Player Discussion Jeremy Swayman -VI President Cam Speaks: Monty, Donny, & Charlie too!

[Gee Wally]

Mod edit: @smithformeragent

As this situation continues to drag on:

Please keep the conversation pertinent to the topic and avoid making it personal.

Debate about the management of the salary cap and the performance of the general manager fits into the context of the conversation, but we’ll avoid dividing fans into camps like “pro-player” and “team apologist”.

Thanks!

Continue if you must. No flaming!

Click to read more...

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

Love Cam's response.

 

[Carl Hungus]

Honestly, before the summer started I was expecting Swayman to get overpaid by the bruins. It made me anxious about the risk, but I was ok with it. To me 8x8 is the risk adjusted offer that I figured we’d need to stomach to lock him up. Maybe (MAYBE) 8 x 8.5, which I would have been really nervous and unhappy about.

But I wasn’t expecting this. I’m really surprised he isn’t signed right now and frankly this situation sucks. If Sway wants to prioritize getting every last dollar, that’s his right. Wouldn’t hold it against him. Wouldn’t hold ut against management either to stand firm at 8x8. will suck if he doesn’t sign and is gone

 

[smithformeragent]

We're witnessing team history here.

Regardless of what happens, this is very interesting stuff.

 

[JCRO]

I did not think trading him was even in the same stratosphere of possibilities until today.

 

[Hookslide]

Brad Marchand has made it abundantly clear that he does not discuss contracts in the media.

The Captain should not be involved in contract talks, not his job description.

 

[KnightofBoston]

4 years x 7.25 million or
8 years at 8.00 million

Take one of these or trade him/let him sit out the entire year.

If they trade him or let him sit out it will look really bad trading Ullmark to Ottawa for a meh return

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Unfortunately, the next move from Swayman’s camp is going to be to request a short term deal.

“We’ll take the $8m per, but only if it’s 2 years.”

If Im the Bruins that's what I'd go for too.

Get him signed for 2 years lets him play out his 2 RFA years and gives the Bruins 2 years to play him and work out a deal to get him out of town.

 

[Alicat]

Thinking back to Kessel and Raycroft....

I don't remember if it got to this point.

Obviously, the media landscape looks different now than it did 15-20 years ago.

Raycroft signed after a week after camp opened and he made it sound like he went over his agent to take the deal because he missed his teammates. It was on the first Morning Bru about the offseason and Swayman holdout.

Phil didn't want to be here and I believe it was a sign and trade deal to ship him to Toronto for Tuukka

 

[Chevalier du Clavier]

It kind of interesting....

Swayman gets asked about his experience with arbitration & negotiations. Answers honestly & professionally
Some Bruins fans: Its a bad look that he's bad mouthing the team and not keeping negotiations private, none of the other Bruins leaders have run to the media to make negotiations public

Neely says they've given him 64 million reasons to be on the team
Some Bruins fans: f*** YA, good on Neely for calling out that greedy little prick.

Who spoke publicly — repeatedly — first?

 

[Alicat]

Who spoke publicly — repeatedly — first?

Exactly. Hint: wasn't the Bruins.

 

[BTO]

Perception is reality my boy

Esse est percipi baby!

 

[smithformeragent]

So again looking at this list:

https://puckpedia.com/players/search?s=161&r=0&ss=160

Oettinger is 25 and heading into year 3 of a $4m deal.

Luukkonen is 25 and just signed for 5 x $4.75.

Swayman can say he doesn't want to spoil the market for goalies, but it feels like he's at least trying to transform what the market looks like for guys who have the restricted designation.

He seemingly wants UFA money and term. This isn't pro-management or anti-player, just calling it how it looks.

 

[Ivo]

Ran a .933 SV% in the playoffs and dragged this team as far as he could. They would have gone further if their top producers didn't shit the bed in round two against Florida.....but no one wants to talk about that. I guess Swayman should scoring goals on top of stopping them.

He did well, sure, but Rask did more at that point in his career. Like holding prime Crosby and Malkin Penguins to two goals in total in the ECF series.

 

[Kalus]

As I have been saying on here for months, if it is a long term deal, AAV will be around $9M. Bruins put themselves in this position by mishandling the process dating back to letting this get to arbitration last year.

 

[SwayHeyKid]

I’m very interested to know the timeline of when 8x8 was offered. Was it always on the table or did this just recently get offered to swayman and he’s mulling it over.

Five minutes before the news conference

 

[Absurdity]

It kind of interesting....

Swayman gets asked about his experience with arbitration & negotiations. Answers honestly & professionally
Some Bruins fans: Its a bad look that he's bad mouthing the team and not keeping negotiations private, none of the other Bruins leaders have run to the media to make negotiations public

Neely says they've given him 64 million reasons to be on the team
Some Bruins fans: f*** YA, good on Neely for calling out that greedy little prick.

What is professional about Gross leaking that the Bruins haven't returned his calls for 3 weeks and that they are low-balling Swayman? Bruins' management's credibility is being questioned by the public, Sweeney gets asked about it at the start of camp, and he calls out Bissonnette for the report as nicely as he could. It gets brought up again here with no progress made to a deal, and Neely makes a comment about their offer to Swayman.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

So again looking at this list:

https://puckpedia.com/players/search?s=161&r=0&ss=160

Oettinger is 25 and heading into year 3 of a $4m deal.

Luukkonen is 25 and just signed for 5 x $4.75.

Swayman can say he doesn't want to spoil the market for goalies, but it feels like he's at least trying to transform what the market looks like for guys who have the restricted designation.

He seemingly wants UFA money and term. This isn't pro-management or anti-player, just calling it how it looks.

Irony is 8x8 would do exactly that, it would reset the AAV mark for RFA goalies and put them much more in line with the big deals RFA skaters get.

 

[SwayHeyKid]

Brad Marchand has made it abundantly clear that he does not discuss contracts in the media.

Agreed. I’m sure he is very disappointed in his President

Option C. In hindsight, it looks like we traded the wrong goalie this summer.....

Which is a colossal boner from this front office

 

[BruinDust]

How are people not understanding the differences between players and contract status? Lindholm is a center and UFA. Swayman is a goalie and RFA. Their markets are totally different and yet you're comparing them. Nonsense. $8Mx8 is a great offer with his resume. Swayman is being ridiculous.

Look, when comparing externally, sure, Goalies vs. goalies, D-men vs. D-men. Apples to apples.

But internally IMO it does not matter what position they play or their contract status. EVERY dressing room at EVERY level of hockey has a pecking order from most important player to least important. The players in the room are well aware of the pecking order.

In that room, Pasta is the man. In terms of importance, who is No. 2? Some would say McAvoy, some would say Swayman. I'd argue it's Swayman based on last year's playoffs but he's no less than the 3rd most important player on that team and more important to the Bruins success than Elias Lindholm by a considerable margin IMO. I look at McAvoy when he signed his massive extension and I think Swayman has a valid argument when comparing players within his own team.

That to me is the problem. Externally he's trying to raise the bar for all other goaltenders, meanwhile he wants what is his perceived value within the Bruins current team. I think he see's himself in the same importance as Pasta and McAvoy. The Bruins at 8 x 8 want to pay him like a player a tier below those two. Fundamentally when dealing with the ego's of pro athletes, I don't know how they cross that bridge. If the Bruins management feel the same way as Swayman (that he's a top level core piece alongside Pasta and McAvoy), then pay him as such. If they don't feel that way, I don't see how they build that bridge and convince Swayman he's not one of the "Big 3" so to speak.

 

[Midship]

Swayman is a total pill. I never liked that cheesy ass goalie hug.

 

[wintersej]

Five minutes before the news conference

You two crack me up.

 

[UncleRico]

Idk mainly because he’s not worth it.

I’m referring to the unloading contracts part.

Teams unload contracts to sign players all the time.

 

[xStanleyCupsFor]

Swayman getting blasted on Twitter right now. Its been a while since the fanbase has been on the side of ownership/management.

If he's turning down 8x8 after one good playoff he deserves every bit of it

 

[ON3M4N]

Who spoke publicly — repeatedly — first?

Ah ok, so some fans are cool with what Neely did, simply because he didn't do it first. The eye for an eye mentality.

Exactly. Hint: wasn't the Bruins.

I'm still waiting on those sources of him going into a ton of detail. I'm still looking all over the internet and can't seem to find much

What is professional about Gross leaking that the Bruins haven't returned his calls for 3 weeks and that they are low-balling Swayman? Bruins' management's credibility is being questioned by the public, Sweeney gets asked about it at the start of camp, and he calls out Bissonnette for the report as nicely as he could. It gets brought up again here with no progress made to a deal, and Neely makes a comment about their offer to Swayman.

Where did I say anything about Gross is my post? How do we know that Gross leaked anything? Just seems like more and more speculation by fans to try and justify what side of the argument they are on.

 

[BTO]

Gotta ask the question, is it possible that Swayman has no clue that they offered him this?

If not then he not only has to fire Gross but so does everyone else for whom Gross is their agent. Don't know how any of this is "regulated", if at all (and probably not at all lol), but it would be a serious breach of ethics not to have informed one's client of the offer.