Elliotte Friedman blames 'lingering hard feelings' between Jeremy Swayman and Bruins for Boston's slow start

By Mike Whitaker

Modified Nov 18, 2024 20:00 GMT

The Boston Bruins and goaltender Jeremy Swayman were engaged in a public and bitter standoff over the summer. Swayman was the new top man on their depth chart following the trade of Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators and wanted a new contract.

He wanted to be paid like a top goaltender in the league, while Bruins management was hesitant as he had not played more than 44 games in a season. The standoff lasted all summer, including through training camp and the exhibition schedule.

At the last minute, both sides agreed on an eight-year $66 million contract. Swayman became the fifth highest-paid player in the NHL at his position with an AAV of $8.25 million.

However, to say that Swayman's stats so far in the early goings of the 2024-25 season don't match his new salary would be an understatement. He is 5-6 with a 3.35 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage. These numbers are hardly worth his lucrative deal.

According to NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman, Boston's slow start to the year may be caused by some leftover negative feelings between the two sides.

"The whole Swayman thing, I think there's some lingering hard feelings about that," Friedman said on Monday. via the '32 Thoughts' podcast. "I just think that, you know, the Bruins aren't used to having their business all over the world like that, and I think it's led to some hard feelings," he said. "And I think, I do think that that kind and I think that's kind of affected the overall situation."

"You know, I heard that one of the things the players have talked about is, 'Look, guys, there's, there's a lot of noise around our team right now, and we just have to stick together. And, you know, the tough thing is, is it looked like they were out of it with that double shutout weekend a little bit ago, but they haven't righted themselves."

Jeremy Swayman is now the official starter with the Bruins

Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark had formed an intimidating 1-2 punch in net for the Bruins, co-winning the William Jennings Trophy in the 2022-23 season as they helped the team to win 65 games.

While the Bruins started Ullmark for each of their first six games of their opening postseason round matchup against the Florida Panthers, Boston coach Jim Montgomery switched things up and started Swayman in the deciding seventh game, a 4-3 Panthers win in overtime.

Earlier this spring, Swayman was given all but one of the starts for Boston in the postseason, which included a first round defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs before eventually bowing out to the Panthers once again.

Swayman owns a record of 84-39-17.