You have to consider the following for any Ullmark trade:
- There are very few goalies available on the market.
- The team NEEDS to make the playoffs.
- If the team is in a position to trade an unsigned Ullmark at the deadline, that means they failed to make the playoffs, and they will have much bigger problems than losing assets on a 1 year rental goalie.
Add in that Chychrun was the one speculated to go for Ullmark, and he is a pending UFA as well. It makes sense to swap one pending UFA for another who is in a position of greater need.
Who else is out there? Markstrom? Gustavsson? There aren't a lot of reasonable options. This season is very important. Giroux is a UFA. I doubt Brady is going to want to stay if we're a shit show again. Even know this team is not a strong team, they are in an awkward spot where they have to balance the need to win now (which basically means make the playoffs and don't get embarrassed), with fixing the poor foundation that Dorion left in terms of ridding the team of picks/prospects.
Odds are, if we win, Ullmark signs here in January. That's usually how it works out. If he doesn't re-sign but we make the playoffs and go on a run because of his goaltending, when the lesser options were questionable at best, that is well worth burning what would be a mid or late first in return for Chychrun (or giving them the Boston pick). If we stink, we'll recoup a lesser asset for him at the deadline and move on to much bigger problems anyways (Brady leveraging his NMC to ask out, Giroux possibly not re-signing, solar flares causing EMP like events, etc).