Boston Bruins president Cam Neely seemed to hint at making an offer to restricted free agent Jeremy Swayman on Monday, but the netminder's agent is claiming otherwise.
"I don't want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know I have 64 million reasons why I'd be playing right now," Neely told reporters.
Hours later, Swayman's agent, Lewis Gross, denied hearing that figure in talks.
"This was the first time that number was discussed in our negotiations," Gross said in a statement through his agency, SPM Sports. "Prior to (Monday's) press conference, no offer was made reaching that level. We are extremely disappointed. This was not fair to Jeremy. We will take a few days to discuss where we go from here."
Reports on Wednesday suggested Swayman wants an eight-year deal with the Bruins, and the team also prefers a long-term contract. If Boston's offer is an eight-year, $64-million pact, Swayman would be paid $8 million annually.
That cap hit would make him the sixth-highest paid goalie in 2024-25, trailing Ilya Sorokin ($8.25 million annual average value), Connor Hellebuyck ($8.5 million AAV), Andrei Vasilevskiy ($9.5 million AAV), Sergei Bobrovsky ($10 million AAV), and Carey Price ($10.5 million AAV).
Neely responded affirmatively when asked if he thought Swayman was trying to reset the goalie market.
"What his ask is and what we believe his comp group is are two different things," he said.
Swayman has never been the Bruins' No. 1 starter for a full season; he split the crease with the recently traded Linus Ullmark for the past three campaigns.
The 25-year-old appeared in a career-high 44 contests during the 2023-24 regular season. Aside from the currently injured Price, the other four goalies making more than $8 million annually have seen at least 50 games of action in each of the last three campaigns.
However, Swayman took over the Bruins' starting job in the postseason and posted a dazzling .933 save percentage and 2.15 goals against average in 12 appearances.
Despite the current gap in negotiations, Neely emphasized Swayman's desire to stay in Boston.
"I strongly believe Jeremy wants to play here," Neely said. "I've asked him flat-out, 'Do you want to play here?' And he does. I believe that they'll get a deal done, it's just unfortunate it's not done today."
With Swayman still absent, head coach Jim Montgomery tabbed Joonas Korpisalo - acquired from the Ottawa Senators in the Ullmark trade - as Boston's Game 1 starter.
"The longer you go without seeing NHL shots and the longer you go without seeing that kind of tempo and pace in front of you ... the further back you get pushed," Montgomery said. "Say a deal gets done tomorrow, there's only a possibility of two practices before (the season)."
Korpisalo has turned aside 44 of 47 shots in just under 100 minutes of preseason action so far, per Natural Stat Trick. Despite the Bruins' confidence in their new goalie, general manager Don Sweeney knows Swayman boosts their hopes of contending.
"Ultimately, we're a better team as I've said all along if Jeremy is part of our hockey club," Sweeney said. "That's my intention, that's my wish, and I'll continue to work to do that."
The Bruins open their regular season Oct. 8 against the Florida Panthers.
