Contract saga over: Bruins and Jeremy Swayman agree to 8-year deal
The Bruins and Jeremy Swayman are in an agreement on an eight-year, $8.25 million per season deal, according to hockey insider Elliotte Friedman.
Swayman finally ends his contract stalemate making him one of the highest-paid goalies in the NHL. Boston now has Swayman under contract as their No. 1 goalie through the prime of his career.
Swayman is now the fourth-highest-paid active goalie in the National Hockey League and the third highest paid Bruin behind David Pastrnak ($11.25 million AAV) and Charlie McAvoy ($9.5 million AAV).
“Hey fans, Sway here, I’m so excited to be back,” Swayman said in a social media post by the Bruins on Sunday morning. “I want to thank all of you for all the support throughout this entire process. We have a lot of new beginnings to start, and I cannot wait to get going.”
The 25-year-old has averaged a little north of 38 starts over the last three seasons, mainly splitting time with Linus Ullmark. For his career, Swayman is 79-33-15 with a 2.34 GAA, a .919 save percentage, and 12 shutouts.
Swayman’s new payday comes with the season opener looming on Tuesday. Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery initially announced Joonas Korpisalo would start in net for the season opener. He should remain the starter mainly due to Swayman not playing in a game since mid-May.
Rumors swirled all summer that the Bruins and Swayman were close to a deal, but negotiations lingered on with each side taking shots at each other publicly in the last couple of weeks.
Bruins president Cam Neely spoke on the first day of Bruins training camp and didn’t begrudge Swayman over his asking price but put the spotlight on what the team had offered.
"I don't want to get into the weeds what his ask is, but I know there are 64 million reasons for him to be playing now," Neely said Monday.
Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, promptly responded, defending his client and their position within the negotiations.
"Normally, I do not release statements or discuss negotiations through the media. However, in this case, I feel I need to defend my client. 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," Gross said. "We are extremely disappointed. This was not fair to Jeremy. We will take a few days to discuss where we go from here."
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said at the end of the season both sides would find “a landing spot” on a deal and that Swayman was a priority. He would reiterate that again at the start of free agency on July 1.
Swayman was 25-10-8 with a 2.53 goals-against average, .916 save percentage, and three shutouts in 44 regular-season games (43 starts) for the Bruins last season, and 6-6 with a 2.15 GAA and .933 save percentage in 12 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
With the deal officially signed, Swayman can focus on the regular season and getting into regular season mode. The Bruins open the regular season at the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, SN, TVAS). Boston was defeated by Florida in six games in the Eastern Conference Second Round last season.
