The message from the Bruins to unsigned goaltender Jeremy Swayman seems pretty unmistakable these days as the hockey calendar turns to October, and the regular season looms little more than a week away.
The main thrust of that message: The Black and Gold train is going to keep moving without him as he’s now missed about half of training camp and won’t be the opening night starting goaltender against the Florida Panthers. Joonas Korpisalo has now earned those honors after stopping 44-of-47 shots that he’s faced to this point in the preseason and looking like he's going to rebound from last season's tough performance with the Senators.
“[With] where we are in camp right now with how well camp has gone [and] how well Korpisalo has done right now, [Joonas Korpisalo] going to be our game one starter,” said Jim Montgomery.
Meanwhile Swayman is gathering rust in parts unknown as the regular season nears and has essentially hit the point in preseason where he wouldn’t be ready to start the regular season even if he signed a contract immediately.
And it doesn’t sound like either side is anywhere close to that happening.
“I don’t have a definitive update in any way other than where I was with Jeremy,” said Don Sweeney. “Continued, consistent communication with his representatives, but we still have a gap to bridge, and we’re going to try and continue to do that.”
While Sweeney made it clear that the Bruins don’t begrudge Swayman, or any player for that matter, seeking out as much money as possible in these negotiations, Cam Neely conjured up a bit of the old Harry Sinden hard line when asked for his take concerning talks with Swayman. It wasn’t exactly telling Joey Juneau to learn how to yodel, but Neely made it clear that the Bruins feel pretty good about the lengths they’ve been willing to go in order to sign their prized goaltender.
“I don’t want to get into the weeds with his [contract] ask is, but I know that I’d have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now,” said Neely, who believes that his goaltender is trying to set the goalie market with his new contract.
“I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.”
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) September 30, 2024
Cam Neely on Jeremy Swayman. pic.twitter.com/SgiD05PhCg
That would seem to very clearly indicate the Bruins have put some kind of eight-year, $64-million package on the table that quite frankly could already be viewed as an overpay for a 25-year-old netminder who's never started more than 44 games in a season, and never been a No. 1 goalie in his entire pro career. It would be a bit higher than the $7.75 million AAV deal that Juuse Saros (who has started 195 games in the last three seasons and finished top-5 in the Vezina Trophy voting in each of those three campaigns) just signed with the Nashville Predators, but less than $8.25 million AAV for the Isles Ilya Sorokin and the $8.5 million AAV contract for Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck.
For those to even be close to comparable players to talented Swayman is a massive stretch at this point in his very young career, but it’s an investment the Bruins seem willing to make to lock up their drafted and developed goaltender for the next decade.
The belief is that Swayman is looking for something in the range of what the top goaltenders are being paid right now, with the $9.5 million per season for Andrei Vasilevskiy as a likely high range. There were some wild rumors and unsubstantiated reports from WEEI that Swayman was looking for $10 million per season, but that isn’t believed to be accurate.
The problem with all of this: All of the goalies being paid that top drawer NHL money have proven they can play 60 plus games in a season while maintaining their performance and have been seriously in the Vezina Trophy conversation.
Swayman is simply not in that kind of company as of yet but wants to be paid like he is. That is where the crux of the problem sits for Bruins management as they wonder how long this thing is going to play out as he’s now missing real regular season time.
“What his ask is and what we believe his comp group is are two different things,” admitted Neely, of talks with Swayman’s camp.
Neely also said that Swayman wants to continue to be a member of the Boston Bruins despite all of the water currently under the contract negotiation bridge, so there is at least that. But the simple truth is that there may come a time in the near future when the B’s simply don’t feel the same anymore, and any goodwill that’s been built up over the last six years could result in a cold-hearted trade over contract squabbles.
It certainly won’t happen tomorrow or even next month, but if things creep toward Dec. 1 with Swayman continuing to look for something beyond $8 million per season on a long-term deal, then it could become a situation where the Bruins might just look for a change of scenery for a goaltender that’s clearly still rankled by last year’s arbitration process. It also seems like a priority for Swayman and his camp that his contract does not look meager when Igor Shesterkin and Sergei Bobrovsky both sign new contracts, but both goalies are significantly more accomplished than Swayman at this point in their NHL careers.
A lot will obviously have to happen to make a Swayman trade a reality somewhere down the dusty hockey road, including the Bruins getting the haul they will most certainly require in a deal involving their young star goaltender for AND whatever team deals for him will need some certainty they can get him signed to a reasonable, fair contract.
Either way it sure sounded like the B’s are moving on for the time being without their missing goalie and they feel very comfortable about what they have offered him. If it’s truly eight years and $8 million per season then that is both fair and reasonable, and Swayman is going to begin losing the public battle with fans understandably getting tired of hearing about his demands.
All of that could change dramatically if Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi struggle out of the starting gate, but it looks right now like the Bruins are digging in for a long, unpleasant showdown with Jeremy Swayman.
