At the very least, it is good news that Jeremy Swayman isn’t sweating contract negotiations with the Boston Bruins.
The 25-year-old Bruins netminder is just a month away from the start of NHL training camp with the B’s, but certainly won’t be there if he hasn’t put pen to paper on a new deal with Boston that’s expected to be both big dollars and long term. Swayman isn’t sitting and fretting about the deal as evidenced by the former UMaine standout spending this weekend taking part in the 2024 Columbia Threadneedle Investments Boston Triathlon taking place in South Boston’s Carson Beach area on Sunday morning.
Swayman was part of the biking relay team during the race and told 98.5 the Sports Hub that he remains very confident things are going to be worked out in short order.
“I do love it [in Boston], and that’s all I can control, and I know that,” Swayman told 98.5 The Sports Hub. “I have complete trust in my agent, and I know that it’s going to get done eventually.”
It all speaks to a young goalie who’s in a much better place mentally than he was a year ago when he was embroiled in the arbitration process with the Bruins that left him with a bad aftertaste after it was all finished with a one-year contract.
When asked about being named an All-Star, Jeremy Swayman brought up his arbitration case as part of his answer:
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin9) January 14, 2024
"After dealing with what I did this summer with arbitration, hearing things that a player should never hear, it feels pretty special to be in this situation."
“I am,” said Swayman to 98.5 the Sports Hub. “I believe that experience is the key to it all and going through things.
“I’m getting just as much experience right now as I did last year, with different ways of it all. And we know, it’s a business. It’s unfortunate at times, but I know I’m gonna be playing hockey at the end of the day. And I really hope with it’s the Boston Bruins.”
Interesting that he didn’t guarantee it was going to be with the Bruins, to be sure, but some of that is clearly beyond his control if the two sides can’t get a little closer than the healthy distance Hockey Night in Canada insider Elliotte Friedman believes is still present between the two negotiating sides in contract extension negotiations.
It was an encouraging development that both Swayman and the Bruins opted to forego the arbitration option earlier this summer, and even more positive that Swayman has been a regular at the B’s Warrior practice facility getting in his offseason training time with Boston performance coaches Kevin Neeld and Tim LeBossiere.
“I knew that if I wanted to be an elite level goalie, I need to train year-round at an elite level, and Boston has that,” said Swayman to 98.5 the Sports Hub. “And that’s something I’ve been attracted to with Boston and being able to tap into the community more and more every year, and I feel more engrained in this community.”
Swayman leveled up his training last summer and that paid dividends with his best NHL season that finished with him taking over in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 2.15 goals against average and a scintillating .933 save percentage. He was very clearly Boston’s best player in the postseason when they averaged a scant 2.38 goals per game, and that’s part of the immense pressure that’s now on Boston’s front office to make sure they get the contract done with their No. 1 guy.
But there hasn’t been much in the way of tangible progress over the summer even as both sides tick away the days until NHL camp. The sticking point is Swayman’s market value during these negotiations with no clear comparable netminder that’s even making $8 million per season.
While the Bruins made a clear statement that he’s their guy by trading Linus Ullmark and riding him during a red-hot playoff performance, he has yet to play more than 44 games during a regular season and hasn’t yet proven he can physically and mentally handle workhorse duties over the course of a long regular season.
It's what makes the negotiations tricky between Swayman and the Bruins as Friedman alluded to in his podcast earlier this week.
The recent flurry of offer sheets to NHL restricted free agents might make B’s fans a little nervous, but it would be surprising if Swayman up and decides to sign one with a rival NHL team unless it was simply to force Boston’s hand with a higher salary number. Even with Swayman not exactly ruling out that possibility by “really hoping” that his future is with the Boston Bruins, it would take things really going sideways in negotiations with plenty of time until NHL training camp in the middle of September.
Bruins CEO Charlie Jacobs didn’t foresee that happening when he spoke with WEEI/NESN on the Jimmy Fund Telethon earlier this week.
“We have some things to work out, and I’m sure we’ll get there.”
— The Gresh & Fauria Show (@GreshFauriaWEEI) August 13, 2024
Charlie Jacobs tells @TheRealGresh & @christianfauria that the Bruins and Jeremy Swayman aren’t far off on an extension. pic.twitter.com/dfliUmIZuC
“I try not to comment on player personnel contract negotiations. We are still negotiating with Sway. I hope that he is ready to play come training camp,” said Jacobs. “We have some things to work, but I’m sure we’ll get there. If there is still any unfinished business from this summer, that is it.”
The silver lining here is that Don Sweeney’s record when it comes to taking care of contracts for his own players is undeniably good. The B’s get deals done with the players they want to keep for reasonable money, and the only negotiations that seem to get acrimonious are ones where the team no longer wants to keep the player around.
The smart money says that things will get done between the Bruins and Swayman, but it may come down to the wire just ahead of training camp – just as it did with David Pastrnak when he signed a six-year, $40 million contract just prior to the 2017-18 season. At this point Swayman isn’t sweating the contract while he’s literally sweating with some friends at a local sprint triathlon but check back again in a couple of weeks as the calendar hits September with training camp much more imminent than it is right now.