The Boston Bruins and goalie Jeremy Swayman have reached an agreement on an eight-year, $66 million contract extension, ending protracted negotiations that spilled into the public earlier this week.
The 25-year-old is now signed through the 2031-32 season at an average annual value of $8.25 million, the team announced Sunday. Swayman’s deal makes him the fourth highest-paid active goalie in the NHL. He is tied with Ilya Sorokin (New York Islanders), trailing Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets — $8.5 million), Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning — $9.5 million) and Sergei Bobrovsky (Florida Panthers — $10 million).
The deal ends a lengthy contract negotiation just days before the start of the regular season. The talks, active for months, spilled into the public earlier this week after team president Cam Neely implied to reporters that Swayman had turned down $8 million per year. Swayman’s agent, Lew Gross, then said “no offer” was made close to that range.
Fan angst also grew as the regular season approached. The Bruins have for years had two of the best goalies in the NHL—Swayman and Linus Ullmark, who won the Vezina Trophy in 2023 as the league’s top player at the position. The Bruins traded Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators during the offseason, which added to the pressure to re-sign Swayman to a long-term deal.
Prior to all that, Swayman went through an arbitration process with the Bruins in 2023 that ultimately ended with a $3.475 million salary for the 2023-24 season. In a new Amazon docu-series about the NHL, filmed last season but being released this fall, Swayman talked about the experience.
“The arbitrator on their side, their job is to help the [team side] and to rip players,” Swayman said in an episode, according The Athletic. “Hearing that you’re not worthy of what you think you’re worthy of, that was hard to hear. You don’t forget what was said. I wrote ’em down and I looked at ’em the other day.”
In a video posted on social media on Sunday morning, Swayman thanked Bruins fans for their support through the negotiations.
The Bruins are worth $1.78 billion, according to Sportico‘s valuations. That ranks 5th in the NHL.