The National Hockey League offseason is officially over — and Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman remains without a new contract despite a full summer of negotiations.
“I'm disappointed,” B's general manager Don Sweeney said on Wednesday, according to NBC Sports Boston. “When you set things as a priority in a general manager's spot, you do your best to try and accomplish that, and I haven't been able to do that yet.”
The Bruins traded 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators earlier this offseason, and if a Swayman deal doesn't get done, it'll be Joonas Korpisalo entering the season as Boston's No. 1 goaltender.
It goes without saying that that isn't the ideal situation after the Bruins have had the best goaltending tandem in the NHL over the last two seasons. Still, Sweeney said he's optimistic that the Bruins will be able to get a contract for Swayman ironed out before December 1. If that doesn't happen, the 25-year-old will be ineligible to play for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.
The longtime GM also shut down rumors that Boston hasn't returned Swayman's calls for multiple weeks.
Bruins' Don Sweeney calls out Paul Bissonnette, Spittin' Chiclets podcast
“It's complete bulls*** to say that I did not return someone's call for three weeks,” Sweeney said on Wednesday, per the Boston Globe's Conor Ryan. “My son loves [podcaster Paul Bissonnette], thinks he's fabulous. I think he's a great entertainer. But at the end of the day, it's inaccurate.”
‘Biznasty' didn't take long to respond to Sweeney's comments.
I love Don. I love Don’s son. I love lamp. Although Don is reporting fake news about fake news, apparently,” said Bissonnette. “I did not report 1 thing about the Swayman signing. It was Squanto’s father who reported it. I stand by my partner.”
Clearly, there's a ton of tension surrounding this situation, and probably no one thought that the problem wouldn't be solved ahead of training camp. Swayman did not report to the Warrior Ice Arena in Brighton, Massachusetts on Wednesday.
The Anchorage, Alaska native was excellent in 2023-24, posting a .916 save percentage over 44 games in the regular-season, while playing to a phenomenal .933 SV% over 12 appearances in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The restricted free agent relinquished his arbitration rights in the offseason, and made it clear he would never go through the process again. He remains under team control until 2026.
As of September 18, the Bruins have $8.6 million in cap space to work with; it was rumored that Swayman was looking for as much as $10 million AAV on his next deal.
It will be interesting to see when this gets resolved, and how much of a storyline it remains now that Boston's training camp is officially open.
The Bruins begin their season against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on October 8.
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