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The 2024-25 NHL campaign is right around the corner, and there should be a sense of excitement surrounding the Boston Bruins ahead of the new season. Instead, much of the focus throughout their training camp and preseason action has been placed on their contract drama with star goalie Jeremy Swayman, and it doesn't seem like a situation that is likely going to be resolved anytime soon.
Swayman entered the offseason as a restricted free agent, and he has refused to report to the team until he has a new deal with the team. Technically, another team could give Swayman an offer sheet and try to sign him, but that is highly unlikely to happen considering how Boston could just match it and keep their talented goaltender at a cheaper rate than what he will probably end up getting.
The result has been a stalemate between the two sides that has leaked into the public, with Bruins president Cam Neely seeming to indicate that the team has offered something around an eight-year deal with an average annual value of $8 million. Swayman's camp has denied receiving such an offer, and with things getting messy, it's clear Boston's front office has to do something in order to find a resolution to this situation.
What should the Bruins do about Jeremy Swayman?
In order to understand the predicament the Bruins find themselves in with Swayman, it's important to understand the player. Swayman is one of the brightest young goalies in the game who firmly snatched the starting goalie job away from Linus Ullmark in the postseason last year with some of the best play of his career, as he posted a 93.3 save percentage in his 12 playoff starts last year.
As a result, the B's traded Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators, and seemingly committed themselves to making Swayman their goalie of the future. The problem is that all offseason long, the two sides have been bickering about his contract. Swayman doesn't hit unrestricted free agency until next season, but he wants a new deal now since he is presumably becoming the team's full-time goalie.
From Swayman's point of view, his reasoning makes a lot of sense. He turns 26 in November, and appears to be on the verge of entering his prime. This is the perfect situation for him to capitalize on the Bruins need for security with their goalie, and he's taking full advantage of it. The problem is that Boston isn't really biting and giving into his demands.
Is that a reasonable move from the team's front office? If they did actually offer Swayman a $64 million contract, then yes, it is. The alleged eight-year, $8 million AAV deal that Neely claims the Bruins offered Swayman would make him the sixth highest paid goalie in the NHL, which seems like a fair landing spot for both sides.
For Boston, they would lock up another key piece of their team for the extended future. Swayman has proven that the lights don't get too bright for him in the postseason, and that he can handle playing on a near-nightly basis in the postseason. If he plays up to his full potential, he'd probably end up being worth more than what he'd get in this deal.
The problem is Swayman is betting on himself to do just that, and it's putting the Bruins front office in a tough spot. The guys above Swayman on the compensation list, such as Sergei Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy, are proven studs who can play the vast majority of games for their team and still have the juice to carry them to a championship in the playoffs. Swayman hasn't proven he can do that yet.
As of right now, Boston is stuck. Do they give Swayman what he wants, only for him to prove that he cannot help this team reach their Stanley Cup goals? Do they trade him, believing that he is not worth the price he's asking for while attempting to recoup some value before potentially losing him for nothing next offseason? Or do they stand pat and hope that eventually he will budge and accept a more team-friendly deal in order to just end this situation?
The B's don't seem like they are budging, and the same is unfortunately true of Swayman. So, in essence, the team is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The problem is that whatever path they choose is going to have huge repercussions on the future of the team, especially after they moved on from Ullmark. As of right now, Joonas Korpisalo, who was picked up in the Ullmark trade, is penciled in for the starting goalie job with Swayman not on the ice, and that's a pretty steep drop in production.
Trading Swayman seems like a last resort option, but it's something we may be barreling towards right now, especially with both sides publicly exchanging blows now. Somebody is going to have to give in at some point, and while handing Swayman bags of money seems like a good idea in concept, it has to be at a reasonable price, and if the two sides can't find any common ground, a trade could shockingly become a realistic solution to this whole debacle, which is really the last thing the Bruins need to happen here.
