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Latest Swayman-Bruins update is more of the same |
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Ty Anderson
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The Bruins went from months to weeks to now just days until the opening of 2024 training camp.
And yet, here we are, still talking about a Bruins club without franchise goaltender and restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman signed to a new contract.
Speaking with reporters at the club’s 2024 Prospects Challenge up in Buffalo this past weekend, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney opted not to provide an update on those talks in really any sense of the word, further creaking open the door to the legitimate possibility that the 25-year-old Swayman is not signed and on the ice with training camp gets underway later this week.
“Kick it down the road,” Sweeney told the Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont. “We’ll talk next week.”
In one way, this is standard operating procedure for Sweeney and the Bruins. As Sweeney will remind you again and again and again, Sweeney will almost never provide updates on contract talks and progress through the media. He says he does not play that game out of respect for both the player and the process of how communication should flow within an organization.
But there’s no denying that the Bruins are running out of time to simply ‘kick things down the road’ with their No. 1 goaltender. Once camp begins, an unsigned Swayman will not be permitted to use team facilities (he’s been working with B’s trainers and did participate in their captains’ practices at Warrior Ice Arena), and the Bruins would essentially have to operate with the understanding that Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi are at the top of their goaltending depth chart until Swayman is signed.
And is there any end in sight for what’s been a summer-long game of chicken?
The Bruins and Swayman’s camp are indeed talking, but the obstacles for these sides have remained relatively consistent throughout. Swayman has talked openly about his market and where the goaltending market can go with the rising salary cap, and a strong postseason run only helped him there. With Swayman also just two years away from a potential jump into unrestricted free agency, you have to imagine that there’s a legitimate push from the B’s point of view to buy up at least a couple of those ‘UFA’ years. What that does to the average annual value of an extension seems to be another roadblock.
On Monday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman confirmed that the Bruins and Swayman’s camp (led by agent Lewis Gross) are indeed talking, and that they were trying to “bridge philosophical differences.” Friedman did go on to note that Swayman wants to remain with the Bruins long term, which has honestly never been something that’s been in doubt throughout this process.
Just how badly Swayman or the Bruins stick to their guns here as camp officially opens will be worth monitoring. The closest and most recent brush the Bruins had with this sort of situation came back in 2017, when then-restricted free agent David Pastrnak missed the first day of training camp but ultimately signed for the first day of real on-ice work with the club.
Should this extend beyond training camp, the Bruins would have until Dec. 1 to get Swayman signed for him to eligible to play in the 2024-25 NHL season.
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