The Ullmark drama has been loud mostly because the Senators went public to shut it down. Steve Staios released a statement calling the online stories fabricated and stressed Ullmark is away for personal reasons with full support.

On Wednesday, the newest chatter came from Dreger, who said Ottawa does not want to be in the market for goaltending, and the sense he got was Ullmark will be back sooner rather than later.

Linus Ullmark to return to the Senators

As a fan who watched him in Boston, it is hard not to read this as the room choosing calm over chaos.

The numbers explain why Ottawa would rather wait than sell low. Ullmark is 32, and he has a 14-8-5 with record with a .881 save percentage and a 2.95 goals against average.

He is also signed at an $8.25 million cap hit, which makes him a core decision, not a disposable rumor piece.

If Ottawa truly planned to trade him, you would expect different messaging, not a hard-line statement defending him, followed by insiders framing his return as the priority.

Even the James Reimer move reads like a patch, not a pivot, with Reuters describing it as a response to the team's goaltending struggles while Ullmark remains on personal leave.

None of this guarantees a timeline, and the Senators have avoided promising one. But taken together, the direction is pretty clear: Ottawa is preparing for Ullmark to rejoin the organization, not preparing a trade call sheet.

Do you think keeping Linus Ullmark is the right move for the Ottawa Senators?