Bruins reveal plans for the still-unsigned Jeremy Swayman
As of midnight on Sept. 19, the Bruins will begin their first day of on-ice training camp work on Thursday without goaltender Jeremy Swayman on the ice.
The news, while anything but unexpected with Swayman still unsigned, came quickly off the bat of B’s general manager Don Sweeney in what was his first media availability of camp.
“Swayman will not be in attendance [Thursday] on the ice,” Sweeney revealed in his opening remarks Wednesday. “He has chosen to wait, and rightfully so, until a contract is settled. It’s our intention to continue to negotiate a contract. I’m disappointed that… when you set things as a priority in the general manager spot, you do your best to try and accomplish that, and I haven’t been able to do that yet.”
Not exactly a holdout in the sense that there’s no contract for Swayman to truly hold out of or vice versa, the latest update on Swayman was a prelude to what was a spirited press conference that included Don Sweeney taking multiple shots at what he considered ‘inaccuracies’ within the reporting of their talks.
“I will make everybody aware that some of the inconsistencies that have been reported are completely inaccurate,” Sweeney offered. “And I think that being representative of the Bruins [and] how we do business and try and keep things close to the vest and respect everybody’s own privacy. I’ll answer questions, but I’m not going to go into depth of the negotiations, of talks we’ve had.”
Swayman is not the first player to opt not to partake in B’s training camp without a new deal to his name. In fact, this was also done by both Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo in 2019, while David Pastrnak opted to skip the first day of 2017 training camp before signing a contract before the second day. Of that group, Carlo ultimately had the longest standoff with the Bruins, with the stay-at-home defender missing the first six days of Boston’s training camp before signing his deal with the club.
“It’s a process that seemingly every year there’s a few players, and this is the year that we have one,” Sweeney said of Swayman not reporting to camp. “But I have to continue to do my job. I have to respect the position that Jeremy and his camp has taken, and then continue to try and find common ground.”
Swayman opted to spend his offseason in Boston working at the Bruins’ facilities and with their training staff, but with that now unavailable to him so long as he remains without a deal, Swayman will most likely have to put in more work with his non-Bruins trainer (Boston University’s Ken Whittier).
And with Swayman unavailable to the Bruins, Joonas Korpisalo and Brandon Bussi will assume the roles of the Black and Gold’s top two netminders in training camp until further notice.
“We’re excited about the players who are here and they’re looking to move forward,” Sweeney said. “As I said, I’m disappointed [to not have Swayman signed]. But at the end of the day, I’m optimistic because I think we’ll find a landing spot [with Swayman] before December 1.”
