Should Jeremy Swayman be taking all the Blame? 

Should Sweeney be responsible for the contract issues with Swayman?

Swayman has to understand the overall structure of the team. Bro took a few business classes and now he thinks he can strongarm. Everyone needs to be a bit more reasonable, before this relationship evaporates.

Dude, I normally agree with you, but I don’t understand why anyone would think I’m not supposed to use a players contract to judge their performance more harshly. In a world where people work 60 hours a week and can barely afford food. The only reason these guys make millions is because of us watching their games buying their jerseys and tickets so why shouldn’t we hold them more accountable? I think that’s a major elephant in the room in terms of the vitriol and the response to the holdout

I think there has always been some doubt on the Bruin's part whether Jeremy is actually an elite 1A. This is an original six club, we know better about USA trained goalies. Nobody wants to hear that statistic But he immediately became a fan favorite, sold a lot of tickets and jerseys... That goalie hug thing must have made beaucoup bucks. So it's tough to get real at this point. That's their first mistake- They built him up so high I think everyone was counting on international training early in his career. He didn't get his trip to Beijing Olympics, has not gained any international experience. In public, they need to hold him up as a "god." But money don't lie... His situation is a little different. Jeremy was originally called up not because he was ready, but Halak and Rask were both knocked out due to covid. He was basically taught to stop pucks his first two seasons on NHL ice, which caused offensive zone face offs. I don't count his first two seasons on NHL ice part-time. Jeremy is asking for a number appropriate for a proven starting goalie who at least has a few assists under their belts... Goalie Bob is fully aware that Jeremy still doesn't use the boards to help transition the puck up through the neutral zone, create breakaways. I believe these are the details that the coaching staff looks at when assessing his de facto value. They gave Linus the much heavier load 2022-23 season. And he thrived under that weight.. Complaining about not having that consistency this past season So Jeremy has not been tested. There is a growing minority that realizes if the real auston Matthews showed up for playoffs, there would have been a very different outcome. That's where I believe the Bruins shot themselves in the skate. They had him on NHL ice all this time, yet didn't actually test Jeremy, and then fate set up first round without Matthews. So that was more like a drill than a test! In addition to counting on the Beijing Olympics for his international experience, like Jonathan Quick. They coddled Jeremys schedule down to the rosters he actually played, he beat Vegas in boston, but Mark Stone nor Jack eichel played. So we have to go beyond the statistics at face value for a game like that - taking out the stone and eichel factors. And there's a few more games in his win column that are top teams but not top players Beyond the oilers, I don't think he's beaten top Western teams in their houses Has he even played McKinnon and Avs? These are the nuances behind the scenes that the coaching staff is aware, yet they're not announcing this in public They know the tricks of the trade they've been pulling behind the scenes to get that Jennings award and vezina into their stable. it needs to be acknowledged that goalie coaches get financial bonuses when their boys get awards! But I think there's something else going on beyond Jeremy and Sweeney Is this is the first time the Bruins have dealt with Lewis Gross at this level? It's more his reputation on the line in many ways. perhaps Sweeney is setting a standard for the rest of the franchises in dealing with this guy. If the players want raises? As they deserve- They should do it through the NHL players union Not people like Lewis Gross. Jeremy announcing that he's taken a few months of undergraduate level business classes, is not convincing. That's a little strange. Immature Jeremy has the privilege and opportunity of passing through the locker room of an original 6 team. The franchise is bigger than one player. Laying blame is a little late. This tradition and rules have been established for decades. It's my understanding that Jeremy originally wanted to be drafted to Toronto. That's where they overpay players! Boston is the opposite. I think it was mishandled because the Bruins didn't count on Jeremy whipping out an agent like Lewis Gross. Bottom line, they can talk in the media all they want, but money don't lie. Bruins don't firmly believe Jeremy is the elite 1A future of the Bruins. 🎤 Drop.

Zadorov Mcavoy Carlo Lindholm. Peek and Lorie are your bottom pairing. I dont care who our goalie is. Not worried. Bussi Korpi. Will look like greats too. This guy wants us capped to the roof. Let him sit/walk. His value should tank and or he can get over paid in another market. Chow.

No. Disagree. Sweeny does not deserve the blame. Swayman needs to prove that he's capable to do a full season as 1. goalie. Him asking big money before proving that, is greedy - especially considering the usual path for goalie contracts. And him trying to saint himself by saying, that he's just looking out for future goalie contracts is just bullshit. I don't mind Sweeny sitting him for the season and putting energy into Korpi and Bussi. Use the remaining cap space to get some good signings on RW and some other areas that could need help. Goalie out strategy of building a team is great, but you don't win games if you don't score.

There is no reason for blame. It is a negotiation. Both sides want the best deal they can get. We don't know details of the negotiations and the reports that have published are all over the place so even the well connected hockey insiders don't really know the details. But we know how much Sweeny has kept in cap space for the one remaining signing so that seems to be his ceiling. With training camp starting up, the pressure to reach a deal is probably building up. I think that Sweeny has been pretty reasonable with players contracts in recent years. He seems to know how to value the players, except for a few that may be overpaid (eg. Hampus). I think Swayman is good, but he hasn't reached elite status (yet?). His stats were good and he got some votes for the vezina, but there are several goalies ahead of him. His comments about arbitration during the past season and his recent comments on youtube interview make me think that his expectations are unrealistic. It's good that he is confident, but he just cracked the top 10 this year. He needs to move up in the rankings and to show consistency if he wants to be paid like one of the best. he is still part of the pack. Not a leader. Sweeny needs to stand his ground, assuming he has a reasonable target in mind. I expect by this point this has been discussed with the whole management team. They know what a goalie is worth. No blame yet, but if it drags on into the season, I think most of the blame is on Swayman. Come'on these guys get paid a lot of money. He has to up his game earn the really big paycheck and he hasn't done that yet.

I like Swayman in goal for the Bruins. He is both worth more than 6,000,000 a year. More like 5.5 max, until he really proves himself

We do not know how swayman handles the locker room. How beloved he is by his teammates? He could be a narcissist, a complainer, an unliked guy. All these factors and more that we don't know about. Let Sweeney do his job. He puts a great team together yr. After yr. I trust Sweeney!!

Swayman an Ullmark were best friends, swayman was sour what they did to ully. I saw a report out athletic yesterday saying swayman should get 11.5 which is ridiculous. Because siskerchken , rangers goalie gonna reset market next year. Sorry my spelling is bad. Felger says 6.5 because he still unproven. If the ten mill is in accurate while I'm for 7:mill or 6.5 , 7 more realistic. I'm just really disappointed in swayman because he hadn't been true 1a why don't he sign say a 1 year deal 7 or 7.5 million deal a show me year. If he wins over 30 games give him an extra million an forty another million. An if he proves he's the man by half way through season lock him up long-term by end of February or March an then give him 5-8 year deal worth the bux .

Dude, bad take. There was no cap space for a real deal last year. I love Swayman but he’s being selfish. A good Bruin takes the millions a year they still get with a team friendly deal that helps put better players around him, it’s a win-win. I love Swayman but I’ve concluded he’s being selfish and arrogant for a goalie that had a great playoffs last year but hasn’t proven himself as a number 1 goalie for a full season.

Good write-up by Fluto Shinzawa this morning about the Swayman contract hold up. But even he doesn't have any inside knowledge. Just provides some related info and some of the reports that have already been discussed, like Elliot Friedman's update along with his thoughts.

All the blame? No. Some - maybe?

I think at the end of the day I agree with almost everything you’re saying, but it’s just so complicated at the end of the day nobody really knows but I think if they give him 8 and a day that should be fine for everybody. If he seriously is still pushing for more than that, then they have a major issue

Sweeney's doing the right thing, he's worth 6.5M so trade or let him sit.

Great video, I slightly disagree with your point about comparing Tuukka to Swayman. Tuukka was completely thrown into a starting role at the start of the lockout shortened season and he took it and ran with it. Swayman still hasn’t proved himself to be a bona-fined #1 guy, I feel like their best bet would be to sign him to another bridge deal like you said they did with Rask. I do agree they could have avoided this scenario altogether by signing him to a 2 year extension last offseason. I believe the Bruins top offer for a long term deal currently should be 7 mil per season, I understand this may be low but if they offer another bridge deal I am fully willing for them to sign Swayman to however high he wants IF he can prove he is in the top 5-10 goalies in the league. The bruins don’t have the troubles like they used to of not signing their own talent, they took care of Pastrnak and McAvoy.

People can make all the complaints in the world about trading Ullmark before swayman was signed, but I just think this is misplaced frustration and sort of a disingenuous argument since holding onto ullmark indefinitely technically wouldn’t guarantee anything….and Lewis Gross could still have been perfectly content to hold out as long as possible, which would just screw them even more than they already are now. At least they got Dean Letourneau out of it and fans surely would’ve lost their mind either way, so it was a lose-lose situation for Sweeney and I understand why he had to move Ullmark before the draft. I’m actually kind of tired of hearing fans hammer this lazy talking point. I think the hold up here is on Swayman and he’s just being egregiously difficult along with his agent who has a history of doing exactly what is happening here. People need to realize it took for Nylander himself to call the Maple leafs *personally* 40 minutes before the deadline for a deal to be reached. Lewis Gross is a very greedy and ruthless individual who stands to make millions off the stalemate. I think Sweeney knew this was coming all along and he did his due diligence by at least getting SOMETHING for Ullmark. So I do blame him because if push comes to shove and the Bruins offer him the 8x8 and he wants one CENT more than that…. he’s just entitled. Quite frankly as the dust settles, I don’t see the contract Boston allegedly offered as that unreasonable. If Sway wants 10 and the Bruins want 7, then I’m not sure what else people expect. All I know is I blame Swaymans camp a lot more than I blame Sweeney in this scenario for whatever it’s worth. To me, it seems like Swayman’s agent has been willing to turn this into a war, and the Bruins just don’t want to bend over and play ball. I think that’s what’s been going on the whole time. Swayman has lost a lot of support from the fans and now has the pressure of the world on his shoulders to deliver championship in short order if he’s gonna hold the team hostage for this much money. That’s the way the cookie crumbles when you get paid that much to play a sport on TV. So I hope this was worth it for him

Sweeney absolutely needs to take some blame for this problem. I agree that they should have signed to the 2 year extension last year.

I mean, it's not his fault they had a rotation system, but how does that mean he should be paid as if they didn't lol. I don't get that point...He put up good numbers for a short time in a rotation system, pay the man!??? I don't know...dude has shown he's worth 6.5m. He should be willing to take that for 2x and then cash a monster deal after proving two full years at number one.

Hellno.Sweeney&Neely are to blame.. Same old bull shit....

We don't know all of the circumstances. All we can do is speculate. We don't know what's hanging up the deal. Everyone assumes it's AAV. It could be term. It could be how the contract is structured. It could be perks like no moves etc etc. Without knowing that it's hard really to point a finger. It seems like the Bruins have kept this 8.6m in space specifically for Swayman. The deal still isn't done so I think most of us are assuming it's AAV holding it up. But we don't know that. And of course if 8.6 isn't enough there is blame to go around. Management should have known that the number was that high before making other moves. And Swayman would be asking for an unjustified amount of money. As far as managements part in all of this. You shouldn't have moved Ullmark until a deal was done. It would have given you option and considering the return you got for Ullmark I for one don't think that was worth the stress it created. Ullmark seemed pretty happy here. I think he'd have signed longterm either at his current AAV or at a very modest raise. 1m more a season or something similar. If Swayman was unable to come to terms and you have Ullmark under contract you can trade Swayman and no doubt get a much better return. Look at the return Askarov got for a guy with virtually no nhl time. At this point the entire situation sucks.

I would have saved this video until training camp starts. Were talking about blaming parties for a situation that hasn't come to fruition yet. There's still some run way yet. Good history lesson with Rask, though, Court. People should remember that situation when saying Swayman needs to prove himself.

Swayman and his agent seem to believe he's pushing the envelope for all NHL goalies, problem is he's not worth the money he's asking for and everyone knows it, trade him to Utah for a pick and a prospect and see what his stats look like after the season.

All of it? Definitely not. Most of it? I’d say so lol. He has leverage, but at a certain point, he is just being selfish and entitled. Fans are tired

I blame the agent, he did this to the Leafs and they caved.

He should get 7 mil for 4 yrs. That's double his salary

YES he has not won anything

if what's being reported is true, Blame goes both ways. It takes two to come to an agreement. Everything I've heard, I think Sweeney left a decent amount to sing Jeremy.. but Jeremy is asking top 3 money for a resume that is not that high. No, Swayman need to reach UFA status to get those big lofty 10M numbers. I can see between 6 and 8... but above there is just an RFA trying to be greedy. the bruins best move... let him sit an watch. a $10M contract won't do you any good if you sit out a year... because the difference between that ~7 and 10 will be lost with the holdout.

Sway really took offense to what the bruins said about him during arbitration last year. I dont think he would mind playing elsewhere.

IMHO there are 2 major factors and several little ones. The 2 major ones are Swayman's agent, he is notorious for asking for high value contracts. The other is Swayman hasn't proven himself as a #1 starter, the little ones are, Sweeny,cap space and term. I am not at this point wanting a bridge deal. I would like to see (as much as we hate them) a backend loaded contract for him. If Swayman's talent is what many believe it is I do not think it will hurt us. It is a gamble worth taking.

Business is business. Both sides have right to negotiate however they choose and we don't know all the cogs in the wheel. I hope he returns but swayman is clearly in the drivers seat. He is hot, young, and just wants a descent salary somewhere around 8. Whether it's with Boston should not be a priority for him. Again it is a business and no one knows that better than the bruins org. All part of the fun! Go Bruins!

Ullmark Should have never been traded until swayman was signed. Should of held onto him. He's a better goalie anyway. Swayman is greedy asking for ten only Bob an vaseleski. Get 10+ an they raised cups. Swayman hasn't been even a true 1a goalie. Why should someone who hasn't carried the load be third highest paid goalie. Sweeney is just as much at blame. Swayman had good Toronto series but bruins own Toronto. So did he really have a good playoff . Because Florida 4+ goals a game. So to me he's not proven. 1 yr show me deal , 6.5 mill. I agree with felger

It’s always management that screw up things. Swayman should get what he asks for.

clearly sweeney put himself in this position. Last year he could have gave swayman what he wanted but didnt and swayman went the route of arbitration. If sweeney would have gave him the deal he wanted then boston probalbly could still have swayman and ullmark. Instead sweeney who was strapped for cash cause of other contracts screwed himself. Everyone is hating on Swayman for not taking "a hometown discount", why should he after sweeney wouldnt give him a good deal last season. Rask has the best number of his career and they didnt give him a good contract, then the next two years he was thomas's back up. Then he came back and played amazing, but all bruins fans remember is the contract BS and the two goals in 17 seconds.

Looking back, maybe it was a better idea to lock up Sway before getting rid of Ullmark. I don't blame Sway for wanting more money than what's being offered. He's one of the best goalies in the league, and the Bruins are trying to lowball him. What was it, 6.2m x 4. He's an 8 million a year goalie, and that's just the start of the negotiation. You could actually make the case that he's worth closer to 10 million. His agent is looking around and is seeing goalies with numbers that aren't as good as Swayman's, and they're making big bucks. Teams do this sh!@ all the time they go out and spend spend in free agency when they have players who need contracts. Swayman is probably the most important player on the team. Then again, who knows, the team always seems to be able to get the best from goalies. Maybe when Korpisalo starts the season out with a .925 save $ through 10 games the Swayman camp folds and signs for less money.

At this point I agree with a lot your comments and I do not think all the blame should be on Swayman, but the fact that Sweeney made Frederic go to arbitration and now Trent and the boys don't even know who their goalie is is the most troubling thing. Let's take this into the big picture- did Swayman mention McAvoy and say he had to be paid as much as him? If so Charlie I am sure is not happy. The entire team are who I feel bad for including Sway. Let us play hockey and at least know who our starter is! Yeah I'm a hockey fan, but one who thinks the players should make the decisions and get their wish- on every team.

I've heard so many fans say why didn't they keep Ullmark until they signed swayman the problem is is the Bruins traded old mark before July 1st because at that point it would be to change his no trade list and his list did not have Ottawa after the first he may have been able to change his list to include Ottawa and they were the only team trying to get him that's what I heard from Haggs

Swayman sucks i hope bruins overpay for him.

Not everyone can sign team friendly deals.