Spittin’ Chiclets: Ryan Whitney thinks the Boston Bruins have fumbled the Jeremy Swayman contract situation.
“This entire negotiation was fumbled from the beginning, that is my opinion on it. It was fumbled from the beginning, when you decided to trade Ullmark before you had to deal with Swayman. You decided to not take swayman to arbitration. That could have locked him up for one or two years. You could have punted this down the road, but none of that happened, and all of the leverage was put into Jeremy Swayman’s camp.
And this guy, I do not think, personally, he’s going to give in. I don’t know where this goes from here. But his agent also represented William Nylander, and when did he hold out till Biz?”
Jeremy Swayman and Igor Shesterkin Could Finally Get NHL Goalie Their Fair Share
Paul Bissonnette: “December 1st.”
Whitney: “Right around December. So now I think Don Sweeney’s taking out his frustration on really fumble fucking this entire negotiation, on me a little bit. And indirectly on you, because he didn’t even want to say my name”
Bissonnette: “No, no, were buddies.”
Whitney: “That’s fine. Yeah, you guys are buddies. You guys are buddies. I just don’t understand not talking that long to a camp. And I stand by what I was told, right? Like he’s gonna call me a liar. I think he’s fudging a little bit the truth. Now, who knows? Right? I guess maybe the truth somewhere in the middle.
But I knew the offer, and it was a low ball slap in the face offer.
So I don’t see this kid giving in. I really don’t. I think eight times $8.2 (million), eight times eight (million) gets the deal done. But it seems like that is not on the table on the Bruins end.”
Bissonnette: “So much is riding on the start for (Joonas) Korpisalo. Like, if Korpisalo has a tough first 10 games …”
Whitney: “Oh, they got a tough schedule in October.”
Bissonnette: “… the noise of that fan base is going to get so ridiculous that they’re gonna have to cave in and probably give Swayman what he wants.”
Whitney: “From the Bruins fans I’ve talked to and seen, they are like, sign Swayman. You trade it Ullmark, you haven’t signed Swayman. We signed (Nikita) Zadorov. We signed (Elias) Lindholm. We’re all dialed in to have a really good team again, and you don’t have your goalie signed.
Who has more leverage: Jeremy Swayman or the Boston Bruins?
And only do not have him signed, you gave him an offer that is a slap in the face. And that’s why I do wonder, along with the arbitration where you said, maybe they don’t really have the trust in him for the future. Well, now how would you change your opinion on that with the offer they gave. Like what signs have they showed that they really believe in him.”