Insider Reveals The Real Reason Bruins Are Squeezing Jeremy Swayman In Contract Talks

There have been a lot of rumors surrounding the delay in the Jeremy Swayman extension talks. This week, we heard that the Boston Bruins not only lowballed him, but haven't returned his calls for three weeks.

With camp just over a week away, things are getting serious, and some folks are getting fed up.

Insider Elliotte Friedman tells us, via his 32 Thoughts podcast, his top theory as to why the Bruins are trying to squeeze their No. 1 goaltender is this:

One (source) said to me, what he thinks is going on is that while the Bruins don't disbelieve in Swayman, (the fact is) he's only played 132 NHL games.
The guy is super talented, he's gonna be star, nobody disputes that, but he thinks what the Bruins are saying is, 'we do believe in Jeremy Swayman, but he hasn't carried the full load yet.' And that's why he believes they are hesitant to commit.

Swayman has had only three full seasons in the NHL, and it was only in a time-share with Linus Ullmark. Swayman only cracked the 40-start barrier for the first time this past season.

Friedman went on to relay the fact that at some point there was an eight-year deal on the table, "but it was in the '6s' (i.e. $6.x million AAV)."

So while the team went higher than they wanted to with Charlie McAvoy ($9.5 million AAV) and David Pastrňák ($11.25 million AAV), Swayman is very hip to the business side of things, and he's looking for them to do the same with him.

"You've got a team that believes in its position, and you've got a player that believes in his position," said Friedman. "And the leverage would seem to be with the player because they traded Ullmark, but the Bruins haven't changed their mind yet."

He adds that Swayman met recently with Bruins president Cam Neely, but he doesn't know if that's moved the needle.