a contract that still has four years left with the Bruins paying 75 percent of his $4 million average annual salary. The 30-year-old is a nine-year NHL veteran, but is coming off a tough season as Ottawa’s primary starter.
Korpisalo won just 21 of his 49 starts, posting a .890 save percentage and 3.27 goals against average. He was playing for a Senators team that finished with the seventh-worst record in the NHL, but the advanced numbers indicate Korpisalo had one of the worst seasons among starting NHL goalies last season.
His -13.6 Goals Saved Above Expectation was the worst in the league, according to Evolving Hockey, and he also had the second-worst Goals Saved Above Average (-19.42). However, just one season prior, Korpisalo posted a .914 save percentage in 39 games between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings. Now in Boston, he’s hoping to recapture his old form.
“Last year was a tough year for everyone in Ottawa. … For me individually, and I think the whole team, we did underperform the whole year, and that’s that,” Korpisalo said on Wednesday. “It’s behind me, and I look back and obviously there are some things about it, and now it’s time to look forward.”
