Bruins Need to Pay Jeremy Swayman Whatever He Wants

Swayman is a restricted free agent (RFA) this summer, and getting his next contract ironed out is at the top of the front office’s priorities for the offseason. This is his second summer in a row as an RFA with last summer’s negotiations having to go to arbitration where he was awarded a one-year, $3.475 million deal. It was not a pleasant experience for him, mentioning in comments afterwards that “I definitely don’t wish it upon any of my friends and teammates moving forward and I don’t want to ever do it again” (from Ryan, Conor. “Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman explains arbitration comments following shutout win,” Boston.com, Jan. 15, 2024).

Following his performance this season and given that the Bruins will have over $21 million in cap space this summer, general manager Don Sweeney and the rest of the front office should now have a vested interest in giving Swayman anything he wants for his next contract.

Avoiding Arbitration at All Costs

Swayman is still an RFA this summer, meaning that he can’t test the open market. Sure, another team could offer sheet him, but the likelihood of that happening and him accepting it is pretty low. This is great for the Bruins who cannot afford to lose him, but does limit his own negotiating powers. 

Last summer, the Bruins were incredibly cash-strapped and were right up against the cap, which was a part of why they went to arbitration. They had two RFAs, Swayman and Trent Frederic, and both were challenging contracts to put together. Frederic just avoided arbitration to sign a two-year deal, but as already mentioned, Swayman was not as lucky and has been vocal about how challenging it was. 

Swayman can and should be the Bruins’ goaltender of the future. He wants to stay in Boston, the fans clearly want him around, and he has proven himself this season and in the postseason that he is worthy of keeping around for a while. The last thing the front office wants to do right now is potentially sour that relationship through another arbitration meeting.

Additionally, when arbitration meetings occur, the contracts that come out of that are typically one or two-year deals, which would mean Swayman would be hitting the unrestricted free agent (UFA) market much sooner than anticipated and would not be good for the Bruins.

Expectations for Swayman’s Contract

Swayman wants to stay in Boston and the front office has already expressed their interest in keeping him around long-term. Usually, I am not a big fan of the eight-year contract extension as I think they very rarely work out for either the team or the player. Additionally, the Bruins already have David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Hampus Lindholm all signed through the 2029-30 season.

But, Swayman has earned the right to be an exception in my mind. The Bruins have been lucky to benefit from great goaltending for over a decade and know how much of a difference-maker it can be. This season showed that Swayman is the real deal and keeping him around would ensure that the team can remain strong in the net for another decade. 

Swayman is also only 25, so an eight-year deal would mean he’ll still only be 33 when the deal would end. He could get another big deal for himself after this one since it’s safe to assume the salary cap and average player salaries will be higher in eight years. 

I expect the deal to be six to eight years in length. As for term, I think it will have somewhere around an average annual value (AAV) of $9 million. That would make him the third highest-paid player on the roster behind McAvoy and Pastrnak, and slot him right between Andrei Vasilevsky ($9.5 million) and Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5 million) in terms of cap hits for other goaltenders around the league. 

While $9 million is certainly a high cap hit, it’s reasonable for one of your top players on the roster. Additionally, the Bruins could make that signing and still have plenty of room to bring in a new center and a defenseman this offseason.

What Swayman Wants

At the end of the day, the Bruins really don’t have much reason not to give Swayman whatever he wants for a contract in terms of length and value. He has earned it. This was an MVP-caliber postseason from him, but it also hasn’t come out of nowhere. In four short seasons, he has shown over and over again that he is a top goaltender in the NHL. He’s had his rough spots and found ways to get out of them, and is currently sitting at a career stat line of 2.34 GAA and a .919 SV%. He’ll also most likely hit 100 wins next season, and should end up being in the top 20 fastest goaltenders to reach 100 wins in NHL history. 

The Swayman extension will get done this summer and no matter what it is, Bruins fans should be happy with it. The team very easily could have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the third season in a row, but Swayman’s performance kept them in the series and allowed them to pull off the Game 7 overtime victory. His performance has been one of the highlights of the 2023-24 season and it will be exciting to see what he does next season.