Ullmark made a fantastic impression on team staff, touring Canadian Tire Centre for the first time.
After being traded from the Boston Bruins to the Ottawa Senators two weeks ago, goalie Linus Ullmark made an excellent first impression in his online media availability.
After arriving in Ottawa to tour Canadian Tire Centre, Ullmark was even more impressive in person. The Sens social media team gave fans a video sample of his recent tour of the rink, and despite its brevity, Ullmark came off with Sens staff as friendly, chatty, and inquisitive.
Cameras caught him meeting his new head coach, Travis Green, and the equally sociable Thomas Chabot, who happened to be in the building. They seemed to be BFFs straight away.
So there is zero worry about Ullmark, the guy. For those who've had a chance to meet him, he has the same kind of fun, quirky vibe as Ottawa Redblacks receiver Jaelon Acklin, who's often regarded as one of the most fun, outgoing characters in the CFL.
But adding more "high character" won't end the Senators' seven-year playoff drought. The bigger boxes to check are whether he'll be as good in Ottawa as he was in Boston and, if he is, whether he'll sign an extension.
Ullmark has just one year left on his deal, and if he has the kind of season the Senators hope for, he'll need a serious raise on his current $5 million AAV if he's going to forego the open auction of free agency next summer.
According to a Fan Poll by the hockey analytics X account JFreshHockey, most NHL fans believe Ullmark will be almost as good in Ottawa this fall as he was in Boston last year. After a 7th-place ranking in 2023, Ullmark drops three places and ranks as the league's 10th-best goalie, according to the fans.
Anton Forsberg plummeted 13 spots in the fan vote and stands 55th. But it's refreshing for Sens fans to cheer for a goalie that's so highly regarded in the league. It's been a minute.
While projections like these are fun to read, the NHL standings and stat pages still don't have a column for fan predictions (shocker), no matter how big the voter turnout. Whether Ullmark will still put up top-10 numbers will, obviously, be decided exclusively on the ice.
We maintain that great NHL goaltending cannot exist without the support of above-average team defence. There will always be the odd outlier, but bad teams usually have goalies with poor stats and good teams almost always have goalies with great stats.
It will be fascinating to monitor the Freaky Friday goalie switch for Ullmark and Joonas Korpisalo and see how they each respond to their new, very different situations this fall.