Jeremy Swayman, Bruins choose one-year, $3.475 million contract following arbitration listening to

Bruins

The Bruins presently have below $500,000 in projected cap house after signing Swayman and Frederic.

One of many closing dominos remaining for the Bruins throughout their busy offseason toppled on Tuesday afternoon, as Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins lastly finalized a brand new contract.

A 3rd-party arbitrator formally awarded Swayman a $3.475 million wage for his subsequent deal, two days after each Swayman and the Bruins took half in an arbitration listening to.

Boston finally signed Swayman to a one-year contract for the 2023-24 season, with the 24-year-old netminder anticipated to hit restricted free company as soon as once more subsequent summer time with arbitration rights.

Swayman’s appointed wage stands as an virtually 50/50 compromise from the place each participant and crew offered their preliminary gives. In response to a number of experiences, the Bruins got here in at $2 million for his or her projected wage, whereas Swayman and his camp countered at $4.8 million.

Swayman’s contract ruling follows an analogous script because the arbitration listening to between Ilya Samsonov and the Toronto Maple Leafs earlier this season. After Samsonov filed for $4.9 million and Toronto got here in at $2.4 million, the unbiased arbitrator opted for a one-year cope with a $3.55 million wage.

Swayman is coming off the perfect season of his younger profession, forming arguably the perfect 1-2 goalie punch within the NHL subsequent to reigning Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark. Swayman went 24-6-4 through the 2022-23 season, posting a .920 save share, 2.27 GAA and 4 shutouts in 37 video games.

Even Swayman’s underlying metrics have been sterling, with the Alaska native rating fifth within the NHL in high-danger save share (.870), per Pure Stat Trick.

With Swayman again within the fold alongside Ullmark, the 2023-24 Bruins will probably have to depend on its goalie corps and stout protection so as to grind out factors, particularly given the departures up entrance of Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Bertuzzi, Taylor Corridor, and others.

It stays to be seen if David Krejci will decide to return for the 2023-24 season. However even when the veteran pivot did wish to don a black-and-gold sweater as soon as once more, it’s unclear how Boston precisely carves out the cap house to accommodate one other deal on the books.

With Swayman’s $3.475 million wage now in place, CapFriendly.com now has the Bruins with solely $429,166 in projected cap house this season. 

It needs to be famous that CapFriendly’s roster venture has Boston working with only a 22-man roster so as to stay cap compliant, with the Bruins having to roll with only one additional skater and defenseman so as to stay below the league’s higher restrict of $82.5 million.

After all, the Bruins can discover different avenues to carve out roster house as soon as the brand new season begins, particularly when it comes to waiving different gamers or assigning them right down to Windfall.

Count on Boston’s assistant GM (and famous cap guru) Evan Gold to be very, very busy this season as Boston makes a wide range of strikes week in and week out to financial institution cap house and stay below the cap ceiling.

One attention-grabbing wrinkle in Swayman’s contract is that Boston had the choice of signing Swayman to a two-year contract at that $3.475 million wage, however as a substitute opted for the one-year deal. Had they signed him for 2 years, Swayman would have been an unrestricted free agent on the finish of the 2024-25 season.

With near $30 million in cap house subsequent summer time, Boston could possibly be establishing a state of affairs the place they lock up Swayman to a long-term extension subsequent summer time, particularly if the No. 2 netminder continues to point out indicators of taking the reins because the crew’s high possibility between the pipes within the yr forward.