I stated at the start of the summer that the Bruins should offer Jeremy Swayman a six-to eight-year contract and pay him anything he wants. Given the amount of attention that his contract negotiations have received lately, I thought it would be a good idea to review my remarks from a few months ago to see if anything had changed.
There is currently no new contract in place, despite the reports that have been circulating for the previous week. Swayman is reportedly looking for an average annual value (AAV) of $10 million, which is more than the Bruins’ current cap space of $8.6 million. The two sides are reportedly still at odds. Concerns have also been raised that he may be a holdout until training camp opens on September 18 if this isn’t resolved by then.
It makes natural that neither side chose to proceed with arbitration in light of Swayman’s remarks from last summer regarding his pay arbitration experience. He was given a one-year, $3.475 million deal by the arbitration panel, but he deserves a lot more given his performance in the postseason last year and his future expanded role.
Swayman Still Has a Right to Anything He Desires
I stated at the start of the offseason that the Bruins had to make sure Swayman didn’t end up in arbitration for a second straight year. Arbitration is not a simple procedure, and it left Swayman with a foul taste the last time, so this could result in a holdout. It hurts to hear someone argue and make a case against handing you more money to an arbitrator, even if everyone is an adult and understands that this is ultimately a commercial matter. Fortunately, as was already indicated, it was averted.
For the foreseeable future, the franchise can, should, and will continue to be built on Swayman as a crucial pillar. For the foreseeable future, he, Charlie McAvoy, Elias Lindholm, Hampus Lindholm, and David Pastrnak will make up the backbone of the club. Seven-to eight-year contracts with an AAV of $6.5 million (Hampus Lindholm) or more have been awarded to the other individuals listed.
Though he is still young, Swayman has established himself as one of the Bruins’ best and most reliable goalies since joining the league. Exists space for development in certain areas? Yes. Goalies are not flawless. However, in all honesty, there aren’t many men in the league—less than five—that I, along with most hockey fans, would prefer to have in the net over him. It was also evident from the 2024 playoffs that he is prepared to be “The Guy.” Just that performance raised the bar a little bit for his next deal.
The Bruins Would Die Without Swayman.
As I decided in May and continue to conclude, the Bruins have no justification for refusing to comply with Swayman’s requests. With a record of 79-33-15 in 132 games, a goals against average of 2.34, and a save percentage of.919, he is on par with many of the league’s greatest players. Even though he doesn’t have as many games as those guys, he can still be proven correct by the size of the sample.
In fact, given the circumstances surrounding the Linus Ullmark deal, the Bruins are compelled to grant him his wish, making it even more of a reality. The greatest goaltender pair in the league is no longer on the squad. Who knows who this season’s Joonas Korpisalo will be taking the net. Is he the player he was with the Ottawa Senators the previous season, or can he return to his former self with the Columbus Blue Jackets? Regardless, his ideal position would be as a more conventional backup, allowing Swayman to handle the bulk of the work throughout the season.
For more than ten years, the Bruins have depended on the quality of their goaltending; from Tuukka Rask’s era to the Ullmark and Swayman rotation of the previous two seasons, which was by far the best group on the team.
Trading Ullmark earlier this summer was, in many ways, a shot in the foot for the Bruins heading into this negotiation. Swayman is represented by the same agency as William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who made headlines in 2018–19 for having the longest holdout in salary cap history. The Boston Bruins will be considerably more motivated to find a solution before the regular season begins since they truly have no leverage without Ullmark.
The Bruins absolutely need him to be ready to go at the beginning of the season because of the uncertainty surrounding Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi, who is the team’s best goaltender in the American Hockey League but lacks NHL experience. If he is absent from the squad for an extended period, it could seriously jeopardize the club’s 2024–25 performance. Although they were able to strengthen other areas of weakness during the offseason, this team’s core still depends on a strong goaltender.
Swayman’s Agreement
Swayman will play goalie for the Bruins this season in one way or another, but he has the right to negotiate a good contract. In the end, hockey players only have a limited amount of time to make money from this as it’s a business. Though I don’t believe he’s requesting $10 million annually as some have suggested, if he’s looking to make between $8.5 and $9.5 million a year, which would put him in line with other elite goalies like Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy, that isn’t a bad amount to ask, especially considering salary cap increases that have occurred since those players signed contracts.
Rask signed a seven-year contract with an AAV of $7.0 million that began in the 2013–14 season, becoming the Bruins’ last long-term goaltender. The salary cap increased by $23.7 million over the previous ten years to $88 million from $64.3 million in 2013–14. Rask’s $7 million, therefore, accounted for 10.8% of the Bruins’ cap that year and decreased more as the cap increased. Almost precisely $9.5 million is 10.8% of 88 million.
Furthermore, prior to the 2013–14 season, Rask had played in 138 NHL games, just six more than Swayman’s 132. It would not be out of line for the Bruins to grant Swayman the same amount if they were giving Rask 10.8% of their salary cap in 2013–14. Again, this is reasonable; at $8.5 million to $9.5 million, he would be the third-highest paid player on the team, after Pastrnak ($11.25 million AAV) and on par with or slightly behind McAvoy ($9.5 million AAV). Swayman’s contract ought to reflect the fact that he is currently the second or third most important player on the team.
As was already mentioned, the Bruins’ remaining cap space is just $8.6 million. It is somewhat of a miscalculation on the part of the front office to leave them with so little room, given that it has been widely known since the start of the offseason that Swayman’s contract may carry an AAV higher than $8 million. It could be one of the reasons a deal hasn’t been struck yet since the Bruins are likely attempting to find a way to free up some salary space while simultaneously making a concerted effort to get him to an AAV of $8.5 million or less.
The Regular Season Is Approaching
With September just a few days away, time is running out. Many restricted free agents, like McAvoy, who skipped a few days of the 2019 training camp in anticipation of his deal, have held out throughout training camp. It is evident that missing time is not ideal for anyone, including Swayman.
Swayman has undoubtedly merited the opportunity to bargain for a favorable contract. The only people who truly know the status of the negotiations and the asking pricing are Swayman’s staff and the Bruins front office. Players who ask for what they are worth cannot be expected or blamed by management or supporters.
Juuse Saros’ new contract with the Nashville Predators, which has an average annual salary of $7.74 million, was just announced. Perhaps the Bruins can negotiate a return contract with him for $8 to $8.5 million, which would be great for management because it would free up additional room without requiring any action on their part. Perhaps it won’t make a difference, and Swayman will just keep asking for more. The Bruins don’t have many other options in any case.
If they truly, firmly didn’t want to pay him north of $8 million this offseason, they probably should have maintained Ullmark at $5 million AAV for another season. If they don’t have the cap room for it now, when they had more than enough at the beginning of the season, then it is their problem.
