Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators have been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. Not only has the team struggled on the ice in his absence, but the organization is now also dealing with a wave of negative voices off it.
Rumors about the reason for Ullmark’s personal leave, which began on Dec. 28, spread so widely on Thursday that general manager Steve Staios felt compelled to issue a statement via the team’s social media, strongly opposing the online speculation.
It is not appropriate to go into the details of what circulated on X, although there is no doubt that Staios’ comments only added fuel to the fire. As a result, Ullmark remains the biggest talking point in the hockey world, and on Friday, insider David Pagnotta revealed that the 2022-2023 Vezina Trophy winner has been popping up in trade talk even before the latest controversy.
said Pagnotta:
“I had heard – and I didn’t just hear it this week, I heard this when he went on personal leave, even a little while before that – that there was a bit of tension in terms of his relationship with the club. “I don’t know the details, but I had heard in recent weeks, during this personal leave, that perhaps the relationship had been a bit strained and needed to be repaired.
And then you know, his name is starting to get out a little bit, he’s going on personal leave, and even yesterday I was checking in with a few different clubs asking if they’d heard anything. The answer was yes, we heard it, we don’t know how serious it is, but his name is starting to swirl around anyway,”
The 32-year-old Ullmark is in the first season of the four-year, $33 million extension he signed with the Senators after being acquired in a trade from the Bruins in 2024. He has posted a 14-8-5 record with a 2.95 goals-against average, an .881 save percentage and one shutout in 2025-26.
What impact will this have on Linus Ullmark’s trading market?
If Staios and the Senators were quietly testing the market on Ullmark before Thursday’s chaos, one wonders how much that situation has changed in the aftermath.
There’s clearly a lot going on here, and while both sides are open to exploring a path to a split, it’s hard to imagine anything happening until Ullmark returns from leave and gets back into some game action.
This will undoubtedly remain a developing story in the days and weeks to come. But for now, there are far more questions than answers, and honestly, it may well stay that way.
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