All I say is this........
When you consider that over the first 7 years of the deal with a quickly rising salary cap, 25-26 year old Jeremy Swayman would earn a mere 1.75 million more than 29-30 year old Elias Lindholm, that makes the offer of 8 million per a bit of a joke.
This isn't Jeremy Swayman vs. Patrice Bergeron here. He's not being compared to a franchise cornerstone.
A few days ago I posted where Swayman was ranked by the media experts on TSN and SN on their respective Top 50 lists, where was ranked as high as the 3rd best goaltender in the league, and no lower than 5th.
Does Elias Lindholm even make their Top 100? Probably not.
I don't care about UFA vs. RFA, leverage or whatever. It's about five years from now with a cap over 100 million, a 29 year old Swayman sitting in the dressing room and looking over a 33 year old declining Lindholm and saying "I make just $250,000 more than that guy, what the &^%$".
Just think about that, you have a situation where Swayman at 29 could possibly be the best goaltender on the planet, and he is earning essentially the same amount as a guy who basically an above-average two-way center whose best years are long gone.
Taking care of aging above-average talents like Lindholm and Zadorov at the expense of your younger elite talents is the exact reverse opposite of how you manage NHL teams in the salary cap era. Take care of your elite talent in their prime, figure out the rest after. We are 20 years into the salary cap era and there are a few hard truths about managing the cap that I think are written in stone, and taking care of your elite young core talent entering their prime is rarely a mistake. History has proven that. The risk IMO is minimal.
Signing above-average aging talents to long-term deals is a far, far greater risk and the Bruins don't seem to mind going there based on their moves this summer.
Sadly I believe we have seen the last of Jeremy Swayman in a Bruins uniform. And I believe in Jeremy Swayman. I think he is that damn good. I guess Don and Cam don't. My guess is we are about to see another one of those trades (like Thornton, like Seguin, like Hamilton) where the rest of the hockey world laughs at the Bruins.
Again.