Sportsnet 590 The Fan: Elliotte Friedman on the ongoing contract situation between the Boston Bruins and Jeremy Swayman.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “This is Cam Neely talking about, in lesser words, Jeremy Swayman negotiations. Here’s, here’s Cam Neely:
Reporter: “Since you say you were surprised, Cam, can you share any other specifics here? Be it, what is ask is in terms of dollars or term?
Neely: “Well, I don’t want to get into the weeds with what his ask is, but I know that I, I have 64 million reasons why I’d be playing right now.”
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Wow. So that’s the big story of, of the last day or so. Um, listen, I feel like the Bruins have kind of, you know, put themselves in a little bit of a corner here, after trading Linus Ullmark. Where do things stand with Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins and where is this thing heading?
Friedman: “Okay, so what I would say is this, I think after , the next move is Swayman’s. I think that he has to decide how he feels about everything. And when you know when this with the statement last night saying, basically, we’re going to take a couple of days to ponder our next move.
I think number one, he has to get over the shock of what happened , and number two, decide how he wants to approach it.
I think, I think the Bruins offer yesterday was, before this happened, was $62 million. I think it was eight times $7.75 (million) and I just believe that now what the Bruins has said is, all right, we’re, $64 (million) is our number. We’re willing to do eight times eight, and that’s as far as we’re willing to go.
And I still think that, like I’ve reported several times during the summer, that I believe Swayman’s initial ask was McAvoy, which is eight times 9.5. And I still do believe that was his initial ask. But I think he’s moved from that. And I don’t think it’s there anymore, but I still think it wasn’t close to 7.75.
So I think there is still a gap here. So number one, in order for this to get settled in the short term, somebody is really going to have to change their mind, either the team or the player, and I didn’t have any information as of night, morning, that we were in that position.
The other thing here is, I do believe that Swayman considered the possibility after this, maybe asking for a trade. I don’t believe that’s happened. But I think, to me, that statement makes it clear he’s considering it.
Now, I had heard a couple weeks ago about rumors of a trade. I looked into it, and I was told the Bruins were telling teams they were not interested in that, and they wanted to keep Swayman. And as Neely said yesterday, Swayman had told him face-to-face he wanted to be a Bruin and Neely believes it.
So I think where we are (Matt and Mike) is, we are, we are waiting to see just how Swayman decompresses from that. Does anyone move in either direction salary wise, and does Swayman ask for a trade?
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Like, they were Bruins fans yesterday who were just completely demoralized. I don’t think it’s over. I still think it can work out. But there’s no question that yes, it was an emotional day.”