Where Bruins’ goalie situation stands amid Swayman contract talks originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins will be missing one of their best players when they take the ice for the first training camp practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday.
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman remains unsigned as a restricted free agent, and as a result, he won’t be joining the team until that situation is resolved, B’s general manager Don Sweeney told reporters at a press conference Wednesday.
“He has chosen to wait, and rightfully so, until a contract is settled,” Sweeney said. “It’s our intention to continue to negotiate a contract. I’m disappointed that… when you set things as a priority in the general manager spot, you do your best to try and accomplish that, and I haven’t been able to do that yet.”
Swayman deserves a huge raise from the $3.475 million he earned last season. He is one of the league’s top 10 goalies and played fantastic in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The challenge for both sides is determining just how big of a raise is appropriate, and how long the contract should be.
There are currently five goaltenders with a salary cap hit above $6.4 million for the 2024-25 season. Swayman deserves to join that group, the question is how high on the list he will go. Swayman has played great in Boston and has a bright future. But he also doesn’t have some of the accolades that other highly paid netminders have.
Boston currently has $8.64 million in salary cap space, per PuckPedia.
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Sweeney mentioned Dec. 1 multiple times in his Wednesday press conference. Swayman must be signed by that date to be eligible to play in the upcoming season, per the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“As I said, I’m disappointed. But at the end of the day, I’m optimistic, because I think we’ll find a landing spot before December 1,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney wouldn’t give a guess as to when these contract talks could produce an actual agreement.
“I’m not going to be, you know, judgmental in terms of predicting when things come to a point of conclusion,” Sweeney said. “I will say that every day that Jeremy is out, it hurts our team, and it hurts him because of preparation that we would like to do and he needs to do, but it’s not going to stop from hopefully finding the common ground and getting done. I’m certainly not going to predict. I do believe that he’ll be in before December 1st because we all want him to play hockey, and our team is better for it.”
The Bruins have a team set up for playoff success. The addition of Elias Lindholm in free agency gives the roster a much-needed top-six center. The signing of defenseman Nikita Zadorov provides valuable depth and truculence to the blue line. Boston’s roster is heavier, taller and meaner than it’s been in previous years. This group, at least on paper, is better suited to take down a team like the Florida Panthers than it was last season.
But for the Bruins to win multiple playoff rounds for the first time since 2019, Swayman needs to be playing a leading role between the pipes. That obviously can’t happen if he’s not signed.
So how do the Bruins proceed while Sweeney and Swayman’s representatives continue their contract talks?
Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi have been given a fantastic opportunity to showcase their talent and make their case for playing time early in camp.
Korpisalo was acquired in the Linus Ullmark trade with the Senators back in June. He posted a .890 save percentage and a 3.27 GAA last season. He ranked near the bottom of the league in goals saved above expected. However, Korpisalo has shown in the past that he can be a competent NHL goalie. The Finnish netminder tallied a .916 save percentage in 2022-23, a .911 save percentage in 2019-20 and a .920 save percentage in 2015-16. Legendary Bruins goalie coach Bob Essensa has a terrific track record in getting the most out of the players he works with, so it’s hard to bet against him with Korpisalo.
Bussi has lots of potential after two excellent seasons as the starting goalie for the AHL’s Providence Bruins. He’s big, athletic and shows plenty of compete.
“Yeah, I think what gives us confidence is he has the ability to make big-time saves,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said of Bussi during a press conference Wednesday. “We’ve seen that in Providence, we saw that here in that first exhibition game and that incredible save he made. … But also it’s his second and third effort. We talk about the Bruins having that, and that’s something that he has in the crease.”
The Bruins’ blue line is better than it was last season with the addition of Zadorov. But it’s important to remember that the B’s ranked 18th in shots allowed, 17th in scoring chances allowed and 20th in high-danger chances allowed at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. The Bruins were not an elite defensive team. The reason they finished fifth in goals allowed was they had two Vezina-caliber goalies.
Korpisalo and Bussi are nowhere near that level. So it would be wrong to assume that either one could carry the Bruins for a prolonged stretch during the regular season. In a backup role, both of these goalies are fine. But as the No. 1, that’s where it would get dicey.
The regular season begins Oct. 8 against the Panthers in Florida. That’s 19 days away. There’s plenty of time for the Bruins to reach a deal with Swayman, but the clock is ticking. Every day he’s not in camp is a lost day of preparation with his teammates, and with each day that passes this situation has a larger chance of becoming a real distraction.
Sweeney and the Bruins are no strangers to star players missing a little time in camp before signing new contracts. It happened in 2017 with David Pastrnak, and again in 2019 with Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo. In each case, the player was signed and on the ice within five days of camp starting.
It remains to be seen if the same will happen with Swayman.
“I’ll continue to work every day. It’s not unlike, you know, David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, and they’ve been longtime Boston Bruins,” Sweeney said.
“It’s a process that seemingly every year there’s a few players, and this is the year that we have one. But I have to continue to do my job. I have to respect the position that Jeremy and his camp has taken, and then continue to try and find common ground.”
