Amid one of their most buzzworthy contract standoffs in recent history, the Boston Bruins attempted to once again ‘Sway’ the court of public opinion during their annual start-of-year press conference on Monday.
Unsurprisingly, most of Monday’s discussion points centered around the Jeremy Swayman negotiations, beginning with the opening remarks from Charlie Jacobs, Cam Neely, Don Sweeney and Jim Montgomery. The Bruins’ CEO, Team President, general manager and head coach then took questions about the latest updates and how Swayman’s absence affects the team’s outlook for their season opener a week from Tuesday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
“I don’t have a definitive update on Jeremy,” Sweeney said to the assembled press at TD Garden. “We still have a gap to bridge.”
Unless that gap between the two parties significantly closes within the next eight days, the Bruins will likely turn to Joonas Korpisalo for their opening night matchup in Sunrise.
Despite his public comments regarding last year’s arbitration hearings, Swayman still expressed his desire to sign a lucrative, multi-year deal. Neely echoed that thought today, and it seems the Bruins want to commit to a long-term investment.
The tension stems from salary demands. That agitation continues to play out through podcasts, press conferences and other outlets. But as leaks of Swayman’s asking price continue, Neely hinted at Boston’s offer to the 25-year-old netminder.
“I don’t want to get into the weeds of what his ask is,” Neely told reporters. “But I know that I’d have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.”
Presumably, the $64 million offer would stem over eight years. That $8 million offer would make Swayman the fifth highest-paid active goalie behind Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million), Andrei Vasilevisky ($9.5 million), Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5 million) and Ilya Sorokin ($8.2 million). It would also serve as a raise from Jusse Saros’ $7.74 contract extension (beginning in 2025-26), a fair comparable even with the Nashville netminder having more of a proven track record than Swayman.
An $8 million offer seems reasonable given Swayman’s 150 combined playoff and regular season appearances over his first four years. With the rising salary cap, that contract would likely age well over eight years.
“I strongly believe Jeremy wants to play here,” Neely added. “I’ve asked him flat out, do you want to play here, and he does. I believe they’ll get a deal done. It’s unfortunate it’s not done today.”
Given Swayman’s previous track record in a rotational role with former teammate Linus Ullmark, perhaps the two sides can settle on a shorter-term bridge deal. With Ullmark off to Ottawa, Swayman could earn a more lucrative deal if his progression from his first four years in Boston carries over into a more regular workload (i.e. 50-55 appearances).
That discussion would likely come closer to the Dec. 1. deadline if it gets to that point. Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, took the Maple Leafs to the brink when negotiating William Nylander’s deal in 2018.
Until then, the contract talks will continue to enter the public sphere. And even if they feel they’ve negotiated in good faith with a reasonable offer, the backlash will continue to fall on Neely and Sweeney.
Update:
To put it mildly, the negotiations are now downright ugly.
Several hours removed from Monday’s media day, Gross issued a statement through Instagram in response to Neely’s “64 million reasons” comments.
Tim Rosenthal serves as the Managing Editor of Bruins Daily. He started contributing videos to the site in 2010 before fully coming on board during the Bruins' Stanley Cup run in 2011. His bylines over the last decade have been featured on Boston.com, FoxSports.com, College Hockey News, Patch and Inside Hockey. You can follow Tim on Twitter @_TimRosenthal.
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