Report: Senators have insane offer in for Linus Ullmark

According to a report from Ottawa Senators insider Bruce Garrioch, trade talks between the Senators and the Boston Bruins concerning Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark have intensified lately.

Last week at a season ticket holder event, Senators senior vice-president Dave Poulin cemented the idea that the team is looking to improve its goaltending for next season.

“A lot of different factors go into analyzing (the club’s goaltending),” Poulin said at the event. “We’ve spent a lot of time on it and we’re still working hard on it. Our goaltending will be better next season.”

It appears that Ullmark has been on the team's sights for some time and now Garrioch is reporting that the Senators are one of the few remaining teams bidding for his services. 

So... what's the offer?

According to Garrioch's sources, the Senators have offered up defenseman Jakob Chychrun, a 1st round pick and an additional draft pick in exchange for Ullmark straight up.

From Garrioch's most recent column for The Ottawa Citizen:

A league executive believes the Senators would likely have to offer defenceman Jakob Chychrun along with a first-round pick and another selection to acquire Ullmark. Even then, he has a modified no-trade clause that has 15 teams on it and it’s not known if Ottawa is on that list.

- Bruce Garrioch

Wow...

That's a steep price to pay for a goalie who seemingly couldn't find a home last season.

Ullmark is a stellar goaltender, no doubt, but in an NHL where Vezina trophy winning goaltenders get traded for literally nothing (Hello, Marc Andre Fleury) this has all the makings of a lopsided trade.

Chychrun is in the final year of a contract that pays him a reasonable $4.6 million annually and there must be reason to suspect that he won't be re-signing in Ottawa next offseason. He's slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer and could walk away from the Senators, or the Bruins for that matter, with no return. The Senators are obviously wary of avoiding any potential situation like this as they've dealt with the likes of Erik Karlsson, Mark Stone and Matt Duchene under similar circumstances in previous seasons.

Stay tuned here, we could have a whopper of a deal in the NHL's Atlantic Division.