With just seven days left until the Boston Bruins enter the 2024-25 NHL season, it seems that they are still yet to address their issues with Jeremy Swayman as the star goalie is yet to be secured for the coming season and beyond. Rumors, however, claim that the Bruins are working out a contract that will see the star back in action right away.

Swayman has yet to be a full-time starter for the Bruins in the past few seasons and has never seen more than 44 games of action in his four seasons. So far, it cannot be denied that Swayman’s previous deal, set at a one-year, $3.475 million deal was really quite a low-ball that would have seen the star signing with another team instead.

At this point, the Bruins are said to be working out with the goalie’s agents to come up with a promising deal and shore up the goal-defense side at this point. That all remains to be seen as no news of a new offer to Swayman has surfaced as of the time of writing. This means that the Bruins are running out of time to bring him in before the season begins.

A Deserved Raise for Swayman

So far, Swayman is believed to be offered an eight-year deal with the team capped at $64 million, which places him at $8 million per season. While it may look like a hefty price, this puts the Bruins goalie behind four other goalies in terms of annual salary, with the likes of Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida Panthers), Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning), Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets), and Ilya Sorokin (New York Islanders) on the list.

However, Swayman’s representative Lewis Gross claimed that the Bruins have not offered anything in the $64-million mark, saying that the party is disappointed and the talks aren’t fair for Swayman’s contributions to the success of the Boston Bruins over the years. It can be noted that Swayman was said to be the team’s next goalie after they traded Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators in June.

"Normally, I do not release statements or discuss negotiations through the media," Gross wrote. "However, in this case, I feel I need to defend my client. At today's press conference, $64 million was referenced. This was the first time that number was discussed in our negotiations. Prior to the press conference, no offer was made reaching that level.”

Swayman’s Impressive Groove

Swayman played in split time with Ullmark last season, amassing a 25-10-8 record with a 2.53 GAA, a .916 save percentage, and three shutouts in 44 games (43 starts). He would go on to take over the position in the playoffs and started in 12 of Boston’s 13 games, including 11 straight. In that stretch, Swayman tallied a 2.15 GAA and .933 save percentage and led the team to a Game 6 run against then-champions Panthers in the semis.

So far, the stats show that Swayman should definitely be a priority signing for the team, and it says a lot about Boston’s hopes of bringing in the goalie for another deep playoff run at this point.

"I have been in constant communication with Don and with Cam about the Jeremy Swayman contract negotiations," Bruins CEO and alternate governor Charlie Jacobs said. "I just want to be very clear, we're in a state of constant communication regarding Jeremy and our hope is he's on the ice as soon as possible."