The Bruins have offered RFA netminder Jeremy Swayman a contract totaling $64MM in value, team president Cam Neely told reporters Monday (via 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson). He didn’t confirm the length of the agreement, but it’s fair to assume he was referring to an eight-year deal with an $8MM cap hit.
“I’d have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now,” Neely said in regard to Swayman’s continued absence. He added that Swayman had “flat out” told the club he wanted to remain in Boston, which aligns with a report from The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa earlier Monday.
For now, all signs point to Swayman remaining unsigned when the Bruins turn in their opening night roster next week. General manager Don Sweeney said it’s “unlikely” Swayman will be ready to go for their regular-season opener, with head coach Jim Montgomery confirming that Joonas Korpisalo is slated to be their starter against the Panthers on Oct. 8 after a strong camp showing (per The Boston Globe’s Conor Ryan).
Swayman, 27, has been vocal this summer about his desire to set a bar for future goalie contracts after being handed a one-year, $3.475MM contract in arbitration in the summer of 2023. He’s had impeccable career numbers – a .919 regular-season SV% and a .922 playoff SV% – but has never started more than 45 games in a season.
He and Linus Ullmark, who the Bruins traded to the Senators at the beginning of the summer to give Swayman the undisputed starter’s crease, have been the backbone of Boston’s success over the past couple of seasons. Their importance was especially evident last year, posting a combined .915 SV% to keep the Bruins afloat in the Atlantic Division despite owning subpar 5-on-5 possession metrics across the board.
If he remains unsigned for a significant chunk of the season, it puts Boston in a tricky spot with Korpisalo. While the team is projecting confidence after a strong preseason showing, the 30-year-old is coming off a disastrous 2023-24 campaign with Ottawa that saw him post a .890 SV% and 3.27 GAA in 50 appearances. The difference in play over the first two months of the year could be enough to cost the Bruins a playoff spot in a competitive Atlantic field. Swayman has until Dec. 1 to sign a contract to be eligible to play this season.
His agent is doing him a great disservice if he turned this deal down. He has not earned anything greater. Probably just take a short term deal because no other team will pay him more.
Agree with this
@Inside Out — According to PuckPedia, his agent is Lewis Gross. There is a possibility that Swayman is bucking his advice, as there has been grumbling in the goalie fraternity recently that they should get paid more. As in, a lot more, due to the cap going up and some position players being overpaid in their eyes.
This is what it’s all about – Swayman feels there is a duty (and I’m sure the NHLPA agrees) to extract the best possible deal based on the position. Plus, what if he signs an 8X $8M deal today and Shesterkin signs an 8X $11M deal tomorrow.
It’s a poor look for Neely to be negotiating in the media. As a former player, he should know that…
Shesterkin has a better resume than Swayman. He deserves more than Swaymn and I’m a Bruins fan. I don’t have a problem with Neely negotiating in the media. Swayman’s camp has been leaking info to the press the entire time. It’s about time Neely responsed
Neely is negotiating through the media because he wants to give the perception that he’s doing everything he can to sign Swayman. He’s hoping that public perception will force Swayman’s camp to sign the deal. It would be in Swayman’s better interest to ignore public perception and stick to his guns. If he gets the big contract he’s looking for then good on him. But if he gets it he’ll have to prove he’s worth it or else face public scrutiny for the length of the contract
So now we have reached the “team tries to do PR by revealing contract offers in a public forum” portion of the negotiation. A sign of desperation by the B’s.
Not really. Swayman’s camp has been leaking info to the media the entire time. It’s about time he responded.
I think it’s frustration more than desperation. They feel they’ve offered him fair value and he’s not budging. This may be what the nhlpa wants overall but if the bruins miss the playoffs because of him trying to line his pockets, the fans and his teammates will lose respect for him.
If the NHLPA wants it, wouldn’t his fellow union members teammates also support him for holding out for a big contract?
To some extent, but you better believe they’d be annoyed if it costs the team
Nothing desperate to say it,let’s be real this is just a child game they playing so $8 millions a year it is more to what he should get or sign a bridge dealt and let see what he can do playing 60 + more game in a seasons.
Found the Jacobs’ family burner account.
FYI, $8,000,000 after tax in Massachusetts is close to $4,685,000.
Yeah that really don’t bother too much lol…especially since his desire is to stay and “only” make 4.65 million a year after taxes. That’s more than I’ll make in my life in a season and I’m not normally one to complain about their salaries as that the going rate but I’m also not concerned about his tax rate 4.65 million/yr is an exorbitant amount for any career. If you wanna stay in BOS that’s the price of admission.
That’s not true as 41 games + are on the road. Players are taxed in every state/province that they play in.
Actually, signing bonuses, residency and a ton of other stuff skews all of these numbers… so just pick a number.
Teams are mostly going with a split goaltending type rotation now instead of a #1 and a good back up. So instead of the #1 playing over 65 games or so a year and running out of gas during the playoffs. With that being said they don’t want to tie up $10+million for one goalie but about that or less for both goalies.. can’t argue with that type of thinking. Why pay that to someone playing around 45 games… but…. if you are an elite tender you want to get paid like a elite player… and they should be paid that way.. good on him for standing his ground.. hell look at the teams with multiple $10+ million players on D and F with average net minders.. alot of them don’t get that far in the playoffs or even make the playoffs.. yes I am looking at you Toronto and Pittsburgh..lol..but that is just my opinion.. elite talent is elite talent no matter what position… set the bar for your goaltending fraternity…
Are you looking at them (Pittsburgh)?
Cuz the Pens have multiple Cups and have had only one player over $10 M AAV ever (Karlsson last year).
Try looking at Edmonton.
A) The number one goalie will play all of the playoff games.
B) The Bruins were the ones who pulled back from the split by trading Ullmark when he was still under contract for another year. They should have signed Swayman earlier, then traded Ullmark.
My bad… you are correct on the $ side with the pens… was thinking of the caliber of players on the team and still missed the playoffs the last 2 years.. I apologize for being “THAT” person that makes a comment without checking the facts…. I will just back away slowly into the abyss now… HAHAHAHA
Until proven otherwise I see the B’s goalies as modern day incernations of Halak and Elliot when Hitchcock ran the Blues. Solid goalies who up superstar numbers because of the system.
I actually came up with $4,493,551.60 but that’s not the issue 8 mill up top is more than enough
The Saros deal is the comparable and they need to accept that fact
No, Saros has been the #1 goalie for a few years now AND has had more usage. Swayman only played half a season as a 1B, and other seasons as a BU. But his #’s are exceptional in his comparatively limited usage.
Love it. There’s a saying about assumptions…
They felt entitled to your services at their cost once they traded away their bargaining chip. Hose ’em, Swayman! Get every damn penny of that cap space.
I don’t care what the cap is, only about 2 goalies are worth 8 or more million in my opinion and I personally wouldn’t want my team to pay more than 6. Goalies are so unpredictable and swayman hasn’t proven able to play a starters workload yet. Just sign the damn deal.
The highest paid goalie until Shesterkin signs is Bobrovsky @ $10M/per and last seen he was hoisting a Cup (that excludes Carey Price, of course)
Good for him. That hardly proves that paying goalies a ton of money is good for the team. His contract was looking quite bad until last year and I’d argue it still isn’t justified.