It’s not often that a contract dispute in the NHL comes into full public view, but the Boston Bruins and goaltender Jeremy Swayman have produced a spicy prelude exactly a week before the regular season.
On Monday, team president Cam Neely told the media that the Bruins have made an $8 million per season offer to Swayman, saying, “I don’t want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know that I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.”
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Those comments rankled Swayman’s agent Lewis Gross, who posted a response to Neely on social media. Stating that he doesn’t release statements or negotiate through the media, Gross said: “At today’s press conference, $64 million was referenced. This was the first time that number was discussed in our negotiations. Prior to the press conference, no offer was made reaching that level.”
Swayman, a restricted free agent, has yet to report to the team and is holding out for a new long-term contract. Media reports state he’s looking for a contract with an average annual value of at least $9.5 million, which would put him in line with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy, who signed an eight-year, $76 million extension in 2019. At the time of signing, the Lightning’s No. 1 goalie had already played two full seasons as the top netminder, including winning the Vezina Trophy.
The 25-year-old Swayman had a stellar playoff run this past spring, posting a .933 save percentage in 12 games.
Neither the Bruins nor Gross responded to requests for comment.
Five goalies make an average annual value of at least $8 million, including Montreal’s Carey Price, who has not played since 2022 and is on the books for $10.5 million this season. The others are Vasilevskiy, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and the New York Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin.
Over the summer, Boston decided to trade Linus Ullmark to Ottawa after he and Swayman split time over the past two seasons. The Bruins felt that they had two starting goalies but chose to keep Swayman, who is six years younger than Ullmark.
Choosing Swayman over Ullmark also meant that the Bruins picked a player whose contract they have some control over. He can’t be eligible for unrestricted free agency until he’s turned 27 or played in the league for seven seasons.
Ullmark, an unrestricted free agent in 2025, would command a high annual salary next summer if he continues to play well for the Senators. Swayman signed a one-year, $3.475 million deal with the team through last season after finishing his three-year entry-level contract.
However, commentary on an early September edition of “Spittin’ Chiclets,” the NHL podcast hosted by TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney, seemed to anger the Bruins. Whitney said that the team made Swayman a four-year, $24.8 million offer ($6.2 million per year), yet he alleged that the team did not take the goalie’s calls for three weeks.
In a press conference during training camp on Sept. 18, general manager Don Sweeney criticized Whitney’s claims while also expressing optimism that a new long-term deal would be signed. But behind said optimism is also a looming deadline: A restricted free agent has until Dec. 1 to sign a contract, or he would be ineligible to play at all this season.
After spending many of their contending seasons in the upper realm of spenders, the Bruins are 27th among the 32 teams in total salaries at $79.3 million but have around $8.6 million in cap space (sixth-most in the league). The cost consciousness hasn’t impacted the team’s competitiveness on the ice or its value, as the Bruins ranked sixth on Sportico’s most recent NHL team valuations at $1.78 billion. Though Boston is trying to impress on Swayman that time is of the essence, his agent’s response to Neely seems to indicate he’s not getting the message.
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