The Boston Bruins have signed goalie Jeremy Swayman to an eight-year contract worth $66 million, finalizing an agreement just two days before the season opener and following a summer of tough negotiations.
This deal comes after the team took Swayman to arbitration last year and just days after Bruins president Cam Neely mentioned, “I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.” Swayman’s agent, Lewis Gross, stated that the team did not offer the 25-year-old from Alaska $64 million.
In the end, they reached an agreement, avoiding a situation that could have disrupted the season for the franchise, which has enjoyed six seasons with over 100 points but hasn’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since 2019.
With an average annual value of $8.25 million, Swayman is now one of the highest-paid goalies in the NHL, despite not having been a team’s sole starting goalie before. Only Sergei Bobrovsky from Florida, Andrei Vasilevskiy from Tampa Bay, and Connor Hellebuyck from Winnipeg earn more.
Swayman, a restricted free agent, missed all of training camp. He had a deadline of December 1 to sign or risk missing the entire season, which would have been a disaster for a team that had two top goalies last year—Swayman and 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark—who shared the net until the playoffs began.
After being Ullmark’s backup during Boston’s record-setting 2022-23 season, Swayman could not reach a long-term deal and was awarded a $3.475 million contract through arbitration. He expressed frustration with the process, saying, “I don’t want to do it ever again.”
Last year, Swayman made 43 starts during the regular season with a 2.53 goals-against average before becoming the No. 1 goalie in the playoffs. The Bruins were eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida in the second round.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said securing Swayman was his top goal for the offseason, but he traded Ullmark before finalizing Swayman’s deal, giving Swayman more leverage during negotiations.
