Boston Bruins Put Big Money on the Table - What's Holding Jeremy Swayman Back?
The Boston Bruins may have locked up their goaltender of the future as they offered Jeremy Swayman a $64M contract on Monday, leaving it up to the goaltender.
The ongoing saga of whether or not the Boston Bruins can lock up their #1 goaltender of the future Jeremy Swayman dominated headlines in Boston hockey media this summer, and with no conclusion as the regular season creeps closer leaves fans and the Bruins anxious about what comes next for both Swayman and the club.
Well that saga may have found its conclusion on Monday as Boston Bruins GM Cam Neely affirmed that they have offered Jeremy Swayman a contract extension worth $64M on Monday:
While Neely was speaking to the media, he was asked about whether or not Swayman is going to play for the club this season, or when he can be expected to suit up and Neely had a cheeky, if appropriate response to the question:
While this is massively positive news for Bruins fans, the ball is still in Swayman's court, as he still hasn't officially agreed to the extension as of this writing. Boston is still looking towards having Joonas Korpisalo as their opening night starter, according to head coach Jim Montgomery via Ty Anderson; a writer for 98.5 The Sports Hub, a Boston sports radio station:
For what it's worth, Swayman has been as valuable as that amount and then some. His emergence as the Bruins de facto #1 goaltender and being one of the NHL's elite goaltenders over the past three seasons certainly deserves a pay raise. He's been electric in his time with Boston, amassing a 79-33-15 record with a 2.34 GAA and .919 save percentage; not to mention in the playoffs where he is 18-9-10 with a 2.38 GAA and .922 save percentage, a testament to how good he's been and how close he's kept the Bruins in games they unfortunately took the loss. Toronto Maple Leafs fans know how devastatingly good Swayman can be, as he continually shut them down in the first round of the 2023-2024 playoffs.
It's not unusual to see goaltenders get massive contracts as we've seen Andrei Vasilevskiy, Carey Price and Sergei Bobrovsky all garner absurdly long and expensive contracts in the $9.5-$10M range. Is Swayman as good as them? No one is for sure, as he's only been in the league for a few seasons and hasn't had a long tenured career to say he's on their level. But compared to other netminders? He's standing above and beyond a lot of names that are getting paid like Tristan Jarry or Elvis Merzlikins; and deserves the amount given (assumed to be 8 years at $8M AAV) by Neely and the Bruins though Swayman may want to milk the Bruins for everything they have before signing.
His holdout for an extension may have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way; including Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney but if the Bruins truly want to keep Swayman, they may need to offer him the whole honey pot in order to keep him.
