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The Boston Bruins have spent the offseason trying (and failing) to get Jeremy Swayman to agree to a new contract, and team president Cam Neely has drawn the ire of his agent after claiming the goaltender rejected a $64 million offer as he continues to hold out from training camp.
The Boston Bruins spent the past two seasons blessed with the most formidable goalie tandem in the NHL thanks to Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, but following the most recent campaign, they traded the former (who won the Vezina Trophy in 2023) to the Senators due to salary cap issues while gearing up for a new era where the latter would presumably become their primary starter.
However, that plan is still up in the air due to Swayman’s contract. The 25-year-old Alaska native is currently a restricted free agent who hadn’t earned a new deal from the franchise when Ullmark was shipped off, and the two sides have spent months going back and forth without making any real progress.
There have been plenty of rumors concerning Swayman’s demands (some insiders say he believes he deserves a long-term deal that will pay him at least $10 million a year despite lacking a résumé that rivals other goalies making that amount) and others that suggest he feels like he’s been disrespected by purported offers from the Bruins that have been closer to $6.5 million.
On Monday, members of the Bruins front office held a press conference where a reporter attempted to get some more insight into what they’ve offered him, and team president Cam Neely responded by saying “I’d have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now” (which would suggest Boston offered him an eight-year deal worth $8 million a season).
That assertion garnered a swift response from Swayman’s agent Lewis Gross (a notoriously bullheaded rep who also made life as difficult as possible for the Toronto Maple Leafs while negotiating a deal that involved William Nylander holding out for two months in 2018), who issued a statement asserting Neely was lying about the $64 million offer.
Swayman and the Bruins have until December 1st to agree on a new contract if he wants to play this season, and as things currently stand, Joonas Korpisalo (who was acquired in the deal that sent Ullmark to Ottawa) is expected to start in goal when the team kicks off the regular season against the Panthers on October 8th.