Your Boston Bruins have finally put the Jeremy Swayman saga to bed, signing their young franchise goaltender to an 8 year extension with an $8.25M AAV. This public pissing match (mostly instigated by the Bruins’ brass, in my humble opinion) is finally behind them and we can only hope that whatever hurt feelings, bad memories and collective awful taste in the mouth these negotiations brought to the surface can now be tucked deep away and ignored in the traditional way that New Englanders have been doing so with emotional trauma since the Commonwealth was incorporated.
But before we bury all of this, let’s take one last look at the sides involved in this gong show. The question on everyone’s minds at this point: how will everyone involved move forward? Will Cam Neely and his “64 million reasons” realize his completely blatant and transparent attempt to turn public opinion against Swayman (and appease most likely only Jeremy Jacobs) actually alienated a good part of the Black and Gold Nation? Is Don Sweeney at home scheduling his appearance on the “Spitting Up on Yourself” podcast while wondering how a Harvard mind let one goalie go without having the other locked up? Is Swayman taking a stroll through the executive suite on Legends Way asking if anyone would like some cheese to go with all the whining he’s heard over the last month or so?
Probably not, but I will say that this whole fumblefuck has not been a good look for the Bruins management team as a whole. First you trade your Vezina winning goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators for the ghost of Joonas Korpisalo, Mark Kastelic and a 2024 1st round pick (Dean Letourneau C St. Andrews College). I will say, that’s a fairly decent haul with the parameters the B’s had to deal with. On July 1, Ullmark had the right to change his list of 6 teams that he would not go to and the Bruins feared that Ottawa would be on that new list. So, they had to move Ullmark and I guess they thought Swayman would just sit patiently and sign once they shifted all the leverage to his side? Who the hell was Sweeney’s professor that was teaching negotiating 101 at Harvard?
So at this point, the Bruins have Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi in their goalie room and after lighting up Swayman in arbitration last year (after which he admitted that he’d never want to go through that again) so harshly that he actually MADE A LIST OF THE TEAM’S CRITICISMS, did Neely, Sweeney et al really think he’d sign for anything less than what he thought he was worth? With all the leverage in his hands? Coming off a playoff run that would have ended in 4GP if it wasn’t for his efforts last year? Really?
Now you may be in the camp of rooting for billionaires instead of millionaires, but I am not one of you. Jeremy Jacobs and his entire family have been making millions off of the Bruins fandom since they bought the team in 1975 for $10M (now worth North of $1.78B) and how many Stanley Cups have they won? Exactly. They’re known to generations of Bruins fans as the owners that didn’t give a shit about winning or losing except for on their financial statements. When Swayman came out and talked about what he felt was his responsibility to set a market for players that would come after him and how he’d educated himself on the business side, you had to know those type of comments would anger Scrooge McDuck Montgomery Burns the elder Jacobs. I’m old enough to remember the days that the Bruins would trade away every player that spoke up, held out, talked contracts in the media or “just happened” to be the team player rep for the NHLPA.
So it was no surprise to me that Neely came out and said his 64 million reasons line. Especially when per Swayman’s own agent, that offer hadn’t been brought to the Swayman camp. So now as a fan you’re in the unenviable spot of believing one of your favorite all-time Bruins in Cam Neely or believing one of the brightest young stars in the entire NHL who actually wants to play here in the Hub of Hockey in Jeremy Swayman. You can make your own decisions, but I’m going with Sway. Sorry Cam, but that comment seemed to come straight from the Harry Sinden/Jeremy Jacobs playbook. I’m not saying that you were fed that line verbatim, but it sure sounds like you had your marching orders. And total respect to Swayman for taking the high road when he met with the media.
I would love to have an inside ear at Bruins HQ or maybe have Don Sweeney set up with some truth serum. What was his reaction when Neely torpedoed all the negotiations? Was Sweeney on board? Was he aware of that tactic while they were still in negotiations? What were the convos like between Sweeney and Swayman’s agent? I guess no one is talking about the Mitchell Miller signing right now so that’s a positive? No one steps on their own dicks quite like Bruins management.
So for the moment everyone retires to their respective corners, licks their wounds and get ready for the season opener at Florida on Tuesday. Should be nice to watch the Stanley Cup banner being raised. Bottom line, the team has their number 1 goalie back, Korpisalo will be a decent backup and with a few good bounces; the team is poised for a long run with a heavy D corp a number of exciting forwards. I guess it took 66 million reasons for Swayman to get back to playing, but he’s back. Black and Gold baby, let’s get it going.
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