The Bruins begin training camp in less than a month and Jeremy Swayman remains unsigned. And while there has been some angst among the fan base, there’s been plenty of confidence expressed that a deal indeed will get done.
Team president Cam Neely became the latest to assure a long-term contract will get finalized, but noted that negotiations aren’t always an easy thing to navigate.
“Something will get done. There’s no question,” Neely said during his appearance on “The Rich Shertenlieb Show” on Thursday morning. “Not every negotiation is as smooth as you’d like it. I know our fan base would certainly love to have something done by now. But I’m fully confident that both sides will come to an agreement before too long here.”
Swayman emerged as Boston’s No. 1 goalie throughout the regular season, and particularly in the playoffs. He played all but one game for the Bruins during their run before they ultimately were eliminated in the second round by the Florida Panthers. He finished the regular season with a 25-10-8 record with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.
The Bruins had one of the NHL’s top goalie tandems with Swayman and Linus Ullmark, but with the latter being traded to the Ottawa Senators this summer, Boston essentially put all its confidence in Swayman to be the No. 1 goalie for the foreseeable future.
“Jeremy, he’s a guy that’s so focused and so determined,” Neely said. “He’s got a lot of confidence in himself. … So we figured that we would ride with Jeremy. Linus did so much for the organization both on and off the ice. He’s a great person. But we felt we weren’t probably going to re-sign him (after 2024-25). So it was best to move him.”
Because Swayman is a restricted free agent, other teams can sign the goalie to an offer sheet. However, if any goalie-needy team were to go that route, they’d likely need to offer at least $9 million and several draft picks.
It’s a quiet time in the offseason, but it has always been a priority for the Bruins to keep Swayman around long term. Now it’s essentially just a waiting game as to when that will happen.
