The Bruins and restricted free agent goalie Jeremy Swayman continue to be stuck in a contract stalemate with now just three weeks to go until the start of training camp.
Both Swayman and team management have expressed confidence that a deal will eventually get done, but there have also been reports from the likes of Elliotte Friedman that the two sides still “weren’t close.”
Now, we might be getting an idea of why there’s still some real work to do in these negotiations. During Monday’s debut of WEEI’s new midday show, Jones & Keefe, host Rich Keefe provided a scoop regarding what Swayman is asking for.
“Jeremy Swayman, looking for $10 million a year,” Keefe said. “That is the scoop that I have. He is looking for $10 million a year. That would put him with Sergei Bobrovsky and Carey Price [at the top of the goalie market].”
As Keefe explained, Price and Bobrovsky are currently the only goalies with a cap hit of $10 million or more. Price hasn’t played since 2022 and is basically retired for all intents and purposes, meaning it’s really just Bobrovsky among active goalies.
After that it’s Andrei Vasilevskiy at $9.5 million, Connor Hellebuyck at $8.5 million, and Ilya Sorokin at $8.25 million. Nashville’s Juuse Saros also signed an extension this summer that kicks in next year at $7.74 million average annual value.
It would be a steep ask from Swayman, and one that would understandably have general manager Don Sweeney and company patiently waiting for the price to drop.
Price had won a Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy as league MVP prior to signing his contract. Bobrovsky has won two Vezinas and a Stanley Cup. Vasilevskiy has two Cups, a Vezina and a Conn Smythe for playoff MVP. Hellebuyck has two Vezinas.
Swayman, while promising and just 25 years old, simply doesn’t have that kind of résumé yet. His career high in games played is 44 and his career-best finish in Vezina voting is seventh, both achieved this past season. Swayman does have a terrific playoff run in his favor, as his 13.3 goals saved above expected this spring led all goalies in the postseason, even with the Bruins only playing two rounds.
It will be interesting to see when and how this situation resolves. There should be urgency on both sides as the season gets closer. The Bruins already traded away Linus Ullmark and presumably have little interest in going into the season with Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi as their goalies. Swayman, meanwhile, has limited options as a restricted free agent unless another team were to submit an offer sheet for him, which is unlikely.
As we’ve explained before, if any team was going to actually tempt the Bruins to not match an offer sheet, they would likely have to offer more than $9 million per year and cough up two first-round picks, a second-round pick and a third-round pick as compensation. Only seven teams even meet all the criteria to make such an offer: the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken. Most of those teams are either already set in goal or are dealing with their own cap and RFA situations that need to be resolved.
If this stalemate continued into the season, it's worth noting that Swayman would need to sign a contract before Dec. 1 or he would be ineligible to play the remainder of the season.