With NHL training camps starting on Wednesday, some notable restricted free agents have yet to be signed. The biggest is Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman. Swayman’s name continues to be brought up in the rumour mill about when he will sign and how much his new extension with the Bruins will be.
Jeremy Swayman and Bruins Still Working on A New Extension
Jeremy Swayman did not want to go through the process he did last off-season. Remember, last year, he went through the arbitration process. Swayman learned much about what the team thought of him before settling on a one-year, $3.475 million deal. Swayman told the Bruins he was not going through the arbitration process again. Thus, the team and the player did not file this off-season. Both parties had every right to.
Now, the waiting game and the window are getting closer to that first official deadline of the start of training camp. Jeremy Swayman is the number-one goalie for the Boston Bruins for a reason. His numbers back it up last season with a 25-10-8 record with a 2.53 goals against average and a .916 save percentage. The year before, he had a record of 24-6-4 with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage. Jeremy Swayman split time in Boston with Linus Ullmark.
Linus Ullmark is no longer there. He was traded to the Ottawa Senators, and the Bruins got Joonas Korpisalo in return. So this is Swayman’s net moving forward. However, no contract extension is in sight as training camps inch closer to starting. But that can change with one phone call.
Progress for Jeremy Swayman on a New Deal
It has been quiet on the Jeremy Swayman front recently. There was a growing sense of optimism between the Bruins and Swayman. With the unofficial deadline for training camp starting, calls have picked up. Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period spoke with Jamison Coyle of the NHL Network on Monday’s episode of NHL Tonight and was asked where things stand with Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins.
“Well, they’re still having conversations on a pretty regular basis. It certainly seemed like there was a huge gap with respect to the dollars,” Pagnotta said. “I don’t know if it’s. I think they’ve made a little bit of headway, at least in understanding the frame of where this is going to end up. But a lot of it still depends on term. The more term he gets, the higher the AAV is going to be. They moved out Linus Ullmark to Ottawa at the end of June because they thought, not only did they want to capitalize on that potential deal, but also they wanted to make sure that they would have him locked in. Swayman, that is locked in.”
Jeremy Swayman is looking for competitive value. There have been reports that the Bruins offered him $6.2 million AAV, while Swayman’s camp is looking at somewhere in the $9 million range. In the market, top-tier goaltenders like Sergei Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Connor Hellebuyck, and Ilya Sorokin make up that $8 million to $10 million range. That is where he is looking to get paid.
So, you know, he went into the nines, plus they went into the sixes. And you’ve got to still find a way to kind of bridge that they’ve got to get there,” Pagnotta continued. “There’s still work to be done on a lot of different fronts of the RFAs, but with respect to Boston and Jeremy Swayman’s camp, I think you’re taking a little bit of positivity and knowing that the lines of communication are still open. But hey, camps get going this week.”
Deadlines Make Deals Happen
Again, things usually pick up when deadlines start to come. We saw it with Lucas Raymond in Detroit. They are still waiting on Moritz Seider. Cole Perfetti and the Winnipeg Jets are still working on a deal. The same goes for Dawson Mercer and the New Jersey Devils.
The Boston Bruins and Jeremy Swayman do not want this to be a distraction. With Wednesday fast approaching, you know both sides will try to burn the midnight oil to get a deal done, so the topic of conversation is not Swayman’s contract and his not being at camp.
