The NHL goaltending position is under scrutiny as the saga between Jeremy Swayman and the Boston Bruins unfolds.
Swayman is looking to be paid like one of the top-tier goaltenders in the NHL. As NHLRumors.com has documented, he is looking for $8.5 million, which Connor Hellebuyck makes on AAV. Except we know what Hellebuyck is.
Jeremy Swayman and Igor Shesterkin Could Finally Get NHL Goalie Their Fair Share
Hellebuyck has done it for a more extended period. He’s been to a Conference Final with the Winnipeg Jets and won two Vezina Trophies. Swayman has been in tandem with Linus Ullmark, now with the Ottawa Senators.
We have seen Swayman develop and become the NHL’s number-one goalie. Last season, he took the Bruins to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Bruins had a luxury with two number-one goalies. However, they saw the potential in Swayman and chose to make a long-term deal work with him and move on from Ullmark.
However, like every other team in the NHL, it seems like the Bruins do not want to pay goalies based on potential but continue to bridge them and underpay and undervalue the position.
Who has more leverage: Jeremy Swayman or the Boston Bruins?
Jeremy Swayman is not looking to reset the goalie market but is looking for fair market compensation.
TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston was on Toronto Radio as part of a spirited debate on why it seems positional players teams have no problem handing out money to players who have played fewer games than Jeremy Swayman.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Jeff O’Neill: “Would you be comfortable? CJ saying the players ask is for over 10?”
Chris Johnston: “I don’t think it’s over 10, but I think it’s in the neighborhood of Vasilevskiy, which is nine and a half.”
Jamie McLennan: “That’s what McAvoy makes right? McAvoy is at nine and a half, 26 years old. But McAvoy got a bridge.”
O’Neill: “We go back to sample size and 132 games and Vasilevsky, sorry man, you’re not getting nine and a half.”
McLennan: “but Vasilevsky signed that deal quite a while ago. I think people got to look at where the market is now, not where it was a year ago, two years ago. You’re looking forward. You’re not looking back. That’s really what it is.”
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Johnston: “The other part of it, too, is to look at how many young players in the league who have played less than 100 games and are getting eight-year deals elsewhere. I mean, Dylan Guenther just got one in Utah. There’s been a few others.
And usually when those contracts are signed, we’re saying, Oh, look at they’re buying all the upside. These players are going to get better. I mean, it just doesn’t get done with goaltenders as often. But I think Swayman is of a position he doesn’t feel he should have to wait by doing a shorter term deal now before getting that kind of payday.”
McLennan: “What did PLD get? What did Pierre-Luc Dubois get?”
Bryan Hayes: “Eight years at eight and a half. Exactly. Why would you take a penny less to Pierre-Luc Dubois, if you’re Jeremy swayman? That’s my point.”
O’Neill: “I thought you were over him.”
Hayes: “I should be. He’s my Baker Mayfield. I can’t let it go”
McLennan: “You can make a case for guys who have great contracts, guys that you know, I just feel like, when it comes down to it again, I will fully admit goalie hugger, it’s just that position is like that don’t worry about that. You’re lucky to get $8 million.
We’ll give a guy who got 35 goals or whatever, and is can play his position No problem. Nine, nine and a half, no problem. And nobody thinks twice about it, but the goalie position the guy projects to be really good. And you, I know, “O” you’re saying 132 games, but the end of the day that Boston has put their all their eggs in his basket.”
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O’Neill: “Noodles. You know what? It’s a goalie hugger perspective. But nothing you said there is wrong. It’s completely true, like other guys making that kind of money. I just think if somebody says here $64 million with 132 games played, I think it’s insane to say, No to it.”
McLennan: “You’re right. You make a great point because we’ve all seen or heard the story that player X has turned down that money, and then a year later, they’re playing for a million bucks.”
O’Neill: “Especially when he’s had the Batman to his Robin beside him the whole time. It’s like, you gotta take into account for that, and say, I’m going to be not on an island, but it’s going to be the Swayman show, and I’m taking the 64 million Not that that’s showing like, I don’t believe in myself. I just think when somebody wants to shove that money in your bank account, you put it in there and move on.”
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The goalie position in the NHL is going to be disrespected continuously. Jeremy Swayman and Igor Shesterkin, but more so, Swayman will reset the goalie market in terms of paying for potential. We already know what Shesterkin can be. Shesterkin will reset the market in terms of AAV.
However, with how things are going in Boston, teams, general managers, and presidents of hockey operations around the league are noticing that they will have to start paying for potential goalies.
The old way of thinking of bridging and low-balling goalies and that position might be over, thanks to how Jeremy Swayman handled his business in Boston.