Why are we comparing a professional athlete (who was offered over 60 million dollars guaranteed) to a regular Joe who breaks his back for 50 hours a week to make 80 grand a year?
It's actually quite simple...
1. There's a hard cap in the NHL. That's no fault of Sweeney or Swayman, but it's a reality.
2. If teams want to be competitive, they must be extremely careful to not overspend on cap hit or term. And if they concede on the term (7 or 8 years), then they should win a little on cap hit.
3. Great teams either convince their best players to sacrifice a bit to win, or they build around players who are willing to do so. Nobody is asking Swayman... or any quality player... to play for peanuts. But in a hard cap world, players can only make so much. Heck, prime Gretzky could drop from the heavens tomorrow but his salary would still be capped... and, yes, he'd be grossly "underpaid" for what he contributes.
4. If you are among NHL royalty (McDavid, MacKinnon, Draisaitl, etc.) you can/will likely make the most reasonably available, however, if you prioritize winning over last dollar, you may have to give up some coin so your team can support you with quality assets. MacKinnon did that twice before his last deal. Crosby, Backstrom, Kucherov, Hedman, etc. also have done it... among others.
5. Swayman is a very good goalie but (in my opinion) he's being a tad greedy and not facing the reality of a cap world. For one, he doesn't have Vezinas on his shelf. Secondly, the Bruins are showing a ton of faith in him to commit to him long-term and provide him with 60+ million of financial security for himself and multiple generations of his family. So, let's not pretend the Bruins aren't operating in good faith here. They certainly didn't "low-ball" him by any stretch.
6. Sweeney's job is to ice the best team but also be able to assemble a highly competitive team long-term, even while cap growth is suspect due to a fickle economy. Sure, his team is better today with Swayman, but it cant' come at the cost of not being able to surround the core with quality pieces during his tenure.
7. Swayman needs to decide if he's happy playing for a rock solid team with a nice core for 62.4 million... or if he'd rather drag this through the mud and ultimately end up traded, potentially playing for an inferior team for say, 66 million. That's his choice and he's entitled to it.
But the recycled average Joe, "would you work for less money, blah, blah, blah" stuff is foolish in these scenarios. In most cases, the average person would be choosing between living paycheck to paycheck or having the ability to help pay for their kid's college education. That is not relatable to a scenario where someone is being offered 62 million to work for 8 years then either ride off into the cozy sunset or being gifted an "ambassador" or "media" job with the team making 300k a year after they hang up the blades.