Goalie, who was restricted free agent, did not participate in training camp
Jeremy Swayman signed an eight-year, $66 million contract with the Boston Bruins on Sunday. It has an average annual value of $8.25 million and runs through the 2031-32 season.
The 25-year-old goalie, who was a restricted free agent, was coming off a one-year, $3.475 million contract that he was awarded by an independent arbitrator Aug. 1, 2023.
He did not report to training camp, which began Sept. 18.
“I’m just so excited to be a Boston Bruin,” Swayman said. “The fact that we went through this process and the tools that I learned with it, it’s gone now. All I care about is being a Bruin. The fact that I can do that for eight years and instill myself as a leader and as a true member of this city is all I care about right now.
“I couldn’t be happier.”
Bruins president Cam Neely said earlier this week that he felt Swayman wanted to stay in Boston.
“I strongly believe that Jeremy wants to play here,” Neely said Oct. 2. “I’ve asked him flat-out, do you want to play here, and he does. I believe that they’ll get a deal done. It’s unfortunate it’s not done today.”
In the same press conference, Neely appeared to make public what the Bruins had offered Swayman, saying, “I know that I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.”
Swayman’s agent later that day said that number had never been discussed and that, “we will take a few days to discuss where we go from here.”
When the Bruins opened training camp Sept. 18, general manager Don Sweeney said he was optimistic a deal would get done.
“I think I’ve been pretty consistent in saying that every deal has its own timeline,” Sweeney said. “There’s twist, turns and such. You’d hope they’d be a straight and narrow path, but it just doesn’t always work out that way and you have to be respectful and listen. I think that’s part of this whole exercise of going through negotiations. You have to be willing to listen to what’s important for the other party. Our plan was to negotiate a deal and in a perfect world we both agreed that that the longest deal we could find once we got to common ground was what we were hoping for and that’s where it ended up.”
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.
“It was a day-by-day thing,” Swayman said. “It’s a negotiation and I respect the fact that you have to ask these questions. What I’m truly focused on is the future and the here and now. Everything else was a blur in my mind and all I’m worried about is being in net for the Boston Bruins right now. I’m overjoyed with it.
“I felt an incredible amount of support throughout this entire process. Every day there were calls coming in and those are the people that truly care about you as an individual. Even when they’re not in your shoes they understand that you’re in that spotlight. To see the amount of people that were just coming out of the woodworks reaching out to me and my family, just showing support and love, that for me was what mattered most.”
Selected by Boston in the fourth round (No. 111) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Swayman is 79-33-15 with a 2.34 GAA, .919 save percentage and 12 shutouts in 132 regular-season games (125 starts) and 9-10 with a 2.38 GAA and .922 save percentage in 20 playoff games (18 starts).
He and Linus Ullmark helped Boston win the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL in 2022-23 (177, including shootout deciding goals), 36 ahead of the next closest team, the Carolina Hurricanes (213 goals allowed). That season, the Bruins set NHL single-season records for wins (65) and points (135).
Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators on June 24 for goalie Joonas Korpisalo, forward Mark Kastelic and a 1st-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, paving the way for Swayman to be a No. 1 for the first time.
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.
Sweeney saw Neely’s comments as an indication of both sides wanting a deal and it happened.
“I don’t think it necessarily moved things because we had deadlines anyway from a standpoint of we wanted Jeremy in our lineup and he wants to play hockey,” Sweeney said. “Ultimately, he wanted to play for the Boston Bruins and that’s the result, so we’re happy moving forward.”
