Jeremy Swayman still has not signed a contract with the Boston Bruins.
The season starts tomorrow.
The Bruins’ star goaltender is currently a restricted free agent, which means Boston still holds the rights to sign him to a new contract. If the two sides can’t come to some sort of agreement, Swayman is likely to be traded to a team that will. The 25-year-old can’t declare himself an unrestricted free agent yet because he doesn’t fit into that criteria, so a trade would be the last resort to get him to play this season.
The two sides — the team and Swayman’s agent — have been reportedly very far away from coming to an agreement. Swayman is demanding a pretty big contract, as he should, and the Bruins are trying to pay him as little as possible, as teams do.
Last Monday, Bruins President Cam Neely made a snippy comment about what Swayman’s camp was asking for in a contract.
“I don’t want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now,” Neely said in a press conference.
Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, pushed back against Neely’s words with a statement on Instagram, saying that the number $64 million had never been put on the table until Neely threw it out in that press conference.
$64 million almost certainly would suggest a contract for $8 million a year for eight years.
Considering the goalie market in the NHL right now, this would be a completely fair contract. Swayman has only ever been a part of a goalie tandem, so he has never played more than 44 games in a season. It’s hard to predict how he would fare with a full season as a true starter, and the uncertainty could potentially lower how much money he could receive.
New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin is a good comparison. He has established himself in the league as a starter more than Swayman has, but he’s also four years older. Sorokin signed an eight-year contract for $66 million that kicks in this season.
Going off that baseline, $64 million would be completely fair for Swayman.
That number is not the issue. It’s the principle.
Neely came off sloppy and petty when speaking to the media on Monday. It was a pointed comment, which is only fair considering the tension of these contract negotiations, but he has to know better than to air out these grievances publicly, especially if the number had allegedly not been brought up to Swayman and his agent. The decision puts Swayman in an awkward position and paints him in an unflattering light, making him come off as greedy.
The Bruins have apparently offered an eight-year contract with an $7.8 million average annual value, which is close to that $64 million reference, but still less.
All of this comes after Swayman himself brought up previous struggles with negotiating with the Bruins last offseason. Swayman entered contract arbitration after his three-year entry-level contract came to an end with the 2022-23 season, and even after everything was worked out, Swayman made it clear that the process was damaging. This current situation cannot be helping his view of the Bruins.
The Bruins, though, need Swayman now more than ever.
They traded away his best friend on the team, Vezina-winning goaltender Linus Ullmark, who also shouldered the other half of the workload as goalie. In return, the Bruins received Joonas Korpisalo, who is in no way the caliber of goaltender the Bruins need if they want to go deep into the playoffs again.
With the season coming up, the situation has become more dire. The Bruins cannot be sacrificing games without Swayman, and Swayman needs to be able to gear up for NHL-level hockey as soon as possible so he can perform at his best.
Swayman loves Boston and has said that he wants to stay with the Bruins, but a lot of damage has been done. If the Bruins want to keep him, they need to hand over the cash to make up for their missteps and clean up their act going forward.
