We are less than a week away from opening night in the NHL, and the Boston Bruins have still yet to come to terms with goaltender Jeremy Swayman, whose contract negotiations with the team have gotten messy and now public.
When the Bruins traded away Swayman’s tandem partner Linus Ullmark during the offseason, it was assumed that Boston would work out a deal with Swayman, the team’s starting goalie. However, negotiations have dragged on throughout the summer and nearly the entire preseason. And recently, Bruins president Cam Neely took the supposed contract talks public by indicating the team offered Swayman a $64 million contract.
While things may eventually be ironed out, Swayman gave a peek into another bitter contract negotiation he had with the Bruins during the coincidentally timely third episode of Prime Video’s “FACEOFF: Inside the NHL.”
Swayman spoke of the salary arbitration he and the team went through to work out his one-year, $3.75 million deal a year ago.
“When you go into that room, you don’t say a word,” Swayman said of arbitration [h/t ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski]. “My arbitrator started first, said all of these great things. The arbitrator on their side … their job is to help the management side and to rip players. Hearing that you’re not worthy of what you think you’re worthy of, that was hard to hear. You don’t forget what was said.”
Swayman revealed that he literally took notes of the criticisms, which he said he looked at during the 2023-24 season. In particular, Swayman said that his “biggest knock” was that he was not “trustworthy” in the postseason, a purported reputation he believes he shed in the spring when he led all starting goalies in save percentage and was second in goals against average.
Jeremy Swayman and Bruins contract negotiations have gotten messy
During the episode, Swayman did say that he would do “everything in my power to be a Bruin for a long time” but also admitted that Game 6 loss to the Florida Panthers in May could have been the final time he would ever wear a Bruins sweater.
That possibility has seemed to become even more likely as the contract negotiations have continued. This week, in particular, though, featured a major change in tone when Neely essentially brought the media behind the curtain.
“I don’t want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know that I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now,” Neely said of Swayman.
Lewis Gross, Swayman’s agent, said that “no offer was made reaching” the $64 million mark Neely referenced. He also said he and Swayman were “extremely disappointed” by Neely’s comment, which Gross said was “not fair to Jeremy.”
Boston opens the season on Tuesday against the Panthers in Florida. Joonas Korpisalo, who the Bruins acquired in the Ullmark trade, is expected to start in net.